Colorado K–6 social studies standards

Differentiate among examples of civic participation. For example: Describe personal connections to community events, such as voting, debating, running for office, advocating, fundraising, and volunteering.

Explain the qualities of an informed and engaged citizen.

Practice citizenship skills when working with others including courtesy, honesty, and fairness.

Identify the difference between fact and opinion.

Explain why rules are needed.

Create and follow classroom rules.

Explain how a class rule may promote fairness and resolve conflict and compare against a rule that may not.

Contribute to making and maintaining class community decisions.

Explain the difference between democratic decision-making and decisions made by authorities. For example: A parent, teacher, principal, and a police officer.

Identify the costs and benefits of a choice an individual makes when acquiring an item.

Recognize and engage in ways to use another individual's items. For example: Asking for permission to share and taking turns.

Distinguish between a map and a globe as ways to show places people live.

Use geographic tools to describe places. For example: Globes, maps, and GPS.

Identify ways students' lives are similar and different from those in other communities.

Identify how the environment, geographic features, and climate impact lifestyles. For example: Food, sports, shelter, transportation, school, etc.

Ask questions about the past using question starters. For example: What did? Where did? When did? Which did? Who did? Why did? How did? From whose perspective?

Identify information from primary and/or secondary sources that answer questions about the past and contribute to the collective memory.

Provide rationale about something from the past using statements. For example: Because, as a result, I know ___.

Explore differences and similarities in the lives of children and families from different time periods by using a variety of sources. For example: Personal artifacts and stories, texts, pictures, and videos from different societies.

Sequence information using words. For example: Present, future, days, weeks, months, years, first, next, last, before, and after.

Explain why knowing the order of events is important.

Recognize choices people make with their money and explain how financial decisions are made.

Explain how money gives people the ability to buy goods and services.

Identify the difference between a want and a need and how that impacts purchasing decisions when resources are limited. For example: Buying a healthy snack vs. a candy bar, new shoes vs. a new toy, or a coat vs. a new game.

Describe the characteristics of responsible leaders and how they communicate with others.

Identify the attributes of a responsible team member and how they communicate with others.

Demonstrate the ability to be both a leader and team member.

Describe the qualities of an effective team. For example: Respectful disagreement, advocating for self and others, sharing responsibilities, and including others' perspectives.

Listen and consider the ideas of others in order to make decisions as a group.

Identify and explain the relevance of notable civic leaders from different community groups, including African American, Latino, Asian American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities.

Identify and explain the meaning of various civic symbols important to diverse community groups. For example: The American flag, the National Anthem, Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Liberty Bell, Emancipation Proclamation, a yellow sash (i.e., for women's rights), tribal flags of Native Nations whose ancestral homelands include present-day Colorado, LGBTQ Pride Flag, and the Colorado Flag.

Identify and explain the relevance of significant civic places. For example: The state and national Capitol, the White House, and sites within the local community.

Explain the significance of major civic holidays. For example: Veterans Day, Martin Luther King Day, Independence Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Labor Day, Indigenous Peoples Day, and César Chávez Day.

Identify the goods and/or services that different types of businesses produce in the local community.

Give examples of different types of jobs held by family members and/or individuals in the local community.

Compare at least two different job choices that individuals have with respect to the benefits and costs of each job.

Explain that maps and globes are different representations of Earth.

Describe locations using terms related to direction and distance. For example: Forward and backward, left and right, near and far, is next to, and close.

Recite an address including city, state, and country, and explain how those labels help find places on a map.

Distinguish between land and water on a map and globe.

Create simple maps showing both human and natural features.

Provide examples of how individuals and families interact with their environment.

Analyze how weather, climate and environmental characteristics influence individuals and the cultural characteristics of a family.

Compare and contrast at least two different communities with respect to schools, neighborhoods, and culture.

Arrange life events in chronological order.

Use words related to time, sequence, and change. For example: Past, present, future, change, first, next, and last.

Identify the organizational components of a calendar. For example: Year, months, weeks, days, and notable events.

Determine events from the past, present, and future, using the components of a calendar.

Distinguish between primary and secondary sources.

