Students learn where their community is located in the world. In a Visual Discovery activity, students act as space shuttle astronauts who are returning to Earth and learn about the geographic features of the globe as they get nearer and nearer to their landing site.

Students learn how to use map skills as they visit some key landmarks in the United States. In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students use a map and compass rose to locate their community, identify directions, and measure distances to other places.

Students learn how physical geography affects communities. In a Writing for Understanding activity, students write and illustrate travel brochures for three communities in the United States based on physical features, climate, and natural resources. They then create a similar brochure for their own community.

Students learn about the immigrant experience. In an Experiential Exercise, students explore the reasons why people immigrate, the challenges immigrants face in getting to the United States, and some of the benefits and drawbacks of being an immigrant.

Students learn how diverse cultures make contributions to life in our communities. In a Response Group activity, students explore cultural diversity by looking at the contributions of different cultures in the categories of foods, languages, holidays, and traditions, and they brainstorm lists of additional contributions.

Students explore individuals’ roles in making their communities and their country better places to live. In a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, students create human monuments honoring the contributions of four individuals whose actions made a difference in the lives of people in their own community and around the country.

Students compare and contrast their lives with the lives of children in other countries. In a Writing for Understanding activity, pairs study artifacts related to the daily lives of six children from around the world. Students use Venn diagrams to show similarities and differences between their lives and those of the children they read about. They then write a letter to one of the children comparing their lives.

Students learn about markets and how supply and demand work together to affect the prices of goods and services. In an Experiential Exercise, students discover what happens to prices when supply and demand change. They then predict what will happen to prices in hypothetical situations that affect supply or demand.

Students learn about global trade and its effects on people and communities around the world. In an Experiential Exercise, students take on the roles of countries around the world and use a ball of yarn to create a trade web connecting all the countries to one another.

Students learn about public services in local communities and around the world. In a Social Studies Skill Builder, students analyze artifacts related to six public services and then read about the services. They vote on the services they think are most important and use two kinds of graphs to display the voting results.

Students learn about some of the main jobs and departments in the government of a community. In a Writing for Understanding activity, students read letters to a fictional city hall, choose the office that is best suited to deal with the issue raised in the letter, and write a short response. They then write a letter to a person in their own community government.

Students learn about four ways for people to have a voice in their community. In a Visual Discovery activity, students use their acting skills to bring to life images of public meetings, peaceful demonstrations, support for candidates, and voting.

Students explore how communities can help to solve environmental problems. In a Response Group activity, small groups discuss solutions to three cases of communities faced with specific environmental problems. The groups then present their solutions to the class. Afterward, students find out what each community actually did to help solve the problem.

Students learn about things they can do to help the global community. In a Problem Solving Groupwork activity, students design, present, and implement a class project to help the global community.