State of Illinois Social Studies Standards for first grade
The Social Science standards adopted in 2017 include: inquiry skills, civics , geography, economics, financial literacy, and history.
Chicago Landmarks Activity
Click on the link below to see the chicago timelines available from the library
CHicago's founding Father: Jean Baptiste Dusable
click on painting below for video about chicago's founder
My Chicago
Inspire your kids to discover Chicago and connect the city’s past to their lives today. MY CHICAGO is designed for children ages 6-12 and uses the symbols and design of the Chicago flag to explore the city’s rich and diverse history. My Chicagoillustrates the themes of Chicago’s past and present by drawing on the collections of the Chicago Historical Society, including a variety of photographs, documents, and images of artifacts.
Teaching Tolerance: Teaching the HArd History of Slavery K-2
This elementary framework expands our focus to include teachers and students in the elementary grades. It identifies essential knowledge and suggests developmentally appropriate strategies and texts for teaching about slavery. We believe that schools must tell the story of this country’s origins and trajectory early and often. This will help students to understand our past, comprehend current events and envision a better future.
Click on each Essential Knowledge to see what students should know and how you can teach it.
Essential Knowledge 1
Students should be encouraged to think and talk about the meaning of freedom.
Essential Knowledge 2
Students should know that slavery is when a person owns another person as property.
Essential Knowledge 3
Students should know that enslaved Indigenous people and Africans came from nations with diverse cultures and traditions and that they continued many of these traditions while enslaved.
Essential Knowledge 4
Students should know that enslaved people had families that could be split up at any time.
Essential Knowledge 5
Students should know that enslaved people hated being enslaved, and resisted bondage in many ways.
Essential Knowledge 6
Students should know that enslaved people tried to maintain their cultures while building new traditions that continue to be important.
Essential Knowledge 7
Students should know that enslavers exploited the many types of highly skilled labor of enslaved people for their own profit.
Essential Knowledge 8
Students should understand that slavery and race are intimately connected, that slavery came to be associated with blackness, and that white people developed racist ideas to justify enslaving people of color.
Essential Knowledge 9
Students will know that many people worked individually and in groups to end slavery.
Essential Knowledge 10
Students will know slavery was the cause of the Civil War.
Click on each Essential Knowledge to see what students should know and how you can teach it.
Essential Knowledge 1
Students should be encouraged to think and talk about the meaning of freedom.
Essential Knowledge 2
Students should know that slavery is when a person owns another person as property.
Essential Knowledge 3
Students should know that enslaved Indigenous people and Africans came from nations with diverse cultures and traditions and that they continued many of these traditions while enslaved.
Essential Knowledge 4
Students should know that enslaved people had families that could be split up at any time.
Essential Knowledge 5
Students should know that enslaved people hated being enslaved, and resisted bondage in many ways.
Essential Knowledge 6
Students should know that enslaved people tried to maintain their cultures while building new traditions that continue to be important.
Essential Knowledge 7
Students should know that enslavers exploited the many types of highly skilled labor of enslaved people for their own profit.
Essential Knowledge 8
Students should understand that slavery and race are intimately connected, that slavery came to be associated with blackness, and that white people developed racist ideas to justify enslaving people of color.
Essential Knowledge 9
Students will know that many people worked individually and in groups to end slavery.
Essential Knowledge 10
Students will know slavery was the cause of the Civil War.