1. What is Community? / Build background knowledge: students will understand that a community is a group of people who share something in common. Use anchor chart to illustrate community and revisit throughout the unit as the classes’ understanding grows.
Preview and Read Quinto’s Neighborhood.
Peer discuss story (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) who are the people in their community.
2 The Classroom Community / Preview and Read My Teacher for President
Group discussion comparing classrooms: What do we do in our classroom? What are the tools we have in our classroom? Are all classrooms the same (prior knowledge…readdress as students learn through books and pen pal activity)?
Create a writing piece to share their learning experience through Pen Pal Activity.
Visit other learning environments either physically or digitally (for example, images that show different learning environments such as an elementary classroom in Mexico, an auto shop classroom, a high school science classroom).
Group Discussion: Discuss similarities and differences in classrooms when pen pal responses are returned.
T-Chart the differences between classrooms (long ago vs. now; kinder classrooms in the same school; kinder classroom vs. 5th grade classroom; classrooms in different types of schools such as high school or college; classrooms in different states or other parts of the world). The difference can include the tools classrooms use, different types of rules, locations, style of learning, and so on.
3. My Family Community / Preview and Read Blackout and read Grandfather and I.
Peer discussion after both story (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) who is in their family and things they do with their family.
Revisit anchor chart from module 1: add more to the chart as the student’s understanding of community grows.
Group Discussion: Discuss similarities and differences when pen pal responses are returned.
4. Our Neighborhoods / Reread Quinto’s Neighborhood (changing purpose from first read, with a focus on locations/setting rather than characters).
Preview and Read I Read Signs.
Peer discussion after both stories (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) about what communities need.
Group Discussion: Discuss similarities and differences when pen pal responses are returned.
Model informational/ explanatory writing about a favorite place in their community to include details.
5. Helping Your Community / Preview and Read The Shoemaker and the Elves and Diary of a Worm.
Peer discussion after both stories (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) about how the characters help each other.
Group Discussion: Discuss similarities and differences on how people help each other when pen pal responses are returned.
Story Ray Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin. Each student will get about a 3 foot long strip of paper and be responsible for a day within Worm’s diary. Make sure that students use colors, images, and a few words and leave little white spaces. Then display the “rays” in a large mural (like a sun) to reflect the major details within the text and unfold the story.
6. Who is in My City? / Preview and Read Career Day and Sing a Song of People and reread My Teacher for President (changing purpose from first read to how the careers setting from module 2).
Peer discussion after all module text (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) about different careers in communities.
Group Discussion: Discuss similarities and differences when pen pal responses are returned.
Model informational/ explanatory writing about careers.
7. Author Study / Preview and Read Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type and Duck for President and reread Diary of a Worm
Explore other available books by Doreen Cronin.
Model the expansion of writing using preposition and prepositional phrases using the most frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., to, from, in, out, on, off, for, of, by, with).
8. The World Community / Reread Quinto’s Neighborhood (focus on the idea that this is a community in California).
Background knowledge: discuss a variety of locations around the world (e.g., a city in India). Explore Show me your neighborhood site.
Peer discussion after all module text (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) about places that they would like to visit in the world.
Group Discussion: Discuss pen pal responses when returned.
9. The Importance of Cooperation within a Community / Preview and Read The Ants and the Grasshopper and Crocodile’s Toothache, The, Shel Silverstein and reread Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type. Listen to and Sing All Work Together
Peer discussion after all module text (Knee-to-knee partner talks; stand up, hands up, pair up) how community members work together.
Prepare opposite verb pairs from the stories read: work/play or work/rest, went/stay, sat/stand, open/shut, pull/push, stay/went, and so on.
Revisit anchor chart from module 1: students will understand that a community is a group of people who share something in common (family, classroom, school, neighborhood, cities, countries, sports, etc.).
Seeing Communities through New Eyes
Pen Pal Interactive Writing: Students will use writing to share their own experience of community with others. They will explore the similarities and differences between communities from different locations. Although each student will create their own writing piece, the writing doesn’t have to be student to student, but classroom to classroom to eliminate problems that arise when students that move in or out of the classroom. Teachers can choose to connect with another educator through a self-selected online resource or engage the student’s family to participate (grandparents, cousins, friends who live outside the local community).
Module / Our Community Experiences(Prewriting group discussion to brainstorm ideas.) / (example sentences)
2 / Where do we play? What kind of games do we play? / We play ______. (on a slide, illustrated)
2 / How do we learn? What are some tools we use in the classroom? / We learn ______.
3 / How do we eat? Where is food prepared in our home? What tools do we use in the kitchen? How do I help with cooking? / In my kitchen, we______. (eat dinner, cook, illustrated)
3 / Where (or how) does your family spend time together? / My family ______together.
4 / Where is a special place to me? (bedroom, treehouse, backyard) / From my special place, I see ______.
4 / What places do people go to in your community? / My favorite place is ______.
5 / How do people in our community help each other? / I help ______by ______. (Mom, washing the table; Grandma, fold clothes; Earth, picking up trash)
6 / Who are the people in our city? What kind of jobs do people do? / I see a ______in my city. (cashier, firefighter)
8 / Where would you like to visit? (Build background concerning places around the world) / I would like to visit ______because ______.
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