Unit Plan: This is My Country

Lesson Plan for Friday Grade: Kindergarten Social Studies Strand: Civics

Submitted By: Elizabeth Prisbrey

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science Nevada State College Spring 2014 Instructor: Karen Powell

Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

B. Summary of the Lesson Plan: This social studies lesson is designed for kindergarten students to learn that they can make individual choices. The students will learn that making good choices will make them a good U.S. citizen. C. Basic Information: Grade Level: Kindergarten Time to Complete this Lesson: Approx. 50 min. Groupings: Whole group for reading and discussion, independent for assessment

D. Materials: Being a Good Citizen by Adrian Vigliano Cards of pictures of people making choices found on Teachers Pay Teachers Packets of pictures of people making choices for each student found on Teachers Pay Teachers Crayons E. Objectives: o NV State Social Studies Standards o F. Vocabulary Citizen a member of the country C13.K.3 - Recognize individual choices. C13.K.3 I know I can make choices. Student-Friendly Standards

G. Procedure: 1. Invite the students to the carpet. Introduce the lesson by telling the students about a few choices you had to make today. For example, pressing the snooze button on the alarm, going to work, combing your hair, brushing your teeth, what to wear, and what to eat. Ask the students if they had to make any choices this morning. Let the students share.

2. Ask the students what would have happened if you decided to stay home today. Discuss how your choice would affect the students.

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

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Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

3. Remind the students that they have been learning about their country. Ask the students to share a few things they have learned this week about their country (symbols, flag, pledge, and holiday). Ask the students how they feel about their country. Let the students know that the people in the country are what make it great. Read Being a Good Citizen by Adrian Vigliano. Define and discuss being a good citizen (recognizing that you have a choice that will affect other people, and you decide to make a good one).

4. Ask the students if they know what a citizen is.

5. Discuss some choices the students could make that would make them a good or bad citizen. Have a set of picture cards printed up of people making choices. Pull a card off of the stack and show it to the students. Have the class decide if a good choice or a bad choice is being made. Have the students decide if the pictures should be placed in the good citizen or the bad citizen basket.

6. After a few practice pictures, let the students know that they are going to choose where the rest of the pictures should be on their own. Show the packet of pictures you have printed up for each student. Model how to choose and circle the picture showing someone making a good choice/being a good citizen. Crayons and packets can be found at their tables.

7. Have the students return to their seats and complete their packet.

H. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding? The students will be given a packet of pictures with good and bad choices. The students will circle the pictures that show someone making a good choice. Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson. The students must recognize individual choices. By circling pictures of people making good choices, the students will show that they can identify and make good choices. I. Closure: I will close by allowing a few students to share what choices they make to be a good citizen.

J. Reflection:
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3

Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach? I think the easiest part to teach will be the choices I made that day. It will be natural to go through my morning routine, and all of the information will be pretty common for the students. I dont think they will have a hard time understanding choices like brushing my teeth and what to eat. They make those choices every day. I also think they will enjoy sharing the personal choices they made before school. 2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach? I think the most challenging part to teach will be how our choices affect other people. I dont think it will be too difficult, but if I had to choose something from the lesson, this is the abstract concept. I think this can be done by visually showing the students that if Johnny makes the choice to push Suzy, Suzy will be hurt. 3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson? I will extend the lesson by having the students discuss how being a good citizen applies to classrooms, the school, at home, and in the community. Together, we will create of list of good choices that should be made to be a good citizen of the classroom. 4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts? If a student is not grasping the concept, I will discuss with them simple things they understand. For example, who picked out their shoes? What foods do they like? What are they going to have for lunch? I will ask them if these are things that they wanted or if they are things someone else wanted. We will discuss how picking something they want or are going to do is the same as choosing something. Hopefully this connection will help them understand individual choices. 5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change? Im not sure which part of the lesson I would change on this. However, if I had to choose something, it might be to go through all of the picture cards with the students before they do the individual assessment. Actually, I also might want to call on students to come up and choose a card and tell the class what they think it is. This will give us an opportunity to coach if needed. 6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part? The most difficult part for me was taking the standard and applying it to the theme of the unit plan while still meeting the objective. The kindergarten standards for civics are very basic. However, I think a student learning about being a good citizen is an important part of learning about their country. I believe I was able to take a very general standard and apply it to the theme of the unit plan. It was definitely difficult though for me to tie it all in without it being specifically written in the standard and still feel like I created a lesson plan that allowed the students to meet the objective.
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4

Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

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Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

Recycling

Teamwork

Waiting your turn

Being a good sport

Helping the elderly

Obeying traffic signs

Arguing

Not playing fairly

Littering

Running across the street

Stealing

Yelling at others

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

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Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

Sweeping the floor

Taking out the trash

Washing dishes

Cleaning the yard

Washing the car

Keeping the house clean

Breaking toys

Refusing to make your bed

Throwing a fit

Throwing things
Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Yelling

Refusing to go to sleep
Karen Powell- Instructor page 7

Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

Walking carefully in the cafeteria

Working hard and staying focused

Raising your hand quietly

Standing quietly in line

Helping a friend

Staying in your seat on the bus

Leaving others out

Teasing others

Eating on the computer

Walking around with food

Nevada State College

Running in the classroom

Karen Powell- Instructor

Fighting
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EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Lesson Plan for Friday

Strand: Civics

submitted by: Elizabeth Prisbrey

Nevada State College

EDEL 453 - Spring 2014

Karen Powell- Instructor

page 9