Identify information from primary and/or secondary sources that answer questions about patterns and chronological order of events from the past.

Identify the unique characteristics of oneself as well as the similarities and differences between themselves and others. For example: Eye color, ability, individuality, family composition, etc.

Discuss common and unique characteristics of different cultures, including African American, Latino, Asian American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities, using multiple sources of information.

Understand that the United States is made up of the diverse perspectives and traditions of many cultures. For example: The diversity of foods available in the local community.

Discuss ways to earn or receive money.

Identify types of currency and how currency is used. For example: Cash, coins, credit card, and debit card.

Define types of transactions such as deposit, purchase, borrow, donate, and barter.

Find the value of a collection of a variety of coins.

Compare ways that people may effectively express their ideas and viewpoints while being respectful to others.

Analyze how community members, including African American, Latino, Asian American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities advocate for their interests and responsibly influence decisions in their community.

Describe ways in which you can take an active part in improving your school or community.

Identify and compare examples of civic responsibilities, such as volunteering in the community, that are important to privileged and marginalized individuals, families, and communities.

Describe the characteristics that enable a community member to engage in the community responsibly and effectively.

Identify the role(s)of government. For example: Establish order, provide security, and accomplish common goals.

Identify the roles and characteristics of various leaders at the local, state, and national levels. For example: The President of the United States, the Governor of Colorado, and the city mayor.

Identify qualities of positive leadership and how leaders contribute to a group or community.

Identify services provided by the local or state government. For example: police and fire protection, maintenance of roads, and snow removal.

Explain scarcity of goods and resources.

Identify and categorize goods and services and provide examples of each.

Give examples of choices people make when resources are scarce.

Identify possible solutions when there are limited resources and unlimited wants.

Use map keys, legends, symbols, intermediate directions, and a compass rose to locate and describe spaces and places.

Identify the purpose of the map being presented. For example: A weather map vs. street map.

Identify the hemispheres, Equator/Prime Meridian, and the North/South poles.

Identify and locate cultural, human, political, and natural features using map keys and legends.

Explain how communities manage and use nonrenewable and renewable resources.

Explain how the environment influences why people settle in certain areas.

Identify examples of how human activity influences environmental characteristics of a place over time.

Identify examples of how culture and lifestyle are impacted by environmental characteristics.

Explain that the nature of history involves stories of the past preserved in various primary and secondary sources. For example: Images, oral and written accounts, etc.

Organize historical events by creating timelines and explaining the information conveyed by them.

Identify local historical primary and secondary sources from multiple diverse perspectives and generate questions about their functions, significance, and perspective. For example: Maps, photographs, letters, etc.

Compare and contrast neighborhoods and/or communities, both past and present, through studies of their people and events. For example: The National Western Stock Show, state/county fairs, and community events.

Describe the changes within one neighborhood and/or community over time.

Analyze the interactions and contributions of various people and cultures that have lived in or migrated to neighborhoods and/or communities, including African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities.

Assess priorities when making financial decisions.

Classify financial goals. For example: A need or want, or short-term or long-term goals.

Recognize that different goods and services have different monetary values.

Acknowledge that financial priorities vary among people and communities for goods and services. For example: Going to the hairdresser, buying brand name items.

Predict positive and negative consequences when making financial decisions. For example: If… Then… decision making.

Solve simple financial word problems to aid in making financial decisions. For example: A video game costs $20. If I earn $5 per week in allowance, I will need to save for ____ weeks to earn enough money.

Identify and apply the elements of civil discourse. For example: Listening with respect, speaking in a respectful manner, and restating an opposing viewpoint or opinion.

Identify important personal rights in a democratic society and how they relate to others' rights.

Give examples of the relationship between rights and responsibilities.

Restate the view or opinion of others with their reasoning when it is different from one's own.

Explain the origins and structures of local government.

Explain the services local governments provide and how those services are funded.

Identify and explain a variety of roles leaders, citizens, and others play in local government.

Describe how local government provides opportunities for people to exercise their rights and initiate change.

Discuss the role of elections in choosing specific candidates to represent the public interest in local government.

Describe the difference between producers and consumers and explain how they need each other.

