Living History Threads is a comprehensive history and geography curriculum for grades one through four. The four levels are designed to serve both single-grade and multi-grade classrooms. The studies of history and geography are built around a set of recognized events, people, and places spanning time and space. These are the threads of history. These threads, the facts or grammar of history, are then woven together, interpreted, and analyzed creating the fabric of historical understanding. Living History Threads prepares lower elementary students for further historical weavings by introducing and instilling within students significant stories from the past.
Distinctive Characteristics:
- Living books and stories are the principal form of content used.
- Read-alouds are the primary means used to offer the content.
- Formative stories are emphasized alongside informative stories.
- Multiple strands of content—world history, American history, church history, Anabaptist history, local history, and geography—are developed in each level.
- Key content guides student learning by providing a finite body of essential knowledge for mastery.
- Maps and timelines provide a constant spatial and chronological context for the historical content.