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Social Studies Curriculum Grades K–6
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Motivate students to explore their world. Built to inspire curiosity and cultivate analytical skills, HMH Kids Discover Social Studies offers hands-on lessons and activities, graphic magazines, and digital assets that fit into any classroom schedule.
Research shows that building prior knowledge leads to greater understanding. HMH Kids Discover Social Studies showcases content that connects students to the world and prepares them to become contributing members of our society.
HMH Kids Discover Social Studies offers educators:
- Flexibility to teach social studies while meeting literacy goals
- Content that captivates with vibrant magazines and high-interest topics
- Support to enhance student engagement and teacher efficiency
You can request access to preview HMH Kids Discover Social Studies on the new Ed: Your Friend in Learning system here.
- Benefits
- Professional Services
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Benefits
Imagine a classroom where students are completely immersed in engaging content that is standards based and student friendly, fits right into daily instruction, and supports inquiry-based learning.
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Flexibility for Every Classroom
How can you fulfill the need for dedicated social studies instruction and meet new academic standards when class time is limited? HMH Kids Discover Social Studies provides a way to integrate essential nonfiction content while meeting literacy goals, helping you make the most of every minute.
In just a short amount of time, students have the opportunity to develop strong contextual foundations on which they can build knowledge.
- Teach social studies where it fits into your day—from a single spread to a full magazine
- Meet literacy goals while teaching social studies through fast, easy, integrated, and intuitive materials
- Provide both hands-on and digital access to digestible and immersive content as well as games and activities that appeal and excite
- Utilize curated content and integrate custom lessons to support your students' needs with the HMH Player® app and other digital support tools
Interactive Preview: In this hotspot diagram from the Grade 2 magazine Leaders and Government, students learn that just like children on a playground, nations must be able to get along and work together.Give Students More Time with Nonfiction, Informational Content
Easily meet instructional goals for social studies and literacy with these stunning, glossy consumable magazines full of mini-lessons, covering a diverse array of grade-appropriate topics and conducive to easy scheduling.
Make Social Studies More Accessible for All Students!
HMH Kids Discover Social Studies delivers concise and appropriate social studies content that can be easily integrated within a variety of classroom schedules. The immersive program also provides the reading support and scaffolding needed to prepare students for successful futures.
- The Teacher's Guide offers scaffolded ELD support and suggestions for keeping the whole class engaged with content, differentiation, and collaboration.
- Spanish and English content, plus audio, is available online for all Student Magazines.
- Standards-based objectives in the Teacher's Guide align to social studies content, ELA, and ELD standards.
Differentiated Instruction Tools
Differentiated instruction tools in HMH Kids Discover Social Studies build a strong knowledge base and promote effective expression for all students—from struggling readers and learners with disabilities to English language learners and advanced learners.
- Language X-Ray integrates ELD standards by guiding students through language, genre, idioms, and cultural references to encourage language development.
- Vocabulary Network builds word concepts with connected examples and related forms of word pairings so that students can make meaning of the language.
Connections that Extend Beyond the Lesson
Use our extensive Teacher's Guide to break down the lesson and highlight skills learned.
- Unpacking the Text uses concept maps, anticipation guides, and other activities to focus students on meaning, form, and content.
- Foundational skills incorporate both reading and social studies to foster content knowledge across the disciplines.
- Academic and domain-specific vocabulary is explicitly identified and taught through previewing exercises and vocabulary games.
- The Connect feature links to math, economics, and visual arts to provide interdisciplinary connections to expand learning.
HMH Player® is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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Content That Captivates
This is the quality, reliable social studies content teachers have been looking for—organized into a standards-based curriculum that students actually look forward to reading!
HMH Kids Discover Social Studies provides so much engaging content packed into easily digestible graphic magazines. Each issue is filled with high-interest imagery and text that bring moments in history and current events to life in the classroom.
- Thrilling magazine-style format is full of fascinating facts, nonfiction stories, and visuals that students won't want to put down
- Relatable content inspires connections that foster responsible and active members of society
- Wide array of engaging topics build literacy skills and ensure every learner will discover content he or she loves
- Online and offline capabilities enable access, regardless of connectivity, through HMH Player®
Interactive Preview: In this animation from the Grade 3 magazine Settling the Land, students are engaged with the story of how Christopher Columbus’s journey to the Americas caused many other European explorers to follow.Every Page: Relatable and Memorable
Invite students to discover their world through enjoyable, interactive, hands-on lessons that incorporate other disciplines while building social studies content knowledge.
- Motivating and streamlined Student Magazines offer topic-based informational text readings to keep students focused and make learning an adventure.
- Engaging, bite-sized content introduces a new experience each day using vivid images, new layouts, and specific objectives to make content acquisition achievable.
- Consumable footprint enables students to own their knowledge and build their personal library.
Fun and Interactive Learning—Every Lesson, Every Day!
