Social Studies Alive! My School and Family Lesson Activities by Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI)

My School and Family Student Journal

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Lesson 1

How Do We Get Along in School?

Lesson 1 How Do We Get Along in School?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Sing a song about cooperative behaviors. Watch videos and then act out ways to get along with others at school. Listen to and discuss a story about two goats who discover the importance of getting along.

Directions: Getting Along 1. Read Sections 1–4. Learn about ways we can get along. 2. Sing “The Getting Along Song.” It will help us practice getting along. 3. Watch videos to identify getting along. Can you spot sharing, talking, listening, and taking turns? 4. Act out ways to share, talk, listen, and take turns. Work with your group to act out a skit for the class. 5. Complete the drawing. Show what the children could do to share or take turns. 6. Read Sections 5–6. Learn about playing fairly and being good sports.

Directions: Two Goats on a Bridge 1. Listen to the story “Two Goats on a Bridge.” 2. Discuss the story. What could the goats have done differently? 3. Complete the drawing. Use what you have learned to show how the goats could have solved their problem.

Lesson 1 How Do We Get Along in School?

Lesson 2

Why Is It Important to Learn from Each Other?

Lesson 2 Why Is It Important to Learn from Each Other?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Partner with a classmate to practice listening and speaking skills. Learn about why it is important to take turns talking and listening.

Directions: Talk It Out 1. Read Sections 1–4. Find out why it is important to learn from each other. 2. “Talk It Out” with your partner. Play a game where you take turns listening and talking with a partner. 3. Discuss what it was like to play the game. Was it hard to stay quiet and listen? Was it fun to talk? Did you learn anything new about your classmate? 4. Complete your Activity Notes. Share what you learned about your classmate, as well as what you shared with them!

Lesson 2 Why Is It Important to Learn from Each Other?

Lesson 3

Why Do Schools Have Rules?

Lesson 3 Why Do Schools Have Rules?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Analyze videos and images to discover how rules help us get along and be safe. Then complete a puzzle and discuss how rules help us be fair.

Directions: Looking for Rules 1. Read Section 1. Learn that rules tell us how to treat others. 2. Watch the videos. Then discuss how following rules helps us get along. 3. Read Section 2. Learn about rules that help us be safe at school. 4. Look at the photos. Then discuss where you see evidence of rules keeping us safe.

Directions: Rules for Fairness 1. Read Sections 3 and 4. Learn that rules help us be fair. Rules help us learn. 2. Complete the puzzle. Put the six parts together to make one photo. 3. Then discuss how rules help make the playground fair for everyone.

Lesson 3 Why Do Schools Have Rules?

Lesson 4

How Are We Good Helpers at School?

Lesson 4 How Are We Good Helpers at School?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Practice cooperation by working together to solve puzzles, and create a skit to practice leading by example.

Directions: Puzzling Photographs 1. Read the section that matches the slide title. 2. Look at the puzzle with your group of three. Where should the pieces go? 3. Solve the puzzle with your class. Share your group’s ideas. Did your group place the pieces correctly? 4. With your group, choose the best answer to the question. Talk about why the other options are not the best thing to do. 5. Share your group’s answer and why you chose it with the class. 6. Repeat for each section’s slides.

Directions: Follow-the-Leader Skits 1. Read Sections 4 and 5. Learn about being responsible and being a leader. 2. Sit with your group of four. You will receive a skit card. 3. Read your skit card and discuss: •

What is your skit about?

•

Who will be the leader?

•

What will the other group members do?

4. Prepare to present your skit. If you need help, ask your teacher.

Lesson 4 How Are We Good Helpers at School?

Lesson 5

What Groups Do We Belong To?

Lesson 5 What Groups Do We Belong To?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Identify and discuss different types of groups and what makes them special and unique. Unscramble photos at stations to reveal new vocabulary words.

Directions: My Groups 1. Look for groups in a picture. How many groups can you find? 2. Read Sections 1–3. Learn about school and family groups. 3. Work with your class to fill in the table in your Activity Notes.

Directions: Hidden Words 1. Read Sections 4–6. Learn about community groups. 2. Sit with your partner. Find your Activity Notes. 3. Look at the six stations around the room. Each station is a different color. 4. Go to a station and look carefully at the photographs. They all show different types of groups. 5. Match the color of the photo to the same color on the station chart. 6. When you place all photos correctly, you will reveal a word! What does the word say? 7. Record the word in your Activity Notes.

Lesson 5 What Groups Do We Belong To?

