How Families differ in our school,
community, and world
(These
pictures were taken from http://www.teacherlink.usu.edu/)
Contents
Teacher background information
Lesson plans
Our unit theme is; how families differ in our school,
community, and world. We chose this
theme because it is applicable to the lives of children in kindergarten through
first grade. Children at this age are in
the egocentric stage. They are focused
on themselves and they make sense of their world by relating it to themselves
and things they are familiar with.
Families are very familiar to children.
Whatever a child’s background is, he or she comes from some sort of
family. In the
Our theme of how families differ in our school,
community, and world is meaningful to the children. A child can relate with the school,
community, and world through talking about families and how they are similar
and different from a child’s own family.
Our philosophy of socials studies helped us to choose
our theme. We believe that multiple
perspectives are important when dealing with social studies. That is why we are placing the family within
our school, community, and world to help students investigate the many types of
families. Social studies should also be
applicable to student’s lives, meaningful, and student centered. This unit is very applicable to students because
it deals with their everyday lives within families. It is centered around the individual
classroom and students within that classroom.
Teacher
background information
- Teachers will need to be familiar with their student’s families. Know your parents and who would be willing to come and share in the classroom. Also, know the different backgrounds and cultures within the classroom.
- Teachers will need to be familiar with knowing the parts of a map, so they can teach the students how to draw a map. Maps have keys, directions like north south east west, point of reference, and a scale.
- Teachers will need to be familiar with community events and accommodations.
- Teachers will need to be familiar with their community and the diversity within the community. How are the families in the community different and the same from the families in the classroom?
- Families in the world do not all live in brick and wood houses. There are grass huts, Chinese houses, adobe huts, teepees, igloos, and many more but these are all that we will talk about in this unit. For further reading on these homes and other cultures in the world go to these websites
http://Hewit.unco.edu/dohist/indians/family/submenu.htm
http://www.chinavista.com/experience/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/Eskimo_EskimoCulture.asp
http://www.bcsd.k12.ca.us/fremont/h5mayo.htm
Our overall question is “how do families differ in our school, community, and world?” This unit will address 3 NCSS standards and be our goals for the five week unit.
1) 1 A: explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
2) 3 G: describe how people create places that reflect ideas, personality, culture, and wants and needs as they design homes, playgrounds, classrooms, and the like.
3) 4 E: identify and describe ways family groups and community influence the individual’s daily life and personal choices.
These standards will be supported by our weekly objectives that come from the Utah State Core.
1) Students
will develop a sense of self. (
2) Students
will develop a sense of self in relation to families and community (
3) Students will come to understand that there are differences and similarities in families in our classroom, community, and world.
The organization of our unit reflects our overall question, goals, and objectives. We start with the child the first week and broaden out to an individual’s family, classroom family, community, and finally the families of the world. Through the unit, children will be learning about their self in relation with different types of families. The child will be collecting, researching, communicating, interacting, and presenting their knowledge. This Unit is integrative. One hour a day will be devoted to this unit, but there are many more activities that could be implemented throughout the day to make it more meaningful for students. Below are eight sample lesson plans.
Goals: NCSS Standards
1
A: explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies,
and cultures address similar human needs and concerns. 3
G: describe how people create places that reflect ideas, personality,
culture, and wants and needs as they design homes, playgrounds, classrooms,
and the like. 4
E: identify and describe ways family groups and community influence the
individual’s daily life and personal choices. |
|||||||
Weekly Theme |
Objectives |
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5 |
|
|
Me (week 1) |
Students
will develop a sense of self. ( |
Draw
self on butcher paper. Write on paper
what they like about self. |
Classmates
write or draw what they like about their classmates |
Start creating book about self. Role-play
feelings between friends. |
Work
on book about self. |
||
|
Family (week 2) |
Students
will develop a sense of self in relation to families and community ( |
Pictures
of families and discuss similarities and differences. |
Discussion
of family traditions |
Parents
come in talk about… -Traditions -Favorite
family foods -Culture etc.. |
|||
|
Classroom family (week 3) |
Students
will come to understand that there are differences and similarities in
families in our classroom, community, and world. |
Manners
and respect |
Rules
of the classroom |
Jobs
in the classroom |
Mapping
the classroom |
||
|
Families in the community (week 4) |
Students
will develop a sense of self in relation to families and community ( |
Community
workers come into the classroom |
Different
jobs in the community |
Dramatic
play with different occupations |
Write
letters to community workers |
Field
trip, mail letters at the post office |
|
|
Families in the world (week 5) |
Students
will come to understand that there are differences and similarities in
families in our classroom, community , and world |
Discussion
of similarities and differences of families in the world. |
Centers:
creating different homes that are found in the world |
Putting
together gallery walk |
Culminating
event of gallery walk and have parents as guests |
||
Classroom
Layout
Storage cupboards
door to bathroom
Entrance from hall
Entrance from outside
Art Area
Book shelves
Student’s reading
area
Cubbies Centers
Bulletin boards
Dramatic
Play
Science computers
Rug Area
Title of Lesson: ME
Teachers: Heather Hayes and Mica Hepworth
Date: week 1 day 1
Time allotted: 30 minutes
Grade Level: k-1
Number of Learners: 25
Unit Theme: How Families differ in the school, community, and world
Standard met: see below
Goal:
Students will be able to identify and describe ways family groups and community influence the individual’s daily life and personal choices. (NCSS 4E)
Objectives:
Students will develop a sense of self. (
Materials needed: long pieces of butcher paper, markers, crayons, and pencils.