Each lesson asks students to imagine, think about, and partake in hands-on activities, so they are always processing information. Program features, like previewing exercises and games, provide explicit reading and vocabulary instruction while teaching social studies—supporting both ELA standards and ELD populations. Grade-level topics presented in a high-interest manner foster students' innate curiosity and keep them coming back for more!
When students laugh, the content sticks!
- Humorous cartoons and jokes pique student curiosity.
- Interactive maps, videos, hotspots, interactive diagrams, 360-degree sliders, panoramas, and Learn More Online activities provide additional opportunities to extend the learning.
- Teachers have the tools they need at their fingertips to help students make connections.
- Interaction with primary sources gives students the experience of thinking and acting like historians.
- Compelling Questions frame the teaching and learning inquiry path and support intellectually challenging content.
- Integrated activities and projects guide students to demonstrate what they've learned through Performance Tasks.
Available in the Student and Teacher Online Editions
HMH In The News invites you and your students to:
- Choose from three designs to customize your homepage
- Enjoy stories written for different levels of readers
- Come back often for new stories, spotlight features, and polls
- Search archived stories by keyword or by word cloud
HMH in the News also includes:
- An up‐to‐date calendar with holidays and annual events to help students learn about these important dates
- Web links to helpful sites to expand and deepen learning about the featured stories
The HMHfyi experience provides text and sources for research and extended reading on social studies topics. The site offers links to current websites with thematic connections social studies topics, such as community, people to know, and history as well as tips for reading information text.
Channel One News®, a digital content and curriculum provider, encourages young people (Grades 3–6) to be informed, digital-savvy citizens while sparking conversations on current events.
It is produced for young people—connecting news stories to their lives and providing context on difficult topics, the newscast features young, relatable journalists plus engaging music and graphics.
Engaging Daily Newscast features:
- Reports from young digital journalists
- Headline news and feature stories each day
- Transcript for the entire newscast
Associated Curriculum provides:
- Quizzes
- Discussion Prompts
- Vocabulary
- Plus additional instructional resources (including slide shows and writing prompts) for one daily feature story
HMH Player® and Channel One News® are registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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Comprehensive Digital Solutions
Preparing your students to be college and career ready is a challenge—especially when class time is limited. You want your students to grow into active and engaged citizens, and we want to support you.
To help you feel confident about your instruction, we offer a host of options to facilitate implementation and effective delivery. Our support allows you to:
- Prepare your students to be globally aware and informed
- Promote inquiry and active learning for your students
- Foster your students' civic pride and participation
Our digital tools make instruction, assessment, and access effective, efficient, and constant. Strong technical support ensures seamless integration of technology plus access to program expert assistance.
Technology to Enhance Instruction
You understand the power of technology when it comes to empowering learning and activating students' interest. We do too. So we've embedded digital tools that help bring the teaching—and the learning—full circle.
This NEW, innovative online learning system supports teachers by simplifying their instructional practice through easy access and intuitive pathways to key content, assignments, assessments, and data.
For students, Ed: Your Friend in Learning combines the best of technology with HMH Kids Discover Social Studies content to personalize the learning experience for every student. Also, via our HMH Player® app, students can download content when online, work offline, and sync up when reconnected.
Preview Ed
Interactive Preview: This Multi-Step Diagram from Grade 5 The New Nation, encourages students to discover how the Erie Canal is designed and how it works.
Interactive Preview: In this Tabset from the Grade 6 magazine Early Romans, students learn how Roman armies conquered the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.HMH Player® is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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About the Kids Discover Partnership
Built in partnership with Kids Discover®, a leading provider of dynamic, engaging science and social studies curricula, this next-generation curriculum series supports both ELA and social studies requirements for reading, critical thinking, and skills support. Teachers can confidently implement cross-curricular instruction while preparing students for college, career, and beyond.
For more than 25 years, Kids Discover has been creating beautifully crafted nonfiction products for kids. With a specialty in science and social studies, the team of talented writers, award-winning designers and illustrators, and subject experts from leading institutions is committed to a single mission: to get children excited about reading and learning.
Kids Discover® and design is a registered trademark of Kids Discover, LLC. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt® and HMH® are registered trademarks of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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Magazines & Teacher's Guides
Discover the Difference on Every Page!
Place thrilling graphic magazines in the hands of your students and see the difference high-quality content makes when it comes to greater learning engagement and performance!
Every issue is designed to captivate student interest and foster inquiry-based learning. Every lesson is flexible for more effective instruction. HMH Kids Discover Social Studies also supports teachers as they help their students build knowledge and make important connections for understanding the world around them.
