Early childhood social studies
Use "Wolf Island" to teach about the environment
Early childhood social studies, like all other areas of the curriculum, is best taught with real experiences and the children's knowledge is best demonstrated through play, role playing, drama, music and through model, puzzle and picture making. Connect early childhood social studies to literature to enrich social studies and other concepts.
A great story to enhance an early childhood social studies program is Wolf Island by Celia Godkin. It is a tale about a family of wolves that leave their island home. Before the wolves leave, the island is a healthy environment for all the animals living there. After they leave, the delicate balance of the food chain is altered and the story demonstrates the consequences.
This story is beautifully illustrated and introduces young children to the dependence of each animal to the other. Take about two weeks for the activities below adding one or two concepts at a time.
Wolf Island Activities
Social studies and science
Mapping activities to follow "Rosie's Walk" mapping activities
- Make a big chart drawing of the main land and island
- Have children color in the water, draw trees, rocks, caves, etc.
- Have children draw and cut out the animals in the story and glue them onto the map
- View posters showing geographical terms and post them in centers for students to look at
- Provide map puzzles for children to assemble, map sticker activity sets, and other social studies toys
Food Chains
When teaching early childhood social studies concepts be sure to keep experiences concrete. Don't assume that children have had previous experiences with chains or the term food chain.
- Bring a piece of chain into the classroom before talking about the food chain
- Be sure children understand the terminology - talk about what a chain is and show them what a link looks like and how each link is connected to the next link
- Make a class chart of each animal mentioned in the story and draw pictures of what each animal eats
- Introduce the idea of a food chain and the idea that each animal is linked to another animal
- Talk about what happened on Wolf Island when the wolves left
- Introduce the following terms as you read and reread Wold Island: environment, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, predator, prey
- Show pictures of contrasting environments, desert, jungle...
Keep concepts simple for young children:
- A food chain is easier to understand tham a food web. A food chain follows a single path as animals eat each other. The grass is eaten by a grasshopper. The grasshopper is eaten by a frog. The frog is eaten by a snake. The snake is eaten by a hawk.
- Food webs are more complicated. They show how animals and plants are interconnected. Trees produce pinecone seeds that are eaten by mice and squirrels. Insects in the pinecones are eaten by birds. Hawks and owls can find food as there are lots of birds and small animals to eat. The animals and plants are interconnected by different paths. The sun is introduced as a source of energy.
Compare and contrast a wolf with the familiar
Studying wolves goes against my philosopy about keeping kindergarten themes to topics that children can touch and feel. There are not too many wolves around to explore in most places! The students enjoyed the Gunniwolf, Wolf Island, Rosie's Walk, Lon Po Po and Little Red Riding Hood stories so much I developed activities that used as many real things as possible.
To make wolf stories more meaningful to the children, introduce the dog as the wolf's relative.
- Arrange a policeman with a police dog to visit the school to talk about stranger safety
- Prompt the children to ask about the dog's needs
- Later discuss how a wolf is similar or different to the police dog
- Have the children draw and record their observations in their journals
- Similarities/differences suggestions:
appearance, needs - water, sleep, shelter, food
Math - Graph "My favorite book"
- Graph all wolf and fox stories mentioned by placing the actual books on a graphing map and have children place a block on the row to signify their favorite story
- Count and record how many children liked each book
- Use terms such as more children liked and fewer children liked
- Read more graphing tips ...
Go from Early childhood social studies to Social studies resources
Social studies table of contents:
- 1. Kindergarten social studies - what skills do children need to learn? what topics should I teach?
- 2. Introduce a unit on kindergarten maps by reading Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins
- 3. Read The Gunniwolf by Wilhelmina Harper to teach children about stranger safety; also great ideas for literature comparison charts and story maps
- 4. Read Wolf Island by Celia Godkin to teach about the food chain and introduce students to environmental education
- 5. Recommended kindergarten and preschool social studies resources