This article offers examples of classroom texts as vehicles for teaching each BHC principle as encouragement for teaching Black histories long beyond Black History Month. For summaries of the texts suggested in this article, see the Pullout in this issue, which pairs each Black Historical Consciousness principle with children’s books and ideas for further investigation.

In this article, the authors describe the Great Barrier Reef Storypath unit that develops knowledge about ocean ecosystems, dispositions for personal stewardship, and skills to participate in protecting and sustaining the environment.

Save the Date, Monday-Tuesday, June 24-25, 2024! The National Council for the Social Studies is excited to present the second annual Virtual Summer Conference on Monday-Tuesday, June 24-25. This year’s conference is designed especially for elementary teachers. Join us virtually as we explore, Inquire and Inspire: Cross-Disciplinary Learning in Elementary Classrooms. Elementary teachers will leave this conference ready to: Strategically plan instruction to support cross-disciplinary learning that is grounded in social studies, but also integrates literacy, mathematics, science, and/or the…

The Educating for American Democracy initiative introduces an inquiry framework, or roadmap, organized around themes and questions to advance excellence in civic and history education. 

In “Teaching beyond Curricular Certainty: Telling Bayard Rustin’s Story to Kindergarteners” and the associated pullout “Documents for Telling Bayard Rustin’s Story to Kindergarteners,” Corey R. Sell, Dorothy Shapland, Caroline Klein-Callea, and Melanie Ernst look beyond focusing primarily on Martin Luther King Jr. and other celebrated Black Americans. 

Melanie McCormick and Alycia West implore educators to engage in thoughtful conversations about transnational adoption in “Seen but not Seen: Supporting Transracial and Transnational Adoptees in the Classroom.” The authors draw on their stories of growing up as transracial and transnational adoptees as well as their research on children’s literature on adoption to provide instructional guidelines and resources for teachers to teach about transnational adoption.

The authors outline the basic ideas behind the stock market along with its ties to consumer economics and how world events impact us all. They argue that this approach is an engaging way to teach elementary students (in grades 4–6) economic responsibility, and they detail some basic steps needed to get started.

An increasing number of U.S. states use the inquiry-based C3 Framework when developing new social studies standards, ensuring that more students have the opportunity to engage in ambitious social studies learning. 

This article focuses on 13 picturebooks by South Asian authors which the author categorizes as culturally conscious picturebooks. These books show the beauty of the lived experiences of South Asian American families. The author argues that in response to the sociopolitical realities, social studies educators can expand their curricula to weave in voices from South Asian communities.