Social Studies

Rigorous, standards-aligned activities, quizzes and resources that connect with students' interests, background knowledge, and lived experiences.

ReadWorks is built on the science of reading to ensure students can steadily expand their background knowledge, vocabularies, and reading comprehension.

Storyboarding is an incredibly powerful tool for visual communication. Creating a storyboard brings words from the page to life, and encapsulates the audience's imagination in ways that text alone cannot.

Thoughtfully curated to align with grade-level curriculums, Kids Discover K-6 Social Studies is designed to provide young learners with a stimulating and engaging exploration of various historical, geographical, and cultural topics.

Scholastic Scope magazine offers engaging non-fiction and fiction articles, along with skill-building exercises, designed to captivate your 6th grader's interest in reading and learning. Each issue provides a diverse range of content that supports ELA curriculum goals and encourages critical thinking.

(The Tools of History) Geographers look for new ways to help us understand our place in the world. Archaeologists make discoveries that tell us about our earliest ancestors. Their findings answer questions about the past and provide insight into our lives today.

(The Earliest Human Societies) The first humans hunted animals and gathered plants for food. Then, as they interacted with one another, they developed tools and weapons to aid them in these activities. New, more settled ways of living developed as people shared ideas.

(Ancient Mesopotamia) Mesopotamia is a region that has two great rivers. They provided ancient people with water for drinking and for crops. When the rivers flooded, they deposited fresh soil on the land, making it good for farming. In addition, it was easy to move trade goods by boat down the rivers.

(Early Empires) As societies grew, new ways of governing developed to provide people with safety and security. During the early empires, leaders developed law codes to bring fair laws to societies. The leaders also set up new ways to organize and rule vast lands with many different groups of people.

(Ancient Egypt) Ancient Egypt developed along the Nile River. Rich farmland along the Nile provided plenty of food for the Egyptians. The river also became a trading highway. Farming and trade encouraged the development of a great civilization in Egypt.

(Ancient Greece) Mountains separated ancient Greece into regions, which were organized as separate city-states. Originally, kings ruled those city-states, but over time other forms of government evolved. The city-state of Athens developed direct democracy, in which all male citizens met in an assembly to make their own laws.

(Classical Greece) Greek ideas about the arts, architecture, sciences, and philosophy spread to parts of Asia through Alexander the Great and his armies. Greek culture blended with the cultures of conquered lands including Egypt, Persia, and India to create a new one. Millions of people who lived in Alexander’s empire shared that new culture. The culture continued long after Alexander died.

(The Rise of Rome) In ancient Rome, anger arose between powerful, wealthy landholders and poor farmers. This anger led to the development of a more representative form of government. Later, conflict between the two classes would lead to civil war.