The My Story Begins Extension Pack is designed to be used alongside — or after completing — the full-year My Story Begins TK–Kindergarten course.
While the core course already covers all TK and Kindergarten social studies standards, this Extension Pack gives students opportunities to go deeper into history, geography, civics, and economics through additional hands-on activities. It’s perfect for families who want to extend My Story Begins into a second year or simply add more enrichment and practice.
This Extension Pack is 46-pages of full-color filled with hands-on, age-appropriate activities designed especially for young learners.
This Extension Pack includes the following 21 activities:
Build a Community — Students design their own community using the pieces provided as they learn about community planning and the important places found within a community.
Be a Bucket Filler! — Inspired by Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud, students learn about kindness and sort examples of “bucket filling” and “bucket dipping” before filling their own bucket with kind actions.
All About Rules — Students learn why we have rules, who makes them, and how rules help keep people safe before completing a simple sorting activity.
Zoo Rules — Students pretend they’re in charge of a zoo and create three rules to help keep both people and animals safe.
Our Constitution — Students create their own family or classroom constitution, choosing important rules that help everyone work together.
Let’s Vote! — Students participate in a fun mock election, complete a ballot, make predictions, count votes, and learn how groups can use voting to make decisions. *Supplies needed
Need or Want? — Students learn the difference between needs and wants as they shop on a budget and add items to their shopping cart in this cut-and-paste activity.
Bird’s-Eye View — Students discover why many maps show places from above, move a paper bird around a community map, and practice drawing an object from a bird’s-eye view.
Which Way Are We Going? — Students learn the four cardinal directions as they move a paper car around a community map using north, south, east, and west.
Map Symbols — Students learn how symbols and map keys help us understand maps and practice identifying common map symbols.
Make Your Own Map — Students put their new map skills to work by creating a map complete with a bird’s-eye view, symbols, map key, and compass rose.
Map or Globe? — Students learn the difference between maps and globes and then create their own 3D globe using Play-Doh or air-dry clay. *Supplies needed
Road Trip Through History — Students take a pretend road trip through eight major periods in history, moving a paper car along the road and matching pictures to each stop in chronological order.
Pack for the Past — Students continue exploring eight periods in history as they decide which objects belong in each time period and help their time travelers pack correctly.
Make Your Own Butter — Students make homemade butter while thinking about how everyday life and food preparation have changed over time. *Supplies needed
Clues From the Past — Students discover how historians learn about the past by sorting objects based on whether they could provide clues about life long ago.
Communication Over Time — Students explore how the ways people communicate have changed over time as they place different forms of communication on a timeline.
American Symbols — Students learn about important symbols of the United States and then use Play-Doh or air-dry clay to create their own. *Supplies needed
American Symbols Coloring Page — Students review four important American symbols as they color the American flag, bald eagle, Statue of Liberty, and Liberty Bell.
American Symbols I-Spy — Students search for and count American symbols hidden throughout a fun I-Spy picture.
Who Are We Celebrating? — Students learn about important people from American history and the national holidays that commemorate or honor them.
📚 Optional Book Recommendations Included Many activities include picture book recommendations to help bring the topic to life through literature. Books are completely optional, and many titles are also recommended in the full-year My Story Begins and My World, My Story courses.
This is the DIGITAL ONLY version. It includes 46 full-color pages. Both printer-friendly (no blue background), as well as full-color (includes blue background) versions are included with the Digital Download (PDF).