Describe and give examples of forms of exchange. For example: Monetary exchange and barter.

Describe how the exchange of goods and services between businesses and consumers affects all parties.

Recognize that different currencies exist and explain the functions of money. For example: Medium of exchange, store of value, and measure of value.

Cite evidence to show how trade benefits individuals, businesses, and communities, and increases interdependency.

Read and interpret information from geographic tools and formulate geographic questions.

Locate oceans and continents, major countries, bodies of water, mountains, urban areas, the state of Colorado, and neighboring states on maps.

Describe the natural and man-made features of a specific area on a map.

Identify geography-based problems and examine the ways that people have tried to solve them.

Observe and describe the physical, cultural, and human-made characteristics of a local region. For example: The Eastern Plains, San Luis Valley, Pikes Peak, Northwest, Front Range, South Central, Southwest, and Western Slope.

Identify the factors that make a region unique. For example: Cultural diversity, industry and agriculture, and landforms.

Give examples of places that are similar and different from a local region.

Characterize regions using different types of features such as physical, political, cultural, urban, and rural attributes.

Compare primary sources with works of fiction about the same topic.

Use a variety of primary sources such as artifacts, pictures, oral histories, and documents, to help determine factual information about historical events.

Compare information from multiple sources recounting the same event.

Compare past and present situations and events.

Give examples of people, events, and developments that brought important changes to a community or region.

Describe the history, interaction, and contribution of various peoples and cultures, including African American, Latino, Asian American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities that have lived in or migrated to a community or region and how that migration has influenced change and development.

Give examples of short-term spending and savings goals.

Identify activities that individuals can do to earn money to reach personal financial goals.

Differentiate the role of income and expenses when creating a budget.

Create a plan with specific steps to reach a short-term financial goal.

Model strategies to achieve a personal financial goal using arithmetic operations.

Give examples of issues faced by the state of Colorado and develop possible solutions.

Provide supportive arguments for both sides of a current public policy debate involving diverse stakeholders.

Discuss how various individuals and groups influence the way an issue affecting the state is viewed and resolved. Including but not limited to the contributions of African Americans, Latinos, Japanese Americans, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious groups.

Identify and use appropriate sources to investigate and analyze issues from multiple diverse perspectives.

Explain the historical foundation and events that led to the Colorado Constitution and the formation of the three branches of Colorado government.

Identify and explain a variety of roles leaders, citizens, and others play in state government.

Identify and explain the services the state government provides and how those services are funded.

Describe how the decisions of the state government affect local governments and interact with the federal government and sovereign indigenous nations.

Describe how a citizen might engage in local and state government to demonstrate their rights or initiate change.

Define positive and negative economic incentives and describe how people typically respond to those incentives.

In a given situation, create a plan of appropriate incentives to achieve a desired result. For example: Offering a prize to the person who picks up the most trash on the playground.

Give examples of the kinds of goods and services produced in Colorado, in different historical periods, and their connection to economic incentives.

Explain how productive resources (natural, human, and capital) have influenced the types of goods produced and services provided in Colorado.

Answer questions about Colorado regions using maps and other geographic tools.

Use geographic grids, including latitude and longitude, to locate places and answer questions about maps and images of Colorado.

Create and investigate geographic questions about Colorado in relation to other places.

Illustrate, using geographic tools, how places in Colorado have changed and developed over time due to human activity.

Describe similarities and differences between the physical geography of Colorado and its neighboring states.

Describe how the physical environment provides opportunities for and places constraints on human activities.

Explain how physical environments influence immigration into the state.

Analyze how people use geographic factors in creating settlements and have adapted to and modified the local physical environment.

Describe how places in Colorado are connected by movement of goods, services, and technology.

Draw inferences about Colorado history from primary sources such as journals, diaries, maps, treaties, oral histories, etc.

Identify cause-and-effect relationships using primary sources to understand the history of Colorado's development.

Explain, through multiple perspectives, the human interactions among people and cultures that are indigenous to or migrated to present-day Colorado. Including but not limited to: historic tribes of Colorado, the Ute Mountain Ute, Southern Ute, Spanish explorers, trappers, and traders.

