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Free 2nd grade social studies worksheets with answers

Written by Dr. Evan J. Hasson, DC — a dad of three who built this curriculum for his own children.

50 questions with the answers, free to print and free to photocopy for your own students. Communities, maps and geography, civics, economics and history, drawn from every topic in the grade.

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History & Social Studies — Grade 2

50 questions · answers marked50 questions · answers hidden

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  1. 1. What does the word 'improve' mean?
    1. A. To break something
    2. B. To make something better ← Answer
    3. C. To hide something
    4. D. To buy something brand new
  2. 2. What is the elected leader of a town or city often called?
    1. A. The mayor ← Answer
    2. B. The principal
    3. C. The judge
    4. D. The coach
  3. 3. What is a benefit?
    1. A. What you give up when you make the choice
    2. B. A kind of coin
    3. C. A store
    4. D. The good thing you get from a choice ← Answer
  4. 4. What is a producer?
    1. A. A person who makes goods or provides services ← Answer
    2. B. A person who only buys things at a store, and never makes any
    3. C. A type of store
    4. D. A kind of tool
  5. 5. What is weather?
    1. A. What the air outside is like on one day ← Answer
    2. B. The usual weather over many years
    3. C. A kind of map
    4. D. A type of house
  6. 6. What does transportation mean?
    1. A. A kind of food
    2. B. A song about trains that the children sing at school
    3. C. A type of weather
    4. D. Ways people and goods move from place to place ← Answer
  7. 7. What is a Native nation?
    1. A. A group of American Indian people with its own history, language, land and government ← Answer
    2. B. A crop that grows in the desert and that the people living there cook with every single day
    3. C. A kind of house
    4. D. A type of boat
  8. 8. What does 'historical source' mean?
    1. A. A made-up story
    2. B. Anything from the past that tells us about it ← Answer
    3. C. A list of rules
  9. 9. What is a volunteer?
    1. A. A person who stays home all day with the door shut all day
    2. B. A person who is paid a lot
    3. C. A person who helps without being paid ← Answer
    4. D. A person who sells things
  10. 10. What does the word 'public' mean?
    1. A. Only for grown-ups
    2. B. For everyone to use ← Answer
    3. C. Only for one family
    4. D. For sale in a store
  11. 11. What is a cost?
    1. A. A kind of game
    2. B. A prize you win
    3. C. What you give up when you make a choice ← Answer
    4. D. The good thing you get out of the choice
  12. 12. What is a skill?
    1. A. Something a person has learned to do well ← Answer
    2. B. A place to work
    3. C. Something you buy in a shop with your money
    4. D. A kind of food
  13. 13. What is climate?
    1. A. The weather in one hour right outside your window
    2. B. The usual weather a place has over many years ← Answer
    3. C. A big storm
    4. D. A kind of cloud
  14. 14. What are goods?
    1. A. Only toys
    2. B. Things people make or grow to buy and sell ← Answer
    3. C. Kinds of weather
    4. D. Ideas you think of while you are sitting quietly
  15. 15. What kind of home did the Haudenosaunee live in long ago?
    1. A. Longhouses ← Answer
    2. B. Tipis
    3. C. Apartments
    4. D. Igloos
  16. 16. What does 'artifact' mean?
    1. A. A kind of map
    2. B. An object people made or used ← Answer
    3. C. A story someone made up about a place that never really existed
  17. 17. What is a community?
    1. A. A tool that people use for building houses when a new roof is needed
    2. B. A place where people live, work and play together ← Answer
    3. C. A type of food
    4. D. A kind of game
  18. 18. Which of these is a public place in a town?
    1. A. A friend's bedroom
    2. B. A family's kitchen
    3. C. The town library ← Answer
    4. D. Your neighbor's backyard
  19. 19. What does it mean to save money?
    1. A. To throw it away
    2. B. To give it to a stranger
    3. C. To spend it all today
    4. D. To keep it to use later ← Answer
  20. 20. What is knowledge?
    1. A. A kind of wood
    2. B. A tool for cutting wood into boards
    3. C. A type of job
    4. D. Things a person knows ← Answer
  21. 21. What should you wear on a cold, snowy day?
    1. A. A warm coat, hat, gloves and boots ← Answer
    2. B. A swimsuit and sandals
    3. C. Shorts and a T-shirt
    4. D. A sun hat and flip-flops for the beach in summer
  22. 22. What is communication?
    1. A. A kind of truck that carries boxes
    2. B. Ways people share ideas and news ← Answer
    3. C. A type of boat
    4. D. A road map
  23. 23. What are the Three Sisters?
    1. A. Three kinds of homes
    2. B. Three famous leaders from an old history book
    3. C. Three rivers
    4. D. Corn, beans and squash planted together ← Answer
  24. 24. What does 'diary' mean?
    1. A. A thick book of maps of countries all over the world
    2. B. A book where a person writes each day ← Answer
