Lesson: #1
Lesson Title:
Looking at a Community
Grade: 3rd
Duration: 45
minutes
Primary Discipline: Social Studies
Aim: What is
a community?
Objective:
The
learner will be able to…
·
Explain
what a community is.
·
Distinguish
how different people live and work.
NYS Standards:
·
SS
Standard 1: History of The
·
SS
Standard 3: Geography
·
SS
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and
Government
Integrated Standards:
Materials:
·
Flat
·
Flat
Stanley/Stacey’s community log
·
Flat
Stanley/Stacey Template
·
Smartboard
·
List
of community characteristics (generated as a class)
·
Vocabulary
Procedure:
The lesson will begin
with students sitting at their desks.
·
Motivation
o
To
get the students excited about the upcoming lesson, the teacher will generate a
class discussion on our school’s town of
o
The
discussion will ask students to think about where they live, what places and
things they have found, and who lives here.
·
Key Questions
o
What
do you know about living in
o
What
kinds of buildings are in
o
What
forms of transportation do we have in
o
Who
lives here?
o
What
is the land like? Is it flat and open
grass, hilly, or is it mostly buildings?
o
What
kinds of things do people do in most communities?
·
Lesson Instruction
o
After
the discussion, the teacher will introduce students to important vocabulary
terms.
o
Vocabulary: Community, Citizen, Culture
o
The
teacher will further discuss what a community is, and the occupations that
people in the community have.
o
During
this instruction the teacher will create a list on the Smartboard comprised of
the students’ answers, to help students visually learn and remind them of what
a community is.
o
After
the discussion, the teacher will ask the students to copy the list into their
Social Studies notebooks. While doing
so, students will have to add three more things to the list of community
characteristics.
Once the lesson has come
to an end, the teacher will ask students to come to the classroom reading area
and have a seat on the carpet. The
teacher will then read a story and introduce students to the unit’s ongoing
assignment.
·
Extended Lesson/Activity
o
The
teacher will first read the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown to the
students.
o
Following
the reading, the teacher will explain the Flat Stanley/Stacey Project.
o
Over
the course of this week’s unit and the following week’s unit on communities
from the past, students will have a flat Stanley or Stacey of their own to take
along with them within their community, as well as other communities that they
might visit.
o
This
project is a play on the Flat Stanley book where
Closure:
After about ten minutes of copying and adding to
the list in their notebooks, the teacher will review the characteristics that
students added to their lists. To do so
the teacher will ask students to raise their hands and share their lists. This will ensure that students understand
what a community is.
Homework:
Homework Assignment: students will be asked to…
·
Decorate
their flat person. They will have the
option of making either a boy or a girl (Stanley or Stacey).
·
Write
their first Flat Stanley/Stacey log entry about the community they live in.
Accommodations:
The students’ desks will have already been
arranged so that the students whom wear glasses will be seated closer to the
front of the room so that they could see the Smartboard more easily.
Assessment:
Students will be informally assessed throughout
the lesson based on the discussions about a community. They will also be assessed based on the long-tern
assignment of their Flat Stanley/Stacey logs at the end of the unit.