Lesson 6

Who Works at Your School?

Lesson 6 Who Works at Your School?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Watch four videos and make a claim about the type of jobs they show. Use visual clues as evidence to back up your claim.

Directions: Exploring Service Jobs at Your School 1. Read Sections 1–6. Learn all about the service jobs at your school. 2. Sit with your partner. You are going to read hints and watch four videos about service jobs at school. 3. Review the hints and look for clues in the video to figure out which service job is shown. Whisper your guess to your partner. 4. Be prepared to share your guess with the class. Make sure to share your reasoning.

Lesson 6 Who Works at Your School?

Lesson 7

What Do Families Need and Want?

Lesson 7 What Do Families Need and Want?

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Use your money to purchase five items in the marketplace that reflect key needs and wants. What will you purchase? How much will you spend?

Directions: Playing the Marketplace Game 1. Read Sections 1–10. Learn all about goods and services. Explore ways you and your family make choices to use those goods and services. 2. Sit with your partner. Get ready to play the Marketplace Game. Listen closely to all the directions. 3. Play Round 1 of the Marketplace Game. You will make five purchases! What will you choose? 4. Discuss how Round 1 went. Did you have any money left over? Do you wish you had done anything differently? 5. Play Round 2 of the Marketplace Game. Now is your chance to make different decisions and purchases. 6. Discuss how Round 2 was different from Round 1. Did you spend your money differently? Did you have any money left over after this round?

Lesson 7 What Do Families Need and Want?

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Lesson 8

How Do Family Members Care for Each Other?

Lesson 8 How Do Family Members Care for Each Other?

117

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Program Charlie Chorebot to do each chore. Put the chores in the correct order, step by step.

Directions: Programming a Robot to Do Grandma’s Chores 1. Read Sections 1–4 in your text. Learn how family members care for each other. 2. With your partner, visit each of the six stations around the room. 3. Discuss the chore in the photo. What chore does it show? 4. Place the steps in their proper order. Talk it out with your partner. Decide what comes first, second, and so on. 5. Complete your secret sentence in your Activity Notes. If you put the steps in the correct order, you will reveal a secret sentence! 6. Check your work. Show your work to your teacher and go to the next station.

Lesson 8 How Do Family Members Care for Each Other?

121

Lesson 9

What Do Good Neighbors Do?

Lesson 9 What Do Good Neighbors Do?

129

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Secretly move around a neighborhood with your binoculars, looking for good neighbors. Can you see how they are making their neighborhoods better?

Directions: I Spy a Good Neighbor 1. Read Sections 1–3. 2. Sit with your partner and hold your binoculars up to your face. Keep your eyes peeled! You will try to figure out what is happening in the picture. 3. As we move secretly around the neighborhood, whisper to your partner about what you see. Can you catch one of your friends in the neighborhood being a good neighbor and citizen? 4. Be prepared to share what you saw. Did you see any examples of being a good neighbor? 5. Complete your Activity Notes. Show how you can help take care of your neighborhood.

Lesson 9 What Do Good Neighbors Do?

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Lesson 10

What Is a Map?

Lesson 10 What Is a Map?

145

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Use a compass rose and map key to read a map of a small town in Kansas. Then use a compass rose to complete a jigsaw puzzle of another map.

Directions: Learning to Read a Map 1. Read Sections 1–6. Learn all about how to read a map. 2. Learn about different kinds of maps. 3. With your partner, look at the map of Lebanon, Kansas, in your Activity Notes. Get a chip ready to move around the map. 4. When your teacher asks a question, discuss it with your partner and move your chip to the correct place on your map.

Directions: Using a Compass Rose to Solve a Map Puzzle 1. With your partner, cut out the eight puzzle pieces in your Activity Notes. 2. Look at the map of Compass City. Notice there are parts of the map missing. 3. Carefully follow each direction to find out where each puzzle piece goes. 4. When you have completed your map, have your teacher check it. Then glue the pieces into place. You’ve solved the puzzle and created a complete map!

Lesson 10 What Is a Map?

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Lesson 11

How Are Families Special?

Lesson 11 How Are Families Special?

161

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Visit six families on a road trip across the United States to learn about how they are special. Then play charades to act out different activities they like to do.

