Lesson 4- What is a Country?
Grade Level: 2nd Grade
Objectives:
-Students will recognize that countries are places where diverse people live and that countries are pieces of land within or belonging to one of the 7 continents
Essential Questions:
-What is a country?
-How does the country you live in influence the things you do?
I) Standards Addressed:
Virginia SOLs:
Geography 2.5- The student will develop map skills by
a) locating the equator, the seven continents, and the five oceans on maps and globes
Living Systems 2.5- The student will investigate and understand that living things are part of a system. Key concepts include
a) living organisms are interdependent with their living and nonliving surroundings
Writing 2.11- The student will write stories, letters, and simple explanations.
a) Generate ideas before writing.b) Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end
Reading 2.8- The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fiction and nonfiction.
a) Make predictions about content.
b) Read to confirm predictions.
c) Relate previous experiences to the topic.
d) Ask and answer questions about what is read.e) Locate information to answer questions
National Curiculum Standards for Social Studies:
- People, Places, and Environments
- Science, Technology, and Society
- Global Connections
II) Materials for Learning Activities
A) Student Materials (per student):
1. Bordered letter paper
2. Pencils
3. Crayons or colored pencils
B) Teacher Materials:
1. Notepad
2. 1 pen
3. The Unicef book Children Just Like Me (see first image below)
4. Pre-prepared chart paper with the continent poem from (http://www.mrsjonesroom.com/songs/continents.html)
5. Bordered letter paper
6. Marker
7. Whiteboard
8. Bag of pre-prepared index cards with continent and country names
III) Procedures for Learning Activities (45 minutes)
A) Introduction (10 minutes)
1. Call students to the carpet and tell them they will be learning about more places inside or belonging to continents, but first, they will need to review the names of the 7 continents to help them.
2. To review the 7 continents, introduce students to the following poem (pre-prepared on chart paper) from mrsjonesroom.com:
“To learn the seven continents
Think of the letter A.
And when you're down to only one
An E will save the day.
There's Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Asia, too.
The oceans run between them with their waters deep and blue.
There's also two Americas, North and South, you see.
Now, we're coming to the end.
Europe starts with E!”
3. Work together to come up with different gestures for every continent and then recite the poem using the gestures, twice.
B) Instructional Strategies (30 minutes)
1. Ask students to sit down on the carpet again. Tell them that just like our school is divided into classrooms, continents are divided into smaller places called countries.
2. Tell students that a country is a place with a special name, its own flag, and special names for its citizens or the people that live in it. Tell them countries have many more special characteristics that make them unique or different from other countries.
3. Ask students to raise their hands to share what our country is called. Ask them what our countries flag looks like and what we call the people that are citizens of our country. Confirm that we live in the country called the United States of America or the U.S.A. for short. Point to the classroom flag to show them what our country's flag looks like and tell them that people who are citizens of our country are called Americans.
4. Today, tell students that they will be learning about kids who live in different countries around the world!
5. Introduce the Unicef book Children Just Like Me. Discuss whether the book is a non-fiction or a fiction book, and then begin to read it aloud. (The book is dense, however, so for this lesson, read the selected pages only and encourage children to pick up the book and explore it on their own later.)
7. Read pages 16 to 17, about Omar who is 8 years old and lives in Mexico (see second image below). Discuss what his favorite foods are and why he likes to play on the beach. Ask the students, why is he able to play on the beach and why he might love snorkeling? What is Mexico, where he lives, surrounded by? Ask students, if Omar lived in the desert, do you think one of his favorite things to do would still be to go snorkeling? Why or why not?
8. Read page 33 about Yannis, from the Greek island of Crete. Discuss how he calls his parents “Mama” and “Baba.” Ask the students if they call their parents anything different? Discuss why Yannis’ family is able to grow lemon and mandarin trees in their courtyards. What are mandarin trees and what climates do you think they grow in if they grow on the island of Crete?
9. Read pages 38 to 39 about Aseye, who lives in an apartment with her mom, dad, and two sisters in the capital of Ghana, Accra. Discuss what it means to live in a capital. What is the capital of our country called and where is it? Discuss how Aseye wears a school uniform. Do students in this class have to wear a class uniform? How do they think their school might be similar and different to Aseye’s school in Accra?
10. Read pages 48 to 49 about Guo Shuang from Beijing in China. Discuss how she loves art and writes her name in Chinese letters. What language do the students in this class write their names in? Discuss how Guo Shuang can write more than 1,000 Chinese characters. How many letters are in our alphabet?
11. Read pages 76 to 77 about Rosita who is 8 years old and lives in West Australia. Discuss what the book means when it explains that Rosita is an Australian Aboriginal. How is she like the Native Americans in the United States?
12. After reading aloud the Children Just Like Me book, ask students to turn and talk to a partner to share how they are the same and how they are different from students like Omar, Yannis, Aseye, Guo Shuang, and Rosita. Call on a few students to share their thoughts.
13. Ask the students to raise their hands if they can remember which countries in which continents the students they read about were from. Call on students to review these countries and point to their locations using the book’s maps.
14. Ask the students to share why they did not read about a kid who lived in Antarctica.
15. Explain that you did not read about students from North America either, because the students in our classroom are from North America.
16. Tell students that as a different kind of reflection entry today, you want them to write a letter to either Omar, Yannis, Aseye, Guo Shuang, or Rosita to tell them how you live in your country, the United States of America. Remind students that they may make a list or a web to plan their letters in their reflective journals, if they would like to do so.
17. Explain that students should write their letters on bordered letter paper instead of in their reflection journals. For ideas, encourage students to write about their favorite things to do, what their schools look like, what their favorite seasons are, what holidays they celebrate, what foods they eat, where their country is located on the world map, and any other ideas about things they would like to share.
18. Ask students to go back to their seats to write their letters once you give them a piece of bordered paper.
19. Give students about ten minutes to begin writing their letters and tell them that it is okay if they do not finish today. They may continue writing their letters next time.
C) Summary (5 minutes)
1. Ask students to put their letters away in their writing folders for next time, even if they are not finished.
2. Ask students to have a seat on the rug again. Once everyone is seated and ready, take out a bag of index cards with country and continent names and make sure that everyone gets one card.
3. Tell the students to read the word on their card and then ask student to stand to one side of the carpet if their card has the name of a continent and to stand on the opposite side if they think their card has the name of a country inside or belonging to a continent.
4. After students have sorted themselves, ask each student to read aloud the word on his/her card to check for accuracy. Repeat this continent and country sort activity one or two more times, depending on time.
5. For homework, tell students to pick a country and bring 3 fun facts to share about it during the next social studies lesson. Tell students to take home their interactive social studies notebooks to write down their facts. Also, remind students that it is okay for students to create a list, reflect, draw, or write about anything they have learned about in their social studies notebooks. Remind them that it is also okay for them to write down any questions or comments that they wish to ask or share.
6. Encourage students to keep thinking about their world, the different countries in the world, and how people around the world live in ways that are different and the same.
7. Clean-up.
IV) Assessment
A) Teacher will listen to students’ responses to check for comprehension during the read aloud
B) Teacher will observe and take anecdotal notes of students’ decisions during the country and continent sort activity
V) Differentiation
A) Lesson includes opportunities for scaffolded expression through oral discussions, hands-on experiences, and writing
B) Teacher may distribute country and continent sort cards based on students’ comprehensions and based on students’ concept revision needs
C) Teacher may work directly with a group of students who need additional guidance or assistance writing their letters
VI) Technology Integration
No technology is necessary for this lesson.