Abstract:
Often times, social studies are a forgotten subject in early childhood education. With a huge
focus of the school day being on language arts and math, subjects like science and social studies
have seemingly become second tier. Social studies instruction teaches essential skills that help
children throughout school as well as teaching them to become responsible citizens. For these
reasons, this thesis is a social studies unit plan meant for a kindergarten classroom. It explores
three different countries and cultures; South Korea, El Salvador, and Germany. The unit focuses
on comparing and contrasting going to school in the United States to going to school in these
countries using an introductory read aloud, one full length lesson for each of the countries, and a
final assessment where students will write their own book pages highlighting the comparisons
they see.