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Kindergarten
The World Around Us
Being a Good Citizen
Flags & Other Symbols
Jobs
Maps
Neighborhoods
Past & Present
History: A Celebration
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Grade 1
Families Living and Working Together
Rules & Laws
Neighborhood Helpers
Maps & Globes
Where We Live
Weather
U.S. Symbols
Holidays
Yesterday & Today
The American People
Goods & Services
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Grade 2
Neighborhoods and Community
Leaders & Government
Location
North America
Communities & Resources
Family Histories
America's Beginnings
Heroes
A World of Culture
Why People Work
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Grade 3
Communities, Near and Far
Mapping Our World
Communities
U.S. Geography
People & the Environment
Protecting Resources
Communities Change
Amazing Inventions
Ancient Civilizations
The First People
Settling the Land
Role of Citizens
How America Works
America: Heritage and Culture
Culture: Expressions Around the World
Producers & Consumers
Saving & Spending
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Grade 4
American States and Regions
Geography
U.S. Landscapes
Climate
Conservation
Pre-Columbian People of America
All About Regions
The Northeast
The Southeast
The Midwest
The Southwest
The West
How Americans Live
How Government Works
Inventions
Our North American Neighbors
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Grade 5
The United States (Full Survey)
Regions of North America
Eastern Woodland Indians
Plains Indians
Southwest Peoples
Northwest Coast Peoples
America 1492
Exploring the Americas
Early Settlements
13 Colonies
Declaration of Independence
American Revolution
Revolutionary Women
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution
American Government
The New Nation
Lewis & Clark
Westward Expansion
Pioneers
Industrial Revolution in America
Immigration
Civil War
Underground Railroad
Postwar Change and Growth
Early 20th Century in the U.S.
Teddy Roosevelt
Suffragists
World War I
Inventors & Inventions
Great Depression
World War II
Mid-20th Century in the U.S.
Civil Rights
Into the 21st Century
The United States: Beginnings Through the Civil War
Regions of North America
Eastern Woodland Indians
Plains Indians
Southwest Peoples
Northwest Coast Peoples
America 1492
Exploring the Americas
Early Settlements
13 Colonies
Declaration of Independence
American Revolution
Revolutionary Women
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
The Constitution
American Government
The New Nation
Lewis & Clark
Westward Expansion
Pioneers
Industrial Revolution in America
Immigration
Civil War
Underground Railroad
The United States: Reconstruction to the Present
Postwar Change and Growth
Early 20th Century in the U.S.
Teddy Roosevelt
Suffragists
World War I
Inventors & Inventions
Great Depression
World War II
Mid-20th Century in the U.S.
Civil Rights
Into the 21st Century
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Grade 6
World History (Full Survey)
World Geography
Climate & the Environment
World's Early People
Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Archaeology
Language
Ancient India
Ancient China
Olmec & Maya
Ancient Hebrews
Ancient Persia
Indian Empires
China's Empires
Great Wall of China
Early Greeks
Greece's Golden Age
Early Romans
Roman Empire
Christianity & Rome's Legacies
Early Middle Ages
Vikings
African Kingdoms
East Asian Civilizations
Aztecs
Incas
First Americans
Byzantine Empire
Muslim Empires
High/Late Middle Ages
Renaissance & Reformation
Age of Exploration & Colonization
Australia & the Pacific Islands
Enlightenment
Industrial Revolution
Age of Imperialism
Nationalism
The Great War
The Second World War
Communism
The World in The 21st Century
World History: The Ancient World Through the Renaissance
World Geography
Climate & the Environment
World's Early People
Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Archaeology
Language
Ancient India
Ancient China
Olmec & Maya
Ancient Hebrews
Ancient Persia
Indian Empires
China's Empires
Great Wall of China
Early Greeks
Greece's Golden Age
Early Romans
Roman Empire
Christianity & Rome's Legacies
Early Middle Ages
Vikings
African Kingdoms
East Asian Civilizations
Aztecs
Incas
First Americans
Byzantine Empire
Muslim Empires
High/Late Middle Ages
Renaissance & Reformation
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Professional Services
Our comprehensive Professional Learning solutions for leaders, teachers, and families are data and evidence driven, mapped to your goals, centered on your students, and delivered by master educators. These tailored, flexible solutions were designed to help you more effectively prepare students for college, career, and civic life—known as the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
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Start Strong, Finish Stronger
A Getting Started with HMH Kids Discover Social Studies course will orient you to the program materials and technology, examine the instructional routines, help you support differentiation, and provide effective whole- and small-group instruction.
Need additional support with technology? Our technical services team can help you plan, prepare, implement, and optimize your technology so you can get the most out of HMH Kids Discover Social Studies digital tools. We will enhance your technology with learning management system interoperability, rostering, and single sign-on within your environment.
Build Capacity, Ensure Success with In-Classroom Support
Gain deeper knowledge of social studies standards, in-class support to facilitate instructional strategies and routines, and confidence to teach literacy alongside social studies through our Professional Learning.
You'll get even more personalized support with our Team and Individual Coaching. We'll help you plan your lessons and model how to incorporate instructional strategies that help students master C3 concepts:
- Read and analyze social studies content, news reports, and other media
- Interpret content and evaluate the source
- Develop questioning skills, identify bias, and draw conclusions