Motivation: Tell the students about yourself as a teacher; what you like about yourself and some things you are good at. Tell them things you enjoy doing in your family. Show a picture of you that was drawn on butcher paper and how you wrote things you like about yourself inside of your body drawing.
Procedures:
1. Before the students even come, have butcher paper already cut out. Also make room around the classroom for all the students to be able to hang their pictures. You may need students to go out in the hall while working. This will take up a lot of ground space.
2. Have the class come to the rug and brainstorm things that students like about themselves on a piece of paper. They can write and/or draw pictures, depending on developmental level, of what they like about themselves. Discuss how their family has influenced what they like.
3. Talk about what things are appropriate to put on their paper. Examples:
I like myself because…
Things I like to do…
I like to do…in my family
My family likes to do …. And so do I
4. Write their answers on the board so they can refer to it when working on their pictures.
5. Send students back to their desk and have them come up with what ideas, on a small piece of paper, they want to put on their butcher paper.
6. As students finish, have them to go to the back of the room where they will be drawn. Then they can take their paper to a place in the room and start decorating and writing in the things they like about themselves.
7. Have a designated place for students to turn in their poster. Later on or during a break time, hang the posters for everyone to see.
Accommodations:
-larger media to draw with.
-more time
-have assistants from teacher or another adult to brainstorm ideas individually.
Closure: each student share one thing that they like about themselves that they drew or wrote on their paper.
Assessment/Evaluation: look at the pictures. Did they write things they like about them self? Do they understand the concept of self from what they wrote? Did they write how their family influenced some of the things they liked?
Extension:
Art: extend art lesson
Math: choose things they are interested in, from their paper, to make up math problems.
Writing: write more about self and hobbies
Title of Lesson: Families in our classroom
Teachers: Heather Hayes and Mica Hepworth
Date: week 2 day 1
Time allotted: 30 minutes
Grade Level: k-1
Number of Learners: 25
Unit Theme: How Families differ in the school, community, and world
Standard met: see below
Goals:
-The students will be able to identify and describe ways family groups and community influence the individual’s daily life and personal choices. (NCSS 4E)
-Students will be able to explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns. (NCSS 1A)
Objectives:
Students will develop a sense of self in relation to families and community
(
Materials needed: pictures of each student’s family, paper, pencils, white board to write down student’s thoughts
Motivation: have the teacher show a picture of his/her family. The children would love it if it was a picture when the teacher was the age of the students
Procedures:
1. The teacher will send home a note to parents asking them to have their children bring in a picture of their family without the student in the picture or to cover up the child so their classmates won’t know whose family they belong to.
2. As a class, look at the family pictures and discuss similarities and differences they see in the pictures.
3. Guess who belongs to which family
4. Many students will guess wrong. Ask the students why the guesses were wrong? What were you looking for?
5. It is good that we are all different. Help the children understand that yes, differences are good and we should not make fun of them but appreciate them. Families and individuals are different.
6. Have students discuss how their families are different and similar from others. Does that influence how children in the classroom are different and similar? Here are some questions to ask to stimulate good responses and conversation from children.
-How does your family get ready for the day?
-What are some things that you do as a family that are traditions?
-What are your routines for dinner time? (Does your whole family eat together or do you all eat at different time…?)
-Are there things that you do at home that you also do at school?
Then talk about how these things are different or similar from each other. As you are talking write these things down so that students can refer to the discussion during the next part of the lesson.
-Have students draw a picture and then write what it is that makes their family different from others and also how is their family similar to others in the classroom.
Accommodations:
-go to families home and take a Polaroid picture if family has no picture.
-allow for more time.
-scaffold the lesson so that those who can do it will be able to take off and start while those who need help can continue to stay with the teacher and he/she will help them.
-teacher writes sentence as student dictates it.
Closure: share pictures and tell what is unique about their family
Assessment/Evaluation: Listen to students and look at their paper to see if they have similarities and differences between families and individuals.
Extension:
Art: draw a favorite memory of family traditions using a different media
Math: make graphs using number of people in families