Minnesota K–6 social studies standards

Demonstrate civic skills in a classroom that reflect an understanding of civic values by identifying a classroom goal and listing ways that students work together using civic skills to address a need or goal.

Consider and describe ways group members show they belong to the group.

List personal group associations and name personal roles and responsibilities to each of those groups.

Identify examples of rules in the school and neighborhood community and explain why they exist. Describe incentives for following rules and consequences for breaking rules.

Use cost-benefit analysis as a group to solve a problem.

Distinguish between individual needs (conditions necessary to survive) and individual wants (conditions desired to be happy).

Distinguish between goods (objects that can be seen or touched) and services (actions or activities). Identify goods and services that could satisfy a specific need or want.

Explain why people agree to trade.

Explain or show routes between locations using both fixed and dynamic maps from local to global scales.

Identify physical and human characteristics and find examples in the local community and within stories.

Create a representation of a favorite place. Explain why it is important to them and how it makes them feel.

Ask historical questions about a past event in an individual’s family, school or local community.

Identify how different families and communities celebrate or commemorate events and engage in respectful conversation about traditions within an individual’s family/community and those of other families/communities.

Describe how people learn about the past by identifying different types of historical sources and asking what can be learned from those sources.

Use a variety of words to reference time in the past, present and future. Identify the beginning, middle and end of diverse historical stories.

Retell and discuss a story about diverse individuals or groups in the past that illustrate honesty, courage, friendship, respect and/or responsibility.

Create a personal representation of themselves, including their family and/or ancestors. Discuss the choices made, describing what is special and important, including strengths and assets. 13

Retell a story about an unfair experience that conveys a power imbalance (a personal experience or one from a story). Share what can be learned from this story.

Describe the importance of first peoples’/Indigenous peoples’ relationships to land, water and the nonhuman world. 14 First Grade: Foundations of Social Studies – Communities and Culture

Participate in the civic life of the community by demonstrating civic skills that reflect an understanding of civic values in order to work together to reach a community goal or need.

Identify a symbol, song, pledge or tradition that is important to the student and explain why. Describe ways people show patriotism.

List the rights of learners in the classroom community. Describe how individuals work together to respect and uphold the rights of the individuals in the community.

Identify characteristics of effective rules and participate in a process to establish classroom rules.

Explain how voting determines who will be president and vice president and identify the president and vice president. 15

Identify a Tribal Nation in Minnesota and list what unites the members as a nation.

Use cost-benefit analysis for two available alternatives to make a decision.

Define scarcity as not having enough of something to satisfy everyone’s wants and give examples.

Explain that an economy is a system for using resources and distributing goods and services within a community. 16

List examples of goods that people buy from different countries.

Create sketch maps and describe the location of items and places shown using positional words or addresses. Ask spatial questions about the map.

Describe the unifying characteristics of specific classroom and school regions.

Describe patterns of movement of particular people, goods or ideas within and between different communities and countries.

Ask historical questions about an event or rule in the past and identify one way that things have changed or stayed the same.

Examine multiple accounts of an event, identifying different perspectives. 17

Investigate historical sources to describe how people lived at a particular time in the past. Identify who created the source.

Create a timeline to identify a sequence of events in a student’s life or community.

Describe how a person or group in the past worked to make things fairer for people at that time and identify the legacy (lasting impact) of their work today.

Identify examples of ethnicity, equality, liberation and systems of power. Use those examples to construct meanings for those terms. 18

Identify examples of how people care for each other as they work for change in communities. 19 Second Grade: Foundations of Social Studies – People and the Environment

Demonstrate voting skills by participating in a vote and identifying the rules that keep the voting process fair.

Describe how voting and elections exemplify democratic principles, including, but not limited to, equality, freedom, fairness, respect for individual rights, citizen participation, majority rule and accepting the results of an election.

Compare and contrast student rules, rights and responsibilities at school and at home. Explain the importance of following rules. Discuss what to do when a rule is not fair.

Identify a level of government and describe the role it serves in the lives of community members.

Describe how tribal government structures govern the affairs of the nation. 20

Investigate what characteristics allow an item to function as currency.

Provide an example of an opportunity cost, which is the next best alternative when a choice is made.

