Unit Title: Individuals Create Community
Unit Overview
DAY #1: Timelines
Objective Students will be able to recognize
important dates and events they
have experienced and list them
chronologically on a timeline and
know their significance.
Standards NCSS: Time, Continuity, and
Change
IAS: 1.1.6 Develop a simple
timeline of important events in
the student’s life.
Materials Teacher photos with years,
scanned photos on a power point,
large construction paper with
straight line in the middle.
Management Time: 45-50 minutes
Space: Students will be at their
desks for two parts. Students will
move to the carpet in a circle for
another part.
Behavior: Student individual
behavior plans.
Anticipatory The students will begin at their
desks. The screen should be
Set
pulled down for the projector. The
teacher will have a power point
with around 5 photos of their
personal life, preferably starting
from a baby and ending with
being a teacher. They will briefly
describe the event in each photo.
They will also briefly describe the
significance of each event in their
photos. The photos should not be
in order.
Purpose It is important for us to know the
order in which events take place.
A timeline shows these events, in
order, over a period of time. You
will see many timelines over the
years for all sorts of people,
places, and things.
Lesson The teacher will list show
Presentation students examples of timelines
of places and things familiar to
them. Students will help teacher
put photos in chronological
order. The teacher will define
for students what a timeline is
and the criteria and how to
create one.
Closure or Every person, place, or thing has a
timeline, whether it be a town, a
Conclusion
war, or a person. We need to see
how one event led to another.
They can record events of a story
or in history. When you start
history classes someday, you will
see a lot of timelines because they
show the order of events and you
can see how one may have
affected another. Timelines record
events in history and in even our
own lives.
Formative Students will create their own
timeline of significant events
Assessment
from their own life in
chronological order, following
criteria.
Name: Julia Spivey
DAY #2: Citizenship
Students will be able to list qualities
and examples of a good citizen and
apply the concepts of citizenship to
their own lives.
IAS: 1.2.4—Define what a citizen*
is and describe the characteristics of
good citizenship.
Example: Fairness, honesty, doing
you personal best, respecting your
beliefs and differences of others,
responsibility to family and
respecting property
*citizen: someone with rights and
responsibilities in a particular
community, city, state, or country.
NCSS: Individual Development and
Identity
Anchor chart, slips of paper for
anticipatory set, papers for
assessment
Materials: anchor chart, slips of
paper for anticipatory set, papers for
assessment
Time: 45 minutes
Space: students will be at their desks
for the first portion, the carpet for
the second, and their desks for the
last two. They will sit in their normal
seats.
Behavior: card flip chart, two
students with sticker charts.
Students will play a game, similar
to charades, as the other students
will decide whether or not the one
student is displaying respectable
or responsible actions.
Because we are all citizens in
America, we need to know what that
means and our responsibilities to be
a good citizen.
The teacher will actively illustrate
an anchor chart while discussing
with students important qualities
of a good citizen. Students will
then assist the teacher in
completing a web chart on the
board, in which they will name
examples of good citizens in their
community.
We are all citizens in different parts
of the country and it is important
that we help one another and be the
best citizen that we can be by doing
our part.
Students will be given a piece of
paper with a drawing space, a title,
and lines underneath. They will
draw and write about what they
want to be when they grow up and
how that profession will contribute
positively to their community.
DAY #3: Bucket Filling
Students will answer questions about
the story and participate in the group
activity, contributing ideas and
thoughts from the story during
discussion and acting on what they
learned from the story.
IAS: 1.SL.2.3—
Listen to others, take turns speaking
about the topic, and add one’s own
ideas in small group discussions or
tasks.
Book, slips of paper for activity.
Students will have their individual
and class-wide behavior systems.
Students will be on the carpet in the
nook for this lesson.
Teacher will lead students in relaxing
activity with their eyes closed and
have them reflect on past
experiences to introduce the theme
of the book. The teacher will ask
them questions about times when
they said something or did
something that either made
someone else feel good or bad.
There will be music in the
background to keep students’
attention.
We have a choice about the way we
choose to make other people feel, so it
is important for us to think about the
way it may affect them.
The teacher will read Have You Filled
a Bucket Today? as the students
listen and interpret. The teacher will
ask students many questions as the
students respond and give input.
The teacher will guide students to
the correct conclusions, but allow
for differing views and opinions. The
teacher will make sure all students
get a chance to participate in
discussion.
When can we be bucket fillers?
All the time.
It is important to be filling people’s
buckets at all times, instead of only
when we feel like it.
Students will form a circle. They will
be instructed to turn to the person
next to them, one at a time, and put a
drop in their bucket, somehow
DAY #4: Refugees
Students will be able to draw conclusions
about emotions of characters in the
illustrations and text in the book and
relate it to their own lives.
IAS: 1.RL.4.1: Use illustrations and
details in a story to describe its
characters, setting, or events.
The Journey book, assessment sheets.
Behavior: I will use the marble reward
system for the whole class and the
card-flip system for each individual
student. I will use the star behavior
management system for two students
who have them.
Space: For the read aloud and
discussion, students will be on the
carpet in the nook. For the writing,
they will be at their desks.
The teacher will bring in a life-size
drawing of a person and introduce
this person to the students as a new
member of the class. I will then
discuss with students their feelings
when they were a new student or
how they felt when they were in a
new, unfamiliar place, and share my
feelings when I began at a new
school.
“I am going to read The Journey
by Francesca Sanna. Pay close
attention to the pictures and
events, because what happens to
the characters in this book are
similar to what our new classmate
has been through before she came
here to America.”
-Read aloud of book
-Grand conversation with students
about the book.
Refugees, such as the ones in the
book, experience a lot of
hardships and loss in their lives.
What can we do as fellow
Americans to help them feel safe?
Extension/Independent response
activities: Show a few different
pages in the book, one at a time.
Students, will be drawing
conclusions about what the
characters may be feeling or
experiencing in the story based on
the illustrations and text.
Unit Title: Individuals Create Community
Adaptations Dates and ages will be provided
on the board so that students may
use it for reference when
approximating the year of their
events. For students who have
trouble spelling, the teacher will
write words on the board for
them to copy and remind them
that spelling does not count. If
______________________ gets frustrated
and cannot think of any events in
their life they can put on the
timeline, the teacher will help
them brainstorm, or give him a
few events for him to put in order
on his timeline.
Summative
Assessment
(as needed)
Name: Julia Spivey
I will explain that good citizenship
looks different in every country and
place if I have a student that is not
from the United States. I will even
allow them to share what that might
look like, similarities and differences
between their country and our
country.
Because students are still mastering
spelling/writing skills, the teacher
may write names of jobs on the
board for students to reference to
when completing the assessment
activity.
Where the book says, “mom and
dad,” the teacher will instead say or
add in “parents” or “guardians” so
that no student with different family
dynamics feels left out.
Students will be given a sheet of
paper with a line of text from the
book. Students will have the
opportunity to illustrate their own
picture for the story to go along
with the text. The teacher will
walk around during work time and
ask students their rationale as to
why they chose a particular color,
action, facial expression, etc. To
go along with their journaling
assignments, students will also
write a sentence or two in the
space below about a time if/when
they felt a similar emotion.