    3. C. A newspaper
  25. 25. What does it mean to donate?
    1. A. To keep absolutely everything for yourself
    2. B. To take something away
    3. C. To throw something out
    4. D. To give something to help others ← Answer
  26. 26. Which town workers put out fires?
    1. A. Firefighters ← Answer
    2. B. Bus drivers
    3. C. Mail carriers
    4. D. Librarians
  27. 27. What does it mean to spend money?
    1. A. To count it
    2. B. To hide it
    3. C. To use it to buy something ← Answer
    4. D. To keep it forever in a jar
  28. 28. What are resources?
    1. A. Things used to make goods or services, like materials, tools and workers ← Answer
    2. B. Only buildings and the streets around them, nothing else at all in a whole town
    3. C. Only ideas
    4. D. Only money
  29. 29. Which are the four seasons?
    1. A. Spring, summer, fall and winter ← Answer
    2. B. Morning, noon, evening, night and bedtime
    3. C. Hot, cold, wet, dry
    4. D. Sunny, rainy, windy, snowy
  30. 30. What is a route?
    1. A. A type of car
    2. B. A big store
    3. C. The path taken to get somewhere ← Answer
    4. D. A kind of plant that grows in a garden
  31. 31. What kind of home did many Lakota families live in long ago?
    1. A. Log cabins
    2. B. Longhouses
    3. C. Tipis ← Answer
    4. D. Adobe homes
  32. 32. What does 'interview' mean?
    1. A. Taking a photo
    2. B. Reading a long chapter of a history book out loud to a class
    3. C. Asking a person questions and listening ← Answer
  33. 33. Which of these is a way a kid can help the community?
    1. A. Drawing on park benches
    2. B. Picking up litter with a grown-up ← Answer
    3. C. Leaving trash at the playground every single afternoon
    4. D. Breaking flowers in a garden
  34. 34. What is a citizen?
    1. A. A kind of road sign on a street corner
    2. B. A member of a community or country ← Answer
    3. C. A building in town
    4. D. A type of tax
  35. 35. What is a choice?
    1. A. Picking one thing instead of another ← Answer
    2. B. Getting everything you want all at the same time
    3. C. A store sign
    4. D. A kind of money
  36. 36. What are tools?
    1. A. Songs people sing
    2. B. Objects that help people do work ← Answer
    3. C. Places people live in with their families
    4. D. Foods people eat
  37. 37. What is a desert?
    1. A. A very dry place with little rain ← Answer
    2. B. A very wet place
    3. C. A place covered in ice all year long
    4. D. A big lake
  38. 38. Which of these is a kind of transportation?
    1. A. A pillow
    2. B. A bus ← Answer
    3. C. A sandwich
    4. D. A book
  39. 39. What is adobe?
    1. A. A kind of corn
    2. B. Sun-dried bricks made of mud and straw ← Answer
    3. C. Bark from a tree that people peel off in strips
    4. D. A type of canoe
  40. 40. What does 'museum' mean?
    1. A. A kind of letter
    2. B. A place that keeps real things from the past ← Answer
    3. C. A place where new clothes are sewn and then sold to shoppers
  41. 41. Who founded the American Red Cross?
    1. A. Clara Barton ← Answer
    2. B. Benjamin Franklin
    3. C. Abraham Lincoln
    4. D. George Washington
  42. 42. Which town service lets people borrow books for free?
    1. A. The public library ← Answer
    2. B. The toy store
    3. C. The gas station
    4. D. The bakery
  43. 43. You can play outside or watch a show, but not both. If you play outside, what is the cost?
    1. A. Missing the show ← Answer
    2. B. Having fun outside
    3. C. Getting fresh air
    4. D. Running around
  44. 44. Which tool does a carpenter use?
    1. A. A hammer ← Answer
    2. B. A stethoscope
    3. C. A paintbrush for nails
    4. D. A whisk
  45. 45. What would you wear on a rainy day?
    1. A. A swimsuit only and nothing else
    2. B. Slippers
    3. C. Snow pants
    4. D. A raincoat and rain boots ← Answer
  46. 46. Which is faster for a long trip: an airplane or a sailboat?
    1. A. An airplane ← Answer
    2. B. A sailboat
    3. C. They are the same
    4. D. Neither moves
  47. 47. Do Native people still live in the United States today?
    1. A. Only in movies
    2. B. Only in museums
    3. C. Yes, millions of Native people live here today ← Answer
    4. D. No, only long ago and never any time after that
  48. 48. What does 'photograph' mean?
    1. A. A picture a person drew from memory many years afterward
    2. B. A picture made with a camera ← Answer
    3. C. A written list
  49. 49. Benjamin Franklin helped start one of the first lending libraries in America. What does a lending library let people do?
    1. A. Buy toys
    2. B. Borrow and share books ← Answer
    3. C. Put out fires in the city every single week
    4. D. Grow food
  50. 50. Which town workers help keep people safe and make sure laws are followed?
    1. A. Librarians
    2. B. Park gardeners
    3. C. Police officers ← Answer
    4. D. Trash collectors
UpOnly Learning · uponlylearning.com · free to print and photocopy for your own studentsHistory & Social Studies — Grade 2
UpOnly Learning · uponlylearning.com · History & Social Studies Grade 2