Given a goal and several alternative choices to reach that goal, select the best choice and explain why. 21

Create sketch maps and use these, as well as fixed and dynamic maps, to locate places. Describe locations on these maps in relation to other places.

Ask and answer spatial questions about physical and human characteristics in the environment.

Describe ways that the local environment influences people and their actions and how human actions impact the local environment, including air, water, land and wildlife.

Describe daily life for Minnesota Dakota or Anishinaabe peoples in different times, including before European contact and today.

Describe how the culture of a community today reflects the history, daily life or beliefs of its people. 22

Use historical sources to investigate how the relationship between people and the environment has changed over time. Identify whose voices and perspectives are represented in the sources and whose are absent.

Use and create calendars to identify days, weeks, months, years and seasons. Identify how the environment can impact how we measure time and create calendars.

Compare and contrast different ways of knowing, seeing, and understanding land use, rights, and ownership over time. 23

Identify how different groups have worked to protect the land and natural resources.

Propose an idea to improve the relationship between humans and the environment.

Describe how a community may consist of multiple cultures, identifying how power is shared among cultural communities. Identify power, cooperation and conflict in multicultural communities. 24

Explore the importance of first peoples’/Indigenous peoples’ interactions to land, water and the nonhuman world. 25 Third Grade: Ancient World

Identify ways that individuals become informed about public issues and diverse viewpoints. Demonstrate how to evaluate a source by distinguishing between fact and opinion.

Explain the principles of majority rule with minority rights and describe how civil discourse supports respect for diverse viewpoints.

Describe the importance of the services provided by all levels of government and explain how taxes and fees fund government services.

Identify a local public problem and describe ways individuals and groups can take informed action to influence decision makers to make a difference in the civic life of their communities.

Locate the 11 Tribal Nations of Minnesota and describe how Tribal Nations interact with local or state government. 26

Explain that producing any good or service requires resources. Describe the resources needed to produce a specific good or service. Explain why it is not possible to produce an unlimited amount of a good or service.

Identify possible short-term and long-term consequences of different choices, while highlighting that not all individuals have access to the same choices.

Explain that consumers have two roles—as sellers of resources and buyers of goods and services. Explain that producers have two roles—as sellers of goods and services and buyers of resources. 27

Interpret a map of a region in the ancient world by asking and answering spatial questions based on the map.

Differentiate physical regions from human regions and identify examples from the past and today.

Identify patterns of human populations in relation to access to natural resources in three regions in different parts of the ancient world.

Describe how different places, including school, the environment or local community, makes one feel.

Identify various ways that different cultures have expressed concepts of time and space.

Compare and contrast family life, buildings and/or technologies from ancient times to today. 28

Identify and describe daily life for people living in ancient times in at least three different parts of the world.

Identify what types of historical sources have survived from the ancient world. Ask and answer questions about what we can and cannot know about the ancient world based on these sources.

Explain how an invention of the past changed life at that time, as well as positive, negative and unintended outcomes.

Explain how the environment influenced the movement of ancient peoples in three different regions of the world.

Describe how groups or individuals from ancient times helped shape the world around them, and identify their impact today. 29

Identify how various groups have advocated for self- determination and a more representative media. 30 Fourth Grade: Contemporary World

Describe how consensus building is used to identify and respond to a community problem.

Describe how democratic values including fairness, equality, justice, rule of law, freedom and/or individual rights guide and impact the classroom.

Identify the major roles and responsibilities of elected and appointed leaders in the community, state and nation. Name some current leaders who function in these roles and explain how they are selected.

Examine how identity shapes our perspectives about a local issue and describe ways particular community problems are addressed.

Locate areas inhabited by Indigenous people united by language and similar ways of life in North America and understand the impact of permanent tribal homelands on Indigenous people of Minnesota. 31

Explain how the limited supply of natural resources requires people to make decisions about resource use, and examine a specific resource use decision made in your community.

Explain how incentives can change people’s decisions about resource use.

Explain what it means for a resource to be productive and how productivity can increase. 32

Explain how a nation’s resources influence the goods and services it can produce and why people in different cultures, regions or countries may make different decisions about resource use.

