Component 1: Civics & Government
Standard 1.a: Children develop awareness that care of the community through personal responsibility, agreed-upon rules, and conflict resolution are important components of a fair and just society.
By the following age ranges, children typically, for example:
- Demonstrate preference for familiar versus unfamiliar adults
- Look to caregivers for assistance, guidance, and safety
- Show anticipation of daily events
- Express emotion relating to a conflict (e.g., cry, express frustration)
- Demonstrate an understanding of simple rules and prompts, such as stop but do not consistently follow rules
- Observe and imitate simple routines and actions of family members and other familiar peers and adults (e.g., shadow parent when wiping table)
- Express emotion relating to a conflict (e.g., use some language to express emotion, such as “No.” or “Mine.”)
- Begin to recognize a sense of belonging to a group, such as a class or family (e.g., point to family members in pictures
- Follow simple rules with adult assistance (e.g., with adult prompts, take turns, and use their walking feet in the classroom)
- Participate in routines with adult support (e.g., clean up toys with adult prompts)
- Communicate about a conflict and seek help from adults to solve or try to solve themselves even if their approaches are not always effective or the most appropriate (e.g., ask adult to intervene; use language such as “I want that!”; taking or giving toys)
- Communicate a sense of belonging to a group such as a class or family (e.g., participate in decision-making; talk about family)
- Describe and demonstrate awareness of group rules and understand that there may be different rules for different contexts (e.g., say “we wash hands after recess” to describe classroom sanitary rules; walking inside, running outside).
- Take part in the responsibilities of being in a family or group and helping others (e.g., assist peer with cleaning up a learning center)
- Begin to participate in problem-solving and decision-making (e.g., tell another child to wait for their turn on the slide)
- Demonstrate understanding of the need for rules in the home, classroom, and/or community and what happens when rules are not followed (e.g., understand that outdoor toys must be cleaned up to come inside)
- Seek out opportunities for leadership (e.g., volunteer to feed the class fish or set the table for snack)
- Suggest ways to resolve social conflicts independently and in cooperation with others (e.g., tell peer to “use their words” instead of hitting)
- Begin to explore basic principles of democracy (e.g., participating in class voting, respecting opinions of others, creating rules)
- Begin to recognize symbols that represent groups or communities (e.g., school mascot or symbol; flag and eagle)
