Local Government Community Model Brianne Woop

I. Lesson plan overview and description:

1. Expected Duration: 1 hour
2. Social Sciences- Civics
3. Concepts- The concepts of this lesson is on what the local government does.
This includes making laws and providing services for the common good. One of these
laws is having citizens pay taxes, which will be the major focus of the lesson.
4. Vocabulary:
A. Tax- a fee citizens and others pay to the government
B. Laws- set of rules made by the government
C. Local Government: a group of people elected to run the town, county, or
district
D. Citizen- a person who lives in a particular place
E. Common Good- the benefits or interests of everyone
5. Skills- Understand information given from PowerPoint, and create their own
community model based on buildings that have to do with the local government.
6. Broad Goals of Lesson- For students to understand what the local government
does and a general idea of the reasons we pay taxes.
II. Content Outline
What Local Government Does
- Makes laws and provides services you use every day for the common
good
- How taxes work: community citizens and businesses pay taxes to the
local government
Paying For Services
- Government collects taxes to pay for services
- Tax: a fee citizens and others pay to the government
- Taxes can be placed on house, land businesses, things you buy, etc.
- Money from taxes pays for things in the community (schools, library,
safety, buses, etc.)
- Communities vote on decisions about taxes
III. Standards
1. PDE SAS Standards
5: Civics and Government .3 How Government Works 3rd grade C. Identify services
performed by the local government
3. NCSS Standards:
VI. F. Help learners to analyze and explain governmental mechanisms to meet the needs
and wants of citizens, regulate territory, manage conflict, and establish order and security
IV. Objectives:
- Students will create their own community models specifically including the services
their local taxes pay for in small groups

- Students will define what a local government does, and who pays taxes and what they
are used for by completing a worksheet (for homework)
V. Teaching Procedures:
1. Introduction/Anticipatory Set:
- Before the lesson begins I will hand out an outline with blanks that the students
can fill out while we go through the PowerPoint.
- I will start by having a discussion with the class on the local government, and
see what they know about it.
2. Lesson Input:
- After the class is finished discussing everything they know about local
government, I will start the PowerPoint hitting specific points on what the local
government does. These points will include making laws and providing services
for the common good, and then go into specifically one law citizens have to
follow which is paying taxes. I will then go into how taxes work. Taxes can be
placed on homes, land, businesses, or goods that we buy. So after we pay these
things the money goes to the local government so they can pay for services in the
community. Then I will go into what these services include: libraries,
firefighters, law enforcement, schools, and parks.
- After the PowerPoint is over students will work in small groups to create a
community model. First they will all list the different services the local
government provides that we discussed in class. Then they will use the art
materials to provide to draw and paint their own communities by putting all these
buildings these services take place in. They can also paint houses, roads, and cars
that would be in a community also.
- After everyone is finished each group will show the class their community
models.
3. Guided Practice: After the students are done with their community model they
will go through their outlines together to see if they all filled in the same answers.
4. Independent Practice: none for this lesson
5. Differentiation: For students that are lower I will have them make notecards of
the vocab words to help them better understand the words we are using in the
lesson. For higher students their homework assignment will be to think back to
what local taxes pay for in our community, and then write a bulleted list of what
they think the difference is between sales taxes and income taxes. For ELLs I will
have a vocabulary sheet for them that include pictures to go with each word. On
their homework assignment they will also have an extra sheet of the words they
have to fill in with pictures by each one to help them decide what goes in each
bubble.

6. Closure: Students will be provided an exit slip where they will write two
services that the government pays for by taxes.
VI. Teacher and Student Resources and Evaluation Resources
A. Student Reading Resources:
B. Teacher Resources for Lesson Design:
C. Evaluation
Resources Title or
Website Address
http://dictionary.ki
ds.net.au/word/city
_council

Influence:

3+ Characteristics

Accessibility

MI

Reliable,
informational,
appropriate for grade
level

Easily
accessed
through
website

Houghton Mifflin
Social Studies
Teachers Edition

SI

Reliable, creative
ideas, lots of
resources within

Easily
accessed by
buying the
book

Overall
Rating
Useful for
easy
definitions
for children
to
understand
Extremely
useful with
all of its
resources
and ideas
inside

VII. Formative/Summative Assessment

1. Each student will be assessed by the buildings they draw on their models
(based on if they have the specific ones we talked about taxes paying for).
2. Each student will be assessed by their exit slip.
3. Each student will be assessed on their homework assignment
Homework Assignment: Each student will complete a worksheet. Starts by asking what
the local government does: Makes laws and provides services you use every day for the
common good. Next they will fill in the flow chart which has two bubbles on the left
side asking who pays taxes to the local government (community citizens and businesses)
and these bubbles point to a building that says local government. Then from that building
it has to arrows pointing to a giant bubble. This bubble asks what services to taxes pay
for and then students will list all the services they remember.
VIII. Materials/ Technology: exit slips, outline for class, posters, paintbrushes, colored
pencils, paint, homework sheet, computer and projector for PowerPoint
IX. Reflection on Planning: I wanted to start this lesson off by having students discuss
whatever they might know before I instructed them. I think it is beneficial for students to
be able to talk about things they have already learned and teach us about what they know.
I then wanted to directly teach them the lesson through a PowerPoint so students
understand the steps in the tax process. Seeing this visually on the board can be helpful

for many students especially visual learners. Then I wanted to do something hands to get
the class interest up which is why I planned the art activity of creating the community
model, but still asking them to recall the information we just learned. I included an
outline with blanks so students would pay attention to what I was saying, and have this
sheet to help them remember what we have learned. I also included exit slips and the
homework assignment so I can see if individually students understood the lesson.