Urban Community Lesson Plan

Lesson #2

Urban Communities

Date

October 30, 2014

Subject/Grade
Level

Grade 1 Social Studies

Time
Duration

30 minutes

Unit

Belonging in My World Theme 1

Teacher

Roosmarijn Pastink

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General
Learning
Outcomes:
Specific
Learning
Outcomes:

1.1 My World: Home, School and Community:

students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how identity and self-esteem are
enhanced by their sense of belonging in their world and how active members in a community
contribute to the well-being, growth and vitality of their groups and communities.
1.1.5 distinguish geographic features in their own community from other communities by exploring
and reflecting upon the following questions for inquiry:
What are some differences between rural and urban communities

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Recognize what a urban community looks like
2. List words that are associated with an urban community

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:

Formative Assessments (LO 1,2) (LA 2)

Discussion (LO 1,2) (LA 1,2,3)
Question and Answer (LO 1,2)(LA 1,2,3)
Performance Tasks: (LO 1,2) (LA 2,3)

Key Questions:

Products/Performances:

What does an urban community look like? (LO 1) (LA1, 3)

What are words we can use to describe an urban community? (LO 1)(LA 2)
What types of things make a community urban? (LO 1,2) (LA 1,2,3)
Urban word chart (as a class) (LO 2) (LA 2)
Urban booklets (LO 1) (LA 3)

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Wow! City! By Robert Neubecker

Many Voices Grade 1 Teacher Resource - Pearson Education
Canada Inc.
Alberta Curriculum

1 Wow! City! Book

16 Popsicle sticks with names
1 T-chart poster
1 roll of tape
1 marker
16 urban booklet pages
16 urban cutouts pages
4 desk bins for glue and scissors
16 glue sticks
16 scissors
1 Urban book bin (Big City song, Next Stop, Home,
Chuck in the City, Night City, Next Stop, Alphabet City,
A Year in the City)
1 picture of a Medicine Hat

PROCEDURE
Attention Grabber

Introduction
(Sit on the carpet by the reading chair tell students to come to the
carpet area walking quietly and picking a spot on the carpet where
they feel they will not be distracted if the run to the carpet, send
them back to their tables to try walking again)
show the picture of Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat is the city you all live in! A city is an urban area, so you
live in an urban community!
Show students the printed word urban and say the word together as

Time

1:20
1 minute

Urban Community Lesson Plan

Assessment of Prior
Knowledge
Expectations for
Learning and Behavior

a class
Does anyone know what the word urban means?
Raise your hand if you live in the city of Medicine Hat?
We are going to sit criss cross apple sauce
Everyone do the duck check for space
We raise our hands to ask a question
We cant talk when someone else is talking

1 minutes

1 minute

Advance
Organizer/Agenda

Transition to Body

Learning Activity #1

Remind students that all our centers have rules and what will happen
if we do not follow the rules

We can get marbles taken out of our marble jars for bad behavior or
breaking the rules
We will be a reading a book to learn about urban communities (LO
1,2) (LA 1)
We are going to think of words that describe urban communities and
put them on a chart (LO 2) (LA 2)
Youre all going to create a little booklet about urban communities (LO
1) (LA 3)
We are going to read Wow! City! to learn about urban communities
(show book)
Body
Book Reading (LO 1)
Show the cover of the book to students

Remember that urban communities are cities.

Show students the picture of Medicine Hat beside the book cover for
comparison
Read the book Wow! City!
Page 1 cities have busy airports with lots of airplanes
Page 2 cities often have a lot of taxis that bring people from place to
place. Do you see how busy this road is? There is lots of traffic in cities
Page 3- Look at all the traffic and buildings. Do you guys know what
these tall buildings are called? They are called skyscrapers
Page 4- some cities have tunnels
Page 5 Cities have tons and tons of buildings. Do you see how some are
small, but most are very tall
Page 6 Cities are often very loud and have lots of sirens
Page 7 Busses are another way that people in the city can get from
place to place. Have any of you ridden in the city bus before?
Page 8 Lots of cities have museums
Page 9 Look at this fun park! We have seen a lot of traffic and buildings
in cities, but cities also have parks so people can play
Page 10 some cities have ships because they are close to water. Does
Medicine Hat have ships? No not all cities have ships
Page 11 - most cities have subways! They are like trains that take people
from place to place. They are often very busy!
Page 12 Cities have lots and lots of people!
SKIP PAGE 13
Page 14 When it is dark there are lots of lights in the city
Page 15 can you see all the lights from all the buildings?

30 s

30 s
Time

1:26
8 minutes

From the pictures we saw in the book can anybody tell me what an
urban community look like?(LO 1)
choose a few students to answer the question if they raise their hands
Yes, those are all great answers. Remember that an urban community is
a community like a city or large town.

