Science & Social Studies - K

Okay, here's my next installment of "are we doing the right things?"

This is the broad topic list I have for what I'd like to cover in science & social studies. It's much easier for us than math in planning. For science, I looked over a few K/1 books and tried to pull the topics that made the most sense for us. For social studies, I really used DS' interests as the basis since most of the early elementary things I read/saw there were along the lines of "community helpers," which he's done.

These are the monthly units I picked for science.
Last week of July (sort of a "soft" start to hs): What does being "alive" mean?

The Human Body
Space
Rocks/Earth Layers
Weather
Protecting the Earth
Simple Machines
Animals
Water
Plants

In May, I'd like to discuss "how is science important?" and go over ways we use science, how it helps us in direct & indirect ways, science-related careers.


Social Studies
Last week of July - Introduction to Maps

Then -
The Continents
Countries
The United States
Our State
Our City
Hoildays
How Do Communities Work?

Social Problems & Solutions (for example, what happens to people who don't have enough food? DS knows this from a volunteer perspective, but I'd like to talk about it more from a "let's talk to the guy who runs the food pantry" perspective.)

Federal/State Government (He knows *really* basic concepts, such as voting, but I want to go a bit more in-depth.)

Local Government (will include a visit to the state legislature in session)

What is History? (gearing up for 1st grade focus on history)

I have no idea how in-depth we'll go. My biggest goal is reading, and beyond that, I'm pretty flexible. I want to do the body first because 1) ds asks about it a lot and 2) our children's museum has a great exhibit right now. I'd like to talk about/study the body and then go to the exhibit with a bit of background info.

I got a very similar book tonight. There are 5 total in it, and I really liked the way it introduced maps. I also found a great book on our state that has really easy lessons on things like our state bird, which are interesting when you're 5. I was a bit nervous about the social studies aspect, but I feel better about it now! I really like the WTM/classical idea, but I'm not completely sold on starting Ancients in 1st grade. I'm going to see how things go for us this year first, and I think maps are a wonderful place to start.

ETA: DH also found a good book/workbook from Scholastic on the human body. I can't find it online, but it has activities and also good explanations for how the various systems work.

Here are the starting books we got.

This one is for the science unit on the body. The last 1/3 or so is really health - nutrition, exercise, cleanliness, so we won't be doing it as part of the science curriculum but may work on it later.

This book is the map skills we got. It's for a classroom teacher, but I like the layout of the book. I also may look at some of their other series for later units. This book covers prepositions related to positioning (above, behind, below, etc.), introduces cardinal directions, and has some maps with questions (if you leave the library, what direction do you need to do to find the post office?).

Did you cover these topics informally or not at all? I know some people don't do non-core (for lack of a better term) subjects in K/1, but I'm not sure why. I'm curious about whether there's a specific academic reason or whether it's just a personal preference.