Directions: Taking a Road Trip Across the USA 1. Sit with your partner and open your Activity Notes. Do you see the six images? 2. Visit any of the six stations around the room with your partner. Each has a photograph of a family. You will see postcards of where they live, what their home looks like, what they eat, and how they have fun. 3. Find the image in your Activity Notes that best matches each station and write the name of the family, their city, and their state under that image. 4. Show your work to your teacher. Go to another station and complete Steps 2 and 3 until you have visited all six stations. 5. Read Sections 1–4. Learn about the ways that families are different and special.

Directions: Playing Family Charades 1. Sit with your partner and receive an Activity Card. Keep the three family activities on the back a secret! 2. Choose an activity to act out from the Activity Card. Think about how to act out your activity. Share your ideas with your partner and create a charade together. • Words are not allowed in charades! • You can use sounds, actions, and things to act it out. 3. When it’s your turn, jump up and act out your image. 4. Call on classmates to guess the activity you acted out. Did they guess correctly?

Lesson 11 How Are Families Special?

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Lesson 12

Where Do Families Live?

Lesson 12 Where Do Families Live?

173

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Visit six communities around the United States to discover how geography affects the way people live.

Directions: Discovering How Geography Affects Our Lives 1. Read Sections 1–6. Learn about how geography affects the way people live. 2. Watch a video showing one of six communities around the United States. 3. Choose three activities families can do in that community. With a partner, discuss why you chose each activity. 4. In your Activity Notes, draw or write about each area and its weather, transportation, and activities. 5. Share your ideas with the whole class. If you can explain why activities happen in certain communities and not others, then you’re thinking like a geographer! You have discovered how geography affects how people live.

Lesson 12 Where Do Families Live?

177

Lesson 13

What Are Family Traditions?

Lesson 13 What Are Family Traditions?

187

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Watch videos of some unique family traditions around the world. Then discuss which ones you and your family might like to try.

Directions: Traditions Around the World 1. Watch a fun tradition with your partner. Discuss what you see. 2. Read Sections 1–4. You will learn about special family traditions. 3. Listen and learn about eight special family traditions from around the world. You will watch a video explaining each tradition. Decide which tradition is your favorite. 4. Visit the country with the tradition that interests you the most. Go to the station with that country’s Activity Card. 5. Discuss with the students who chose your same tradition. Answer the discussion questions from the slide and locate the country on the back of the Activity Card. 6. Complete your Activity Notes, then move to the next station. Visit each country.

Lesson 13 What Are Family Traditions?

191

Lesson 14

What Was School Like Long Ago?

Lesson 14 What Was School Like Long Ago?

205

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Analyze photographs to discover what school was like long ago. Then categorize primary sources from the past as examples of schoolhouses, classrooms, classwork, or children’s lives.

Directions: Discovering What School Was Like Long Ago 1. With your group, look at the pictures your teacher shows you of what school was like long ago. 2. For each image, discuss the objects or people you see. What do the objects or people show about school life in the past? 3. Read Sections 1–4. Try to find new details about each category. 4. After reading, present what you learned about school long ago.

Directions: Categorizing Images of School Long Ago 1. With your group, you will walk around the classroom to look at each of the eight Activity Cards. Start at one station, but try to visit them all! 2. For each picture, discuss: • What do you see? • How was school life different long ago? • Is this a picture of a schoolhouse, classroom, classwork, or children’s lives? 3. Complete your Activity Notes. 4. Present what you learned to the class. Your group will be assigned to one Activity Card. Be sure to say why you categorized the the picture the way you did.

Lesson 14 What Was School Like Long Ago?

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Lesson 15

How Do Families Change over Time?

Lesson 15 How Do Families Change over Time?

217

Hands-On Activity

Activity Online

Analyze objects from the past to discover what life might have been like for your family when they were kids. Solve timelines by reading stories, analyzing images, and using sequence words as clues.

Directions: How Time Has Changed Families 1. With your group, analyze pictures of toys, clothes, and chores from the past. Think about how things have changed since your parents and grandparents were kids. 2. For each image, discuss similarities and differences you see between life in the past and life today. 3. When you are done, read Sections 1–2. 4. Then complete your Activity Notes. You may want to take notes on a separate sheet of paper.

Directions: How Your Family Might Change 1. With your group, take some time to think about ways your family has changed. Raise your hand if you wish to share your story. 2. Read Sections 3–4. 3. Complete your Activity Notes. Follow the directions and ask your teacher for help if needed. 4. Check your answers as a class.

Lesson 15 How Do Families Change over Time?

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My School and Family Explore the content in these units: Unit 1: Civics Activity Online

Unit 2: Economics

Unit 3: Geography

Unit 4: History

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