What 2nd grade social studies covers

2nd grade social studies at UpOnly Learning is 8 topics, taught in this order: how local government serves the community, making our community better, weather, climate and how people live, how people and goods move, native nations long ago and today, producers and their skills, choices, costs and benefits, and kinds of historical sources. The 50 questions above are drawn from those topics, with the answer marked beside each one, so you can see what has stuck and what needs another lesson. The workbook teaches each topic with a 40-minute lesson; the free PDF sample has one full topic.

What's inside

  • How local government serves the community: Describe how a town's leaders and residents work together for parks, roads, libraries and safety
  • Making our community better: Describe ways people have worked to improve their communities over time
  • Weather, climate and how people live: Explain how weather and climate shape homes, clothing, food and activities
  • How people and goods move: Explain why and how people, goods and ideas travel from place to place
  • Native nations long ago and today: Compare how some Native nations lived long ago with how their communities live today
  • Producers and their skills: Describe the skills, knowledge and resources needed to produce goods and services
  • Choices, costs and benefits: Identify the benefits and costs of personal choices about spending, saving and time
  • Kinds of historical sources: Identify photographs, letters, objects, maps, newspapers and interviews as sources and tell what each shows about the past

Keep going

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History & Social Studies · Grade 2

$19.99. One-time purchase, no subscription.

212 pages · 960 questions with answers · 8 topics

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From the workbook

A real page of History & Social Studies · Grade 2

Helping Hands Make a Better Community

The student will describe ways people have worked to improve their communities over time and plan a small project to help their own. · 40 min

Warm-up — say this

“People have always worked to make their communities better. You can too.”

Worked example

How did Benjamin Franklin help his community in Philadelphia?

Answer: He helped start a lending library so people could share books and helped organize a volunteer fire company to fight fires.

A mistake students make

Kids are too small to make a difference.

How the book fixes it

Share examples of kid projects, like collecting canned food or picking up litter. Many small actions add up to big changes.

Note to the parent

Keep projects small and doable in a week so your student sees the result of their effort.

That is one topic of many. The free questions above check a skill; this is the part that teaches it.

Practice checks. Our history and social studies workbooks teach.

These questions check a skill. The workbook teaches it.

  • TeachesA 40-minute lesson per topic that tells you what to say.
  • ExplainsWorked examples and the common mistakes, with fixes.
  • ReviewsAnswers with short explanations, and fresh questions.
  • PlansEvery topic in teaching order, matched to the standards.
$19.99 each Buy a history and social studies teaching workbook Free sample More free resources

Other grades

KindergartenFree kindergarten history and social studies questionsGrade 1Free 1st grade history and social studies questionsGrade 3Free 3rd grade history and social studies questionsGrade 4Free 4th grade history and social studies questionsGrade 5Free 5th grade history and social studies questionsGrade 6Free 6th grade history and social studies questionsGrade 7Free 7th grade history and social studies questionsGrade 8Free 8th grade history and social studies questions

Grade 2, other subjects

MathFree 2nd grade math questionsReadingFree 2nd grade reading questionsScienceFree 2nd grade science questionsWritingFree 2nd grade writing and grammar questionsLife SkillsFree 2nd grade life skills questionsBusinessFree 2nd grade business and money questionsPsychologyFree 2nd grade psychology questions

Questions parents ask

Are these history and social studies worksheets really free?

Yes. All 50 questions and their answers are on this page, free to print and free to photocopy for your own students. Printing needs only a free account. No card.

Can a teacher or a tutor use these with a class?

Yes. Print and photocopy them for the students you teach. The only thing we ask is that you do not republish them as your own or sell them.

Where are the answers?

Marked beside each question on this page, so it prints as its own answer key. For a clean copy, click Hide answers before you print; click Show answers again to print your answer key.

What grade are these for?

Grade 2. Every other grade from kindergarten to grade 8 has its own page, linked at the foot of this one. If your student finds these hard, try the grade below — that is normal and it is not a problem.

What do the paid workbooks add?

These questions check a skill. The workbook teaches it: a forty-minute lesson that tells you what to say, two or three worked examples, the mistakes students actually make on that skill and how to correct each one, and an explanation beside every answer rather than a bare key.