Analyze both fixed and dynamic maps using the TODALSS criteria when investigating places from local to global scales.

Ask spatial questions and acquire geographic sources from different perspectives to answer them.

Use maps and concepts of location to identify and describe political features (states/territories, major cities, capitals) and recognize the Indigenous land these places were built on.

Describe physical and human characteristics needed for different types of agricultural and energy production regions.

Explain how changes in climate and choices humans make impact environments from local to global scales. 33

Analyze how different perspectives have influenced decisions about where to locate and name places.

Pose a question about an issue in the community and/or the contemporary world and investigate its history.

Compare and contrast two historical sources to investigate a contemporary issue and its historical roots.

Create a timeline demonstrating a sequence of events related to a contemporary local or global issue. 34

Investigate government responses to migration and immigration both locally and nationally.

Explain the role that stereotypes and images based on race, religion, geography, ethnicity and gender play in the construction of an individual’s/group’s identity. Identify the implications associated with these stereotypes and images and how and why they may have changed over time.

Identify the processes and impacts of colonization and examine how discrimination and the oppression of various racial and ethnic groups have produced resistance movements. 35

Identify examples of individuals or groups who have had an impact on world history. Explain how the actions of these individuals and groups have helped shape the world around them and the world today. 36 Fifth Grade: Early American Studies

Identify a democratic principle written in the Declaration of Independence and the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and describe how the principle impacts the decisions of government, society or communities.

Explain specific protections that the Bill of Rights provides to individuals and the importance of these 10 amendments to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Describe how the U.S. Constitution establishes the three branches of government, how leaders are selected, and how governmental power is limited through the principles of federalism, separation of powers, and checks and balances.

Describe a U.S. Federal Indian policy and explain how it impacts tribal nation self-determination and agency. 37

Apply a decision-making process to identify alternative options available to decision-makers in a historical setting, the decision that was made and the opportunity cost of the decision.

Calculate profit as the difference between revenue (from selling goods and services) and cost (payments for resources used).

Investigate the relationship between individual well-being and the well-being of an entire community or nation. 38

Explain how government decisions concerning trading relationships may impact people differently within a community or nation.

Create and interpret both fixed and dynamic maps that represent the same places in early America from different perspectives and times.

Investigate spatial problems and then act by communicating conclusions with authentic audiences.

Explain how physical and human characteristics and power structures are used to create regions on the land.

Describe interconnectedness and identify patterns within what became the United States, considering past, present and future trends.

Describe how the choices people make have impacted a physical environment over time. 39

Analyze how different perspectives influenced past decisions to name places and impact changing place names today.

Identify at least three Indigenous nations in North America. Describe the social structures, political systems and economic activities of at least one Indigenous nation.

Compare and contrast the impact of the American Revolution on different groups within the 13 colonies that made up the new United States and identify what narratives are absent.

Describe ways that enslaved people and people in free Black communities resisted slavery and transferred, developed and maintained their cultural identities.

Explain an event or events of the American Revolution through multiple perspectives. 40

Identify examples of self-government and sovereignty before the United States became a country by examining multiple primary sources, including Indigenous sources.

Analyze a primary source from the Revolutionary era by interpreting the historical context, intended audience, purpose and author’s point of view and identifying what perspectives and narratives are absent from the source.

Explain the religious, political and economic reasons for the movement of people from Europe to the Americas and examine the impact of colonization and settler colonialism on Indigenous peoples.

Explain the difference between indentured servitude and chattel slavery in colonial North America and identify the transatlantic slave route on a map. 41

Describe Indigenous efforts today to revitalize and reclaim Indigenous languages, traditions and sovereignty.

Investigate name origins, identity and how language can be exclusionary and liberatory.

Analyze anti-colonial and anti-racist resistance movements of culturally, racially and ethnically diverse people throughout the world. 42

Explore the history of surveillance and oversight in early America and examine their ties to contemporary systems and structures of surveillance and oversight. 43 Sixth Grade: Minnesota Studies

Analyze a state or local policy issue by identifying and examining opposing positions from diverse perspectives and frames of reference, interpreting and applying graphic data, determining conflicting values and beliefs, defending and justifying a position with evidence, and developing strategies to persuade others to adopt this position.

