Communities: A Social Studies Guide for Elementary School

A community is a place where people live, work, and play, made up of neighborhoods. Each community is special and unique.

Rural communities have many farms or open land and places are far apart from one another. Suburban communities are next to a city and made up of neighborhoods, stores, services, and places for fun. Urban communities are made up of a city and the areas surrounding. They contain many buildings, traffic, and people.

Community Workers

Many community workers sell goods and services. Every community usually has these types of workers: trash collectors, teachers, mayor, grocer, construction worker, librarian, and grocer. Trash collectors collect waste that people don't want. Teachers help children learn. A mayor is the leader of a city and helps make sure the community is a good place in which to live and work. Mail carriers collect and deliver letters and packages. Grocers sell fruits, vegetables, meats, desserts, beverages, and paper goods. Construction workers build and repair roads and buildings. Librarians help people find and borrow books, records, magazines, and tapes. Salespeople sell cars and trucks.

Community Helpers

Citizens and volunteers work together to help their community. Citizens are people who live in a community or members of a country. Citizens volunteer by repairing and rebuilding when disaster strikes a community. Volunteers set up shelters for people who lose their homes when nature strikes and buildings & roads need to be repaired. Volunteers work without pay. Helpers can also do a community clean-up and clean up rivers, lakes, and parks that are littered by pollution. Each citizen should help care for the community.

Transportation in Communities

Transportation moves people and products from place to place. There are many means of transportation including bicycles, buses, cars, ferryboats, planes, taxicabs, trains, and trucks.

Legacy of Communities

A legacy is something people value today that was part of the past. It is a special place or event that is part of a community's past and its present. A legacy could be a sporting event, main street, or state capital.

Getting to know other Communities

To find out about a nearby community, it is a good idea to know how far it is from your house. Using a map scale helps you measure the real distances from one place to another on a map. Different maps use different map scales. Sometimes one inch equals 10 miles and other times one inch equals 100 miles.