Kansas State Standards for Social Studies: Grade 4

KS.1. Civics-Government: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of governmental systems of Kansas and the United States and other nations with an emphasis on the United States Constitution, the necessity for the rule of law, the civic values of the American people, and the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of becoming active participants in our representative democracy.

1.1. The student understands the rule of law as it applies to individuals; family; school; local, state and national governments.

1.1.1. (A) The student evaluates rules and laws using two basic criteria: the law or rule serves the common good, the law or rule must be possible to follow. 13
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.1.1.

1.2. The student understands the shared ideals and diversity of American society and political culture.

1.2.1. (A) The student defines shared ideals across regions in the United States (e.g., the right to vote, freedom of religion and speech, concern for general welfare, consent of the governed). 17
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.2.1.

1.3. The student understands how the United States Constitution allocates power and responsibility in the government.

1.3.1. (K) The student recognizes the United States Constitution as the document that defines the rights and responsibilities of citizens in the United States. 17
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.3.1.

1.4. The student identifies and examines the rights, privileges, and responsibilities in becoming an active civic participant.

1.4.1. (K) The student determines how people can participate in government and why it is important (e.g., jury duty, voting, running for office, community service). 24
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.4.1.

1.4.2. (K) The student recognizes how individuals have a civic responsibility for meeting the needs of communities (e.g., responding to disasters with donations and volunteering, recycling). 16
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.4.2.

1.5. The student understands various systems of governments and how nations and international organizations interact.

1.5.1. (K) The student describes the function of state governments (e.g., establish law for the state, provide public service, provide public safety). 15
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.5.1.

1.5.2. (K) The student defines capital as the location of state and national government. 17
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.5.2.

1.5.3. (K) The student defines capitol as the building in which government is located. 1
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 1.5.3.

KS.2. Economics: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of major economic concepts, issues, and systems, applying decision-making skills as a consumer, producer, saver, investor, and citizen of Kansas and the United States living in an interdependent world.

2.1. The student understands how limited resources require choices.

2.1.1. (K) The student knows that every spending and saving decision has an opportunity cost. 8
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.1.1.

2.1.2. (A) The student identifies examples of how natural, capital, and human resources are used in production of goods and services (e.g., land resources [natural] are used to produce wheat [goods] that is harvested by skilled farmers [human] using combines [capital]). 89
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.1.2.

2.1.3. (A) The student traces the production, distribution, and consumption of a particular good in the state or region. 9
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.1.3.

2.1.4. (A) The student gives an example of economic specialization that leads to trade between regions of the United States (e.g., Kansas produces wheat and beef and trades with other regions, Michigan produces automobiles, the Southeast produces rice, the Northwest produces paper). 10
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.1.4.

2.2. The student understands how the market economy works in the United States.

2.2.1. (K) The student defines the characteristics of an entrepreneur and gives an example of someone who shows those characteristics (e.g., risk taker, innovator, gets together all resources needed to produce a product). 11
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.2.1.

2.3. The student analyzes how different incentives, economic systems and their institutions, and local, national, and international interdependence affect people.

2.3.1. (K) The student defines market economy as an economic system in which buyers and sellers make major decisions about production and distribution, based on supply and demand. 11
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.3.1.

2.4. The student analyzes the role of the government in the economy.

2.4.1. This benchmark will be taught at another grade level.

2.5. The student makes effective decisions as a consumer, producer, saver, investor, and citizen.

2.5.1. (A) The student discusses ways workers can improve their ability to earn income by gaining new knowledge, skills, and experience. 4
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.5.1.

2.5.2. (A) The student analyzes the costs and benefits of making a choice. 2
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 2.5.2.

KS.3. Geography: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of the spatial organization of Earth's surface and relationships between peoples and places and physical and human environments in order to explain the interactions that occur in Kansas, the United States, and in our world.

3.1. Geographic Tools and Location: The student uses maps, graphic representations, tools, and technologies to locate, use, and present information about people, places, and environments.

3.1.1. (A) The student applies geographic tools, including grid systems, symbols, legends, scales, and a compass rose to construct and interpret maps. 17
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.1.1.

3.1.2. (A) The student uses a data source as a tool (e.g., graphs, charts, tables). 12
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.1.2.

3.1.3. (A) The student identifies and give examples of the difference between political and physical features within a region. 46
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.1.3.

3.1.4. (K) The student identifies major landforms and bodies of water in regions of the United States (e.g., mountains, plains, islands, peninsulas, rivers, oceans). 39
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.1.4.

3.1.5. (K) The student locates major physical and political features of regions from memory (e.g., Appalachian Mountains, the Great Lakes, 50 States, Kansas River, Arkansas River, Atlanta, Grand Canyon, Gulf of California, Mt. McKinley, Puerto Rico, Prime Meridian, International Dateline, Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, San Francisco, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, Everglades, Yellowstone National Park, Niagara Falls, Mississippi River). 6
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.1.5.

