Introduction to Baloney Books® Instructional Guides
Baloney Books® offers instructional guides for the Kindergarten Grade Social Studies curriculum, focusing on the study of children and their immediate environment. Individual, family, and community themes are highlighted in the companion guides, available for download here.
The Maryland State Department of Education Grade K Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC) comprises six instructional standards. Those standards are:
Standard 1.0 Political Science
Standard 2.0 Peoples of the Nation and World
Standard 3.0 Geography
Standard 4.0 Economics
Standard 5.0 History
Standard 6.0 Social Studies Skills and Processes
The Baloney Books® series focuses on themes that are promoted by the VSC and can be useful supplements in the instructional process.
Gwendolyn BALONEY Lomax Wants to go to School, by Lisa Douglass, can be used in helping students to understand the skills and attitudes necessary to become responsible citizens by conveying the concepts of rules, responsibilities, and rights in the context of family, a microcosm of the greater society.
Gwendolyn BALONEY Lomax Visits the Country, by Lisa Douglass, aids students in applying geographic concepts of location to human activity, highlighting demographic and vocational differences between urban and rural environments.
Gwendolyn BALONEY Lomax Goes on a Date, by Lisa Douglass, helps students to understand sequential ordering of activities and establishes an introductory understanding of past, present and future as foundational concepts for understanding societal change over the course of time.
The topics covered in the Baloney Books® series address Standard 1.0 Political Science, Standard 3.0 Geography, and Standard 5.0 History.Each guide offers recommendations for presenting curriculum objectives using content from the Baloney Books® series.The Instructional Guides follow a standard pattern for conveying information.The format is as follows:
1. Reading Comprehension 2. Vocabulary Development 3. Supplemented VSC Grade K Standard Instruction
Baloney Books® Instructional Guides are intended to provide explicit methods for guiding classroom discussion and activities to ensure measurable outcomes. We'd love to hear about your experience in implementing these guides.Please be sure to send us a message at baloneybooks@baloneybooks.com to tell us about your experience or submit a comment through the Contact Us page.
Baloney Books® Instructional Guides are posted below. The guides are intended for use as Social Studies Curriculum companions for the following books:
Standard 1.0 Political Science — Gwendolyn BALONEY Lomax Wants to go to School
Standard 3.0 Geography — Gwendolyn BALONEY Lomax Visits the Country
Standard 5.0 History — Gwendolyn BALONEY Lomax Goes on a Date
PLEASE NOTE:Content for the Instructional Guides developed by Baloney Books® is based on the Maryland State Department of Education Grade K Voluntary State Curriculum (VSC).Baloney Books® Instructional Guides are provided as a courtesy to teachers seeking supplemental material to support their coursework in core subject areas and in no way suggests approval, sponsorship, endorsement by, or affiliation with the Maryland State Department of Education.
