Grade 3 Social Studies Utah standards Standards

Connecting Your Community To The World

Your Rights And Responsibilities As A Community Member

Your Community

Types Of Government And The United States And Utah Constitutions

Third Grade

Identify significant ideas in the United States and Utah Constitutions, as well as compare similarities and differences between the documents.

Discuss the basic differences between different forms of government, including a constitutional republic, a pure democracy, an oligarchy, and a monarchy.

Explain why the first three words of the United States Constitution are vital to the workings of representative government.

Summarize how the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and explain how laws provide order and stability.

Identify the rights protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, and analyze how those rights affect them.

Explain how the Constitution balances power between the three branches of government at both the state and federal levels (checks and balances).

Analyze the communities in which they live, including geography, relative size, and interdependent relationships.

Locate their community, city or town, state, country, and continent on print and digital maps of the earth, and contrast their sizes and the relationships in scale.

Describe how geography (that is, physical features and natural resources) has shaped where and how their community developed, how it sustains itself, and how it will sustain itself in the future.

Define their own cultures or the cultures of their communities (for example, art, music, food, dance, system of writing, architecture, government to which they are regularly exposed or of which they are part).

Evaluate how their community has changed over time (for example, economic interdependence, changes to the environment).

Students delineate their civic rights and responsibilities as members of their community and the limits to their rights when they conflict with the rights of others. Students are introduced to the concepts of civil rights, public virtue, and civic engagement.

Analyze how their community has been shaped by the diverse people who have resided within it. Compare primary and secondary sources (when available) from or about these people.

Reflect upon the processes used to address needs and reach solutions within their family, their classroom, or other groups of which they are a part. Compare those to the democratic processes used to address needs and reach solutions within their communities.

Research improvements that have been made in their community over time (for example, schools, roads, emergency services, utilities, jobs, recreation, libraries, clean environment, protection of civil rights).

Describe some of the civic roles that people fulfill within their community, and explain the reasons why people choose to serve in those roles and how they benefit the community.

Explain how their community's leaders are elected or appointed and effective ways to work together with them to improve the community.

Describe why governments collect taxes and how they decide how to use them.

Discuss how the choices of individuals and leaders affect their community and its future (for example, supporting local businesses, volunteering, voting).

Collaborate with peers to address a need in their local community through service.

Learn about one or more communities in other regions of the world. Students use what they have learned in the first three Strands about their own community as a basis for comparison. These communities could reflect the diverse heritage of class members and community members.

Choose a community outside of the United States. Locate that community on both print and digital maps of the Earth, their continent, country, and city or town, and contrast their sizes and the relationships in scale.

Research the geography (that is, physical features and natural resources) of the community they chose in 3.4.1, and make inferences regarding how the geography influenced the cultures that have developed there.

Define the cultures of the community they chose in 3.4.1 (for example, art, music, food, dance, system of writing, architecture, government, religion).

Examine the types of government found in the community they chose in 3.4.1, and compare them with the government of their community (for example, how community leaders are selected, how the government maintains order, keeps people safe, and makes and enforces rules and laws; the role of a community member; the inclusion of immigrants).

Examine how and why the community they chose in 3.4.1 has adapted to and/or modified its environment over time, and identify the consequences of these environmental changes.