Core Knowledge

 

History and Geography: Grade 2

 WORLD HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

 

I. Geography - Quarter 1

 

A. SPATIAL SENSE (Working with Maps, Globes, and Other Geographic Tools)

 

• Name your continent, country, state, and community.

 

• Understand that maps have keys or legends with symbols and their uses.

 

• Find directions on a map: east, west, north, south.

 

• Identify major oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic.

 

• The seven continents: Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America,

 

Antarctica, Australia.

 

• Locate: Canada, United States, Mexico, Central America.

 

• Locate: the Equator, Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, North and

 

South Poles.

 

 

 

B. GEOGRAPHICAL TERMS AND FEATURES

 

• coast, valley, prairie, desert, oasis

 

 

 

II. Early Asian Civilizations - Quarter 1/2

 

A. GEOGRAPHY OF ASIA

 

• The largest continent, with the most populous countries in the world

 

• Locate: China, India, Japan

 

 

 

B. INDIA

 

• Indus River and Ganges River

 

• Hinduism

 

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva

 

Many holy books, including the Rig Veda

 

• Buddhism

 

Prince Siddhartha becomes Buddha, “the Enlightened One”

 

Buddhism begins as an outgrowth of Hinduism in India, and then spreads through

 

many countries in Asia.

 

King Asoka (also spelled Ashoka)

 

 

 

C. CHINA

 

• Yellow (Huang He) and Yangtze (Chang Jiang) Rivers

 

• Teachings of Confucius (for example, honor your ancestors)

 

• Great Wall of China

 

• Invention of paper

 

• Importance of silk

 

• Chinese New Year

 

 

 

III. Modern Japanese Civilization - Quarter 1/2

 

A. GEOGRAPHY

 

• Locate relative to continental Asia: “land of the rising sun”

 

• A country made up of islands; four major islands

 

• Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan

 

• Mt. Fuji

 

• Tokyo

 

 

 

B. CULTURE

 

• Japanese flag

 

• Big modern cities, centers of industry and business

 

• Traditional craft: origami

 

• Traditional costume: kimono

 

 

 

IV. The Ancient Greek Civilization - Quarter 2

 

• Geography: Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Sea, Crete

 

• Sparta

 

• Athens as a city-state: the beginnings of democracy

 

• Persian Wars: Marathon and Thermopylae

 

• Olympic games

 

• Worship of gods and goddesses

 

• Great thinkers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

 

• Alexander the Great

 

 

 

AMERICAN HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY

 

 

 

I. American Government: The Constitution - Quarter 2/3

 

• American government is based on the Constitution, the highest law of our land.

 

• James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution”

 

• Government by the consent of the governed: “We the people”

 

 

 

II. The War of 1812 - Quarter 3

 

• President James Madison and Dolley Madison

 

• British impressment of American sailors

 

• Old Ironsides

 

• British burn the White House

 

• Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, and “The Star-Spangled Banner”

 

• Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson

 

 

 

III. Westward Expansion - Quarter 3/4

 

A. PIONEERS HEAD WEST

 

• New means of travel

 

Robert Fulton, invention of the steamboat

 

Erie Canal

 

Railroads: the Transcontinental Railroad

 

• Routes west: wagon trains on the Oregon Trail

 

• The Pony Express

 

 

 

B. NATIVE AMERICANS

 

• Sequoyah and the Cherokee alphabet

 

• Forced removal to reservations: the “Trail of Tears”

 

• Some Native Americans displaced from their homes and ways of life by railroads (the

 

“iron horse”)

 

• Effect of near extermination of buffalo on Plains Indians

 

 

 

IV. The Civil War - Quarter 4

 

• Controversy over slavery

 

• Harriet Tubman, the “underground railroad”

 

• Northern v. Southern states: Yankees and Rebels

 

• Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee

 

• Clara Barton, “Angel of the Battlefield,” founder of American Red Cross

 

• President Abraham Lincoln: keeping the Union together

 

• Emancipation Proclamation and the end of slavery

 

 

 

V. Immigration and Citizenship - Quarter 4

 

• America perceived as a “land of opportunity”

 

• The meaning of “e pluribus unum” (a national motto you can see on the back of coins)

 

• Ellis Island and the significance of the Statue of Liberty

 

• Millions of newcomers to America

 

Large populations of immigrants settle in major cities (such as New York, Chicago,

 

Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, San Francisco)

 

• The idea of citizenship

 

What it means to be a citizen of a nation

 

American citizens have certain rights and responsibilities (for example, voting, eligible

 

to hold public office, paying taxes)

 

Becoming an American citizen (by birth, naturalization)

 

 

 

VI. Fighting for a Cause - Quarter 4

 

• Susan B. Anthony and the right to vote

 

• Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights and human rights

 

• Mary McLeod Bethune and educational opportunity

 

• Jackie Robinson and the integration of major league baseball

 

• Rosa Parks and the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama

 

• Martin Luther King, Jr. and the dream of equal rights for all

 

• Cesar Chavez and the rights of migrant workers

 

 

 

VII. Geography of the Americas - Quarter 1

 

A. NORTH AMERICA

 

• North America: Canada, United States, Mexico

 

• The United States

 

Fifty states: 48 contiguous states, plus Alaska and Hawaii

 

Current territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands)

 

Mississippi River

 

Appalachian and Rocky Mountains

 

Great Lakes

 

• Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, West Indies

 

• Central America

 

 

 

B. SOUTH AMERICA

 

• Brazil: largest country in South America, Amazon River, rain forests

 

• Peru and Chile: Andes Mountains

 

• Locate: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador

 

• Bolivia: named after Simon Bolivar, “The Liberator”

 

• Argentina: the Pampas

 

• Main languages: Spanish and (in Brazil) Portuguese

 

 

 

VIII. Symbols and Figures - Quarter 4

 

• Recognize and become familiar with the significance of

 

U. S. flag: current and earlier versions

 

Statue of Liberty

 

Lincoln Memorial