Identify and describe how political and cultural groups have affected the development of the region. Including but not limited to: African American, Latino, Asian American, Indigenous Peoples, religious groups, and European settlers.

Discuss the multiple perspectives of settler colonialism/Westward Expansion and the impact on the political and cultural landscape of the region presently known as Colorado.

Construct a timeline of the major events in Colorado history.

Explain the relationship between major events in Colorado history and events in United States history during the same era. Including but not limited to: Colorado statehood, the Ludlow and Sand Creek Massacres, creation of national parks in Colorado, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, Amaché, Chicano movement, and busing in Denver.

Describe both past and present interactions among the people and cultures in Colorado. For example: African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious groups.

Describe the impact of various technological developments. For example: Changes in mining technologies, agricultural technology (center pivot irrigation), transportation, early 20th century industrial developments, and 20th century nuclear and computer technologies.

Define choice and opportunity cost.

Determine the relationship between long-term goals and opportunity cost.

Analyze scenarios of choices including opportunity cost.

Describe and explain examples of individual rights as a foundation of citizenship.

Give examples of group and individual actions that illustrate civic ideals in the founding of the United States. For example: Freedom, rule of law, equality, civility, cooperation, respect, responsibility, and civic participation.

Discuss how the concept of citizenship changed over time in the early American colonies.

Explain the foundational documents and significance of the events that led to the establishment of the United States government. Including but not limited to the Philadelphia Convention, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Iroquois Confederacy, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

Identify political principles of American democracy and how the Constitution and Bill of Rights reflect and preserve these principles.

Explain the origins, structures, and functions of the three branches of the United States government and the relationships among them.

Describe how the Constitution balances the power of national and state governments.

Identify examples of the productive resources and explain how they are used to produce goods and services. For example: Land, labor, and capital.

Compare ways in which people and communities exchanged goods and services. For example: Barter and monetary exchange.

Identify the goods and services that were traded among different cultures and regions.

Describe how patterns of trade evolved within Early America.

Explain some of the challenges that American colonists faced that would eventually lead them to the creation of commercial banks.

Answer questions about regions of North America and the United States using various types of maps.

Use geographic tools to identify, locate, and describe places and regions in North America and the United States and suggest reasons for their location.

Describe the influence of accessible resources on the development of local and regional communities throughout North America and the United States.

Identify variables associated with discovery, exploration, and migration.

Explain migration, trade, and cultural patterns that result from interactions among people, groups, and cultures.

Describe and analyze how specific physical and political features influenced historical events, movements, and adaptation to the environment.

Analyze how cooperation and conflict among diverse groups of people contribute(d) to political, economic, and social divisions in the United States.

Give examples of the influence of geography on the history of the United States.

Recognize how historical context can affect the perspective of historical sources.

Examine significant historical documents. For example: The Proclamation of 1763, the Stamp Act, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and treaties with Indigenous Nations such as the Two Row Wampum Treaty.

Interpret timelines of eras and themes in North America from early Indigenous Peoples through the European Age of Exploration/post-Columbian colonization and the establishment of the United States Government.

Analyze cartoons, artifacts, artwork, charts, and graphs related to eras and themes in early North America.

Explain interactions among various groups such as Indigenous Peoples, enslaved individuals (both Indigenous and African), and European colonists. For example: The cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples, chattel slavery of Africans, the League of the Iroquois, Spanish missions, and trade networks.

Identify and describe the contributions of significant individuals and groups of Indigenous Peoples, enslaved individuals, and European colonists through the American Revolution. For example: Crispus Attucks, Sybil Luddington, Benjamin Banneker, Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick Henry.

Describe the political, social, and economic reasons for the settlement of the European and American colonies and how it affected Indigenous Peoples and enslaved Africans.

Analyze important political, social, economic, and military developments leading to and during the American Revolution.

Investigate causes and effects of significant events in early United States history. For example: The establishment of Jamestown, George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, the French and Indian War, and the Constitutional Convention.

Differentiate between saving and investing.

Establish the function of banking.