Locate a democratic principle embodied in the Constitution of the State of Minnesota or in one of Minnesota’s Tribal Nations’ constitutions. Summarize the concept of federalism and describe the relationship between the powers of the federal and state governments.

Summarize the concept of citizenship in the United States, explain how individuals become citizens by birth or naturalization, and compare and contrast the rights and responsibilities of citizens, noncitizens and dual citizens.

Identify the purpose of the Constitution of the State of Minnesota and explain how the Constitution of the State of Minnesota organizes state government and authorizes local government (county, city, school board and township). Compare and contrast the ways state and local government are funded.

Describe the goals, offenses, penalties, long-term consequences and privacy concerns of Minnesota’s juvenile justice system and evaluate the impact on youth, including those from historically disenfranchised groups. 44

Explain the concept of sovereignty and how treaty rights are exercised by the Anishinaabe and Dakota today.

Describe various types of income. Explain the role that the development of human capital plays in determining one’s income. Create a budget based on a given monthly income.

Describe the movement of goods and services, resources and money through markets at the community, national and global level.

Explain how people living in a community are impacted by government policies regarding land use. Investigate how communities are impacted when consumers have or do not have opportunities to work, shop, eat and connect with one another locally, helping the community build assets. 45

Explain why companies might move production to other states or countries.

Use geospatial technologies to create and interpret fixed and dynamic maps that represent Mni Sóta Maḳoce and Minnesota.

Use geographic tools to support a claim with evidence and explain reasoning to address a spatial problem within Minnesota.

Compare and contrast different places and regions on the land that is Minnesota today, including how power structures have impacted each one over time.

Explain how physical features and the location of resources affect settlement patterns, including those of Dakota and Anishinaabe peoples, and the growth of cities.

Evaluate how two (or more) different communities address the issues related to climate change in Minnesota. 46

Describe how Dakota and Anishinaabe people today narrate their own history, including seasonal lifeways in the pre-contact period.

Describe the varied and diverse interactions of Indigenous people, European/American traders and settler-colonists in the upper Mississippi River region, and examine how settler colonialism conflicted with Dakota and Anishinaabe ways of life.

Describe how people in Minnesota participated in the institution of slavery, abolition and the U.S. Civil War, identifying examples of change and continuity.

Analyze connections between major reform and political movements in Minnesota during the Progressive era and World War I, including the role of women. 47

Identify multiple narratives about how World War II and the Cold War impacted Minnesotans.

Understand the diverse and conflicting ways that Dakota, Anishinaabe, European and American peoples understood their relationship to the land, particularly regarding property and ownership, and examine the consequences of these conflicting views on the environment over time.

Identify and describe diverse and conflicting points of view about treaty-making, including the unequal power dynamics that shaped the treaty-making process.

Examine conflicting narratives about the United States-Dakota War of 1862. Analyze the perspectives of settlers and Dakota people before, during and after the war. Identify the narratives that are absent.

Evaluate primary and secondary sources about the process by which Minnesota became a territory and state; consider what perspectives and narratives are absent from the available sources. 48

Evaluate the impact of big business, industrialization, farming and/or technology on the use of natural resources within different communities in Minnesota. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past.

Construct a narrative about why and how people have migrated to Minnesota as a result of warfare and/or genocide since 1960, using primary sources about immigrant experiences.

Examine the historical relationship and memorialization of the U.S. Civil War and the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota.

Examine the history and memory of migration and immigration in Minnesota during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the impact of immigration on Indigenous people.

Identify and describe how Minnesotans have fought for freedom and equality from the Civil Rights era until today. 49

Identify and explain how discrimination based on race, gender, economic, ableism, and social group identity affects the history, health, growth, and/or current experiences of residents of Minnesota.

Examine how and why the Minnesota landscape has been shaped by people.

Identify individuals, community organizations, businesses and corporations that make the student’s community in Minnesota unique. Analyze how these groups do community building efforts, specifically by racialized and marginalized groups/individuals in Minnesota. 50

Identify how the arts have been a part of strategies, activities and/or engagement for social and political change.

Examine the impact of slavery and race in Minnesota today. 51 Seventh Grade: United States Studies