3.2. Places and Regions: The student analyzes the human and physical features that give places and regions their distinctive character.

3.2.1. (A) The student identifies and compares the physical characteristics of eastern to western Kansas and regions of the United States (e.g., rainfall, location, land and water features, climate, vegetation, natural resources). 64
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.2.1.

3.2.2. (K) The student identifies the human characteristics of Kansas and regions of the United States (e.g., people, religions, languages, customs, economic activities, housing, foods). 63
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.2.2.

3.3. Physical Systems: The student understands Earth's physical systems and how physical processes shape Earth's surface.

3.3.1. (K) The student identifies and describes the physical components of Earth's atmosphere, land, water, biomes (e.g., temperature, precipitation, wind, climate, mountains, plains, islands, oceans, lakes, rivers, aquifers, plants, animals, habitats). 28
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.3.1.

3.3.2. (A) The student explains features and patterns of Earth's surface in terms of physical processes (e.g., weathering, erosion, water cycle, soil formation, mountain building). 45
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.3.2.

3.3.3. (A) The student explains the functions and relationships of ecosystems in Kansas and across the United States (e.g., food chains, water, link between flora and fauna and the environment). 7
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.3.3.

3.4. Human Systems: The student understands how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation, and conflict.

3.4.1. (K) The student describes the types and characteristics of political units (e.g., city, county, state, country). 16
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.4.1.

3.4.2. (K) The student identifies conditions that determine the location of human activities (e.g., resources, population, transportation, and technology). 56
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.4.2.

3.5. Human-Environment Interactions: The student understands the effects of interaction between human and physical systems.

3.5.1. (A) The student examines natural resource challenges and ways people have developed solutions as they use renewable and nonrenewable resources (e.g., lack of water, eroding soil, lack of land, limitations of fossil fuels). 84
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 3.5.1.

KS.4. History (Kansas, United States, and World History): The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras, and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States, and the world, utilizing essential analytical and research skills.

4.1. The student understands the significances of important individuals and major developments in history.

4.1.1. (A) The student researches the contributions made by notable Kansans in history (e.g., Dwight David Eisenhower, Alf Landon, Amelia Earhart, George Washington Carver, Robert Dole, William Allen White, Langston Hughes, Carry A. Nation, Black Bear Bosin, Gordon Parks, Clyde Cessna, Charles Curtis, Walter Chrysler, Wyatt Earp). 38
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.1.1.

4.1.2. (K) The student uses traditional stories from regions of the United States to help define the region. 54
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.1.2.

4.1.3. (K) The student describes the observations of the explorers who came to what was to become Kansas (e.g., Francisco Coronado, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Zebulon Pike, Stephen H. Long). 29
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.1.3.

4.1.4. (K) The student describes how communication and transportation systems connect Kansas to other regions, past and present (e.g., trails, Pony Express, telegraph, steamboats, railroad lines, highway systems, air transportation, Internet). 51
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.1.4.

4.1.5. (A) The student compares and contrasts the purposes of the Santa Fe and Oregon-California Trails (e.g., commercial vs. migration). 5
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.1.5.

4.1.6. (K) The student describes life on the Santa Fe and Oregon-California Trails (e.g., interactions between different cultural groups, hardships such as lack of water, mountains and rivers to cross, weather, need for medical care, size of wagon). 5
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.1.6.

4.2. The student understands the importance of experiences of groups of people who have contributed to the richness of heritage.

4.2.1. (A) The student compares the various reasons several immigrant groups settled in Kansas (e.g., English, German, German-Russian, French, Swedish, Czechoslovakian, Croatian, Serbian, Mexican, African American, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian). 8
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.2.1.

4.2.2. (K) The student explains the economic and cultural contributions made by immigrant groups in Kansas (e.g., jobs, agriculture, mining, arts, customs, celebrations). 8
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.2.2.

4.3. The student understands the significance of events, holidays, documents, and symbols that are important to Kansas, United States and World history.

4.3.1. (K) The student explains the origin of the name 'Kansas.' 4
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.3.1.

4.3.2. (K) The student describes the history of the Kansas state song, 'Home on the Range.' 4
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.3.2.

4.4. The student engages in historical thinking skills.

4.4.1. (A) The student creates and uses historical timelines (e.g., time periods, eras, decades, centuries). 22
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.4.1.

4.4.2. (A) The student develops a thesis statement around a historical question. 22
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.4.2.

4.4.3. (K) The student understands the difference between inferred information and observed information. 27
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.4.3.

4.4.4. (A) The student identifies and compares information from primary and secondary sources (e.g., photographs, diaries/journals, newspapers, historical maps). 27
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.4.4.

4.4.5. (A) The student uses research skills to interpret an historical person or event in history and notes the source(s) of information (e.g., discusses ideas; formulates broad and specific questions; determines a variety of sources; locates, evaluates, organizes, records and shares relevant information in both oral and written form). 60
Suggested Titles for Kansas Social Studies State Standard 4.4.5.