Distinguish between different types of financial institutions such as banks and credit unions, and the services provided. For example: Checking accounts, savings accounts, investments, and loans.

Create a way to keep track of money spent and money saved.

Examine changes and connections in ideas about citizenship in different times and places in the Western Hemisphere. For example: Indigenous Peoples are either denied citizenship or citizenship is not always desired; immigration and a nation's quota preferences; and the changes in naturalization requirements change over time.

Explain how political ideas of significant people and groups interact, are interconnected, and influence nations and regions in the Western Hemisphere, both in the past and today.

Analyze political issues from national and global perspectives over time in North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Identify historical examples illustrating how people from diverse backgrounds such as African American, Latino, Asian American, and Indigenous Peoples in the Western Hemisphere perceived, reacted to, and influenced national and international policies and issues.

Examine and explain the development of foundational principles of government systems in the Western Hemisphere.

Describe structures and functions of different systems of government in the Western Hemisphere.

Identify how different systems of government relate to their citizens in the Western Hemisphere and how systems of government create advantages for some of their citizens and disadvantages for others.

Compare the economic components of the different systems of government in the Western Hemisphere.

Explain the value each nation and/or culture places on economic prosperity, individual liberty, human rights, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, equal rights, and respect for neighbors.

Investigate the historical, social, and cultural influences of minorities on civil governments of the United States, and the rest of the Western Hemisphere.

Describe how current economic systems in the Western Hemisphere (such as traditional, command, market, and mixed) developed.

Use economic reasoning to explain how specialization of production in a country can result in more interdependence. For example: International trade patterns.

Explain how different societies view and use money and resources.

Describe the role of competition and supply and demand in the determination of prices and wages in a market economy.

Use geographic tools to identify, locate, and describe places and regions in the Western Hemisphere to investigate and solve geographic problems. For example: Farming practices in a dry climate, implications of building a dam, and deforestation.

Collect, analyze, and synthesize data from geographic tools to compare regions in the Western Hemisphere.

Examine geographic sources to formulate and investigate inquiry questions to understand the past, analyze the present, or plan for the future.

Interpret geographic data/evidence to draw conclusions, make predictions, and justify potential solutions to problems at the local, state, national, and global levels.

Classify and analyze the types of human and geographic connections between places and regions.

Identify physical features of the Western Hemisphere and explain their effects on people who reside in those regions.

Analyze positive and negative interactions of human and physical systems in the Western Hemisphere and give examples of how people have adapted to and modified their physical environment.

Use characteristics to define physical and political regions of the past and present.

Identify ways different cultures record history in the Western Hemisphere through written and oral sources.

Analyze multiple primary and secondary sources while formulating historical questions about the Western Hemisphere. For example: Oral histories, art, artifacts, eyewitness accounts, letters, and diaries, real or simulated historical sites, charts, graphs, diagrams, and written texts.

Gather, organize, synthesize, and critique information, from multiple and diverse perspectives, to determine if it is sufficient to answer historical questions about the Western Hemisphere. For example: Indigenous People, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ, and religious minorities and differing opinions within such groups.

Explain how people, cultures, and ideas interact and are interconnected in the Western Hemisphere and how they have impacted modern times. For example: The "Great Dying" of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas and its consequences; rapid deforestation of the Amazon; anti-colonial and nationalist movements, the Columbian Exchange, and revolutions in energy.

Determine and explain the historical context of key people, events, cause and effect relationships, and ideas over time including the examination of different perspectives from people involved. For example: The complex interactions between majority and minority groups and individuals involved in European colonization in the Western hemisphere.

Identify examples of the social, political, cultural, and economic development in the Western Hemisphere. For example: The extension of networks of communication, colonial empires, patterns of migration over time, and international trade.

Explain the interdependence and uniqueness among Indigenous Peoples in the Western Hemisphere including the existing conflict and power dynamics between Indigenous Peoples and those in power.

Explain the roles of buyers and sellers in product, labor, and financial markets.

Explore how consumer spending decisions and demand impact market economies.

Analyze how external factors might influence spending decisions for different individuals.

Understand how basic budgeting, investing, saving, and personal behavior with money affects the economic system as a consumer and/or producer.