This paper presents the background procedure and outcomes of a study of two Year 1 classrooms, one in Seattle, Washington, and the other in Sydney, Australia, that engaged in the constructivist learning experiences of a social studies unit, "Families in Their Neighborhoods" (McGuire, 1997). The unit employed the "Storypath" planning and teaching strategy. Each classroom teacher implemented the unit to enable children to construct understandings about families, including their diversity of structures, heritages, and designations of roles and responsibilities. The experiences implemented and explored in this unit were: (1)developing understandings of the ways in which families live within and (2) citizenship responsibilities for constructing neighborhoods or communities. This paper presents analyses of student interview data, work samples, and classroom displays to describe the nature and level of understandings constructed by the students in each of the research sites. Some cross-cultural comparisons are drawn. Implications of using the Storypath strategy as both a powerful constructivist tool for enhancing students' understandings and citizenship responsibilities are made. Appended are observation notes and focus group interview questions. (Contains 5 tables, 3 figures, 8 notes, and 23 references.) (Author/BT)