The handbook defines skills which are critical to elementary school students in acquiring and processing information related to social studies. It also suggests teaching strategies for use by elementary school teachers as they develop social studies and/or citizenship education programs. In addition, the document should be helpful to preservice teachers because of its comprehensive explanations of developmental background of various skills. Three broad categories of skills are dealt with: (1) information acquisition skills (direct observation, using questions, using prepared sources), (2) information processing skills (comparing, conceptualizing, hypothesizing), and (3) self-management skills (decreasing stereotypic, egocentric, and ethnocentric perceptions). For each category, a definition is presented, followed by skills, utility, lesson objectives, and long range objectives. Lesson objectives are grouped in sets of three according to appropriateness for various grade levels. Activities involve children in map and globe skills, grouping objects, and describing concepts (grades K-3); discussing information gleaned from stories and writing statements about testing various hypotheses (grades 4-5); and generating hypotheses from information presented and creating newspaper stories about suggested topics (grades 5-6). A bibliography of resources related to skill development and social studies concludes the document. (DB)