Transition to next activity: stand up beside the Word Chart poster and say

Urban Community Lesson Plan

Assessments/ Differentiation:

Learning Activity #2

Remembering what we seen in the book we just read, what are some things
that make a community urban?
Discussion talking about what a rural community looks like and what
they have learned from the book (LO 1, 2)
Question and Answering: questions throughout the book to check for
understanding of the pictures and words in the book after each page
(LO 1,2)
Differentiation:
if a student does not like reading books in a group and cannot not focus in a
group setting they can go with the TA and read the book out in the hall
Word Chart and Discussion (LO 2)
Remembering what we seen in the book we just read, what are some
things that make a community urban?
Tell all the students to think of a word we can use to describe an
urban community? (LO2) when you know a word put your hands on
your head
Use popsicle sticks to get answers from different students (Get
Reagan to hold the popsicle stick jar as a special job)
Write responses on the urban poster as students give answers
If students cannot come up with answers try these prompts:
How did people get from place to place in these communities?
What kinds of noises did they talk about in the book?
Were their any schools?
Remember the pictures in the book, what did this urban community look
like? What did you see?
Was it loud or quiet?

Assessments/ Differentiation

Learning Activity #3

1:34
7 minutes

Transition to next activity: Tell students we are moving over to their

desks
We are going to walk to our desks bus drivers! We are only allowed to
make two sounds on our walk over to our desks and when we get to our
desks we are going to put our hands on our heads and sit quietly to show
me that youre ready (put hands on head as example)
Before we try this can any one tell me how many sounds we are allowed
to make?
Can anyone tell me what we are supposed to do when we get to our
desks?

Discussion What words are associated with an urban community?

This is to develop students understanding of words that describe rural
communities (LO 2)
Question and answer: checks for understanding of words associated
with urban communities (LO 2)
Formative Assessment by asking each student to think of something
and put their hands on their heads, you can tell if they understand and
if they do not have an answer you can re-explain some of the
information to them (LO 2)
Urban Booklet (LO 1)
Start when students all have their hands on their heads and our sitting
quietly
Have the booklet page and urban cutout page sitting ready on their
desks (Dont hand out scissors and glue until after you have explained
the directions but have them ready on the side)
When everyone is sitting quietly read out the sentences on the
worksheet so that students know what they say
In the first box (point to it) it says I see high buildings and buses so in

1:39
7 minutes

Urban Community Lesson Plan

Assessments/ Differentiation

the first box you are going to cut out buildings picture and the picture of
the bus and glue it in box number 1.
In the second box it says I hear sirens, honking and traffic so you cut
out the pictures of the siren and the cars and glue it in this box
In the third box it says I help with shopping at the mall- so you cut out
the picture of the boy shopping and you glue it in this box
In the fourth box, it says Where I am? Hands up does anyone have any
ideas as to what these pictures are of? What types of things make a
community urban? (LO 1)
Can anyone tell me if we are in a rural or urban community?
Yes, this is of an urban community.
When you get to this fourth box you can print urban on the line
Print urban on the board so students can see how you write/spell the
word
Who can tell me what we do with the pictures once we cut them out?
Who can tell me what we write on the line in the fourth box?
Who can tell me if we should put our names on our paper?
Any other questions?
If not hand out scissors and glue bins to every table and tell them
they can get started
Put your hands up when youre done and I will come and check
If students get done before others they can color the pictures
When they are done coloring they can put their papers on my desk

- Take these worksheets and the rural ones from last lesson and cut the
squares out to make mini-booklets about rural and urban communities.
Question & Answer: check for understanding if they know it is a rural
or urban community (LO 1)
Discussion as you walk around while students are doing this activity discuss with each student why these pictures they are gluing describes
an urban community (LO 1)
Performance Task: completion of booklet (LO 1)
Differentiation:
If students like to draw their own pictures they can draw their own
picture in box #4 instead of gluing the picture of the urban community
For students who have trouble printing a word if it is written on the
board spell it on a separate piece of paper and hand it to them

Sponge Activity

Assessment of Learning:

Feedback From Students:

Feedback To Students
Transition To Next
Lesson

Reading I have made a urban book bin - full of books about urban
communities

Closure
When everyone is done start to gather them at the reading carpet ( I will
go to the carpet area, and ask them to sit quietly at their desks and I will
ask students who are sitting quiet to come back to the carpet area one by
one).
Put both hands on your head if you know what the word urban means?
(LO 1,2) - ask a few students for their answers from the popsicle stick
jar
Put both hands on your head if you know what a urban community looks
like? ask a few students from the popsicle stick jar (LO 1)
Did the lesson help you understand what a rural community looks
like?
You all did a great job at making your booklets
Next class we are going to learn about the similarities and differences
between rural and urban communities

Time

2 minute

1 minute
30 s
30s
1:25

Urban Community Lesson Plan

Reflections from the
lesson

Picture of Medicine Hat Attention Grabber

Urban Booklet Page

Urban Community Lesson Plan

Urban Cutouts

Urban Community Lesson Plan