A guide for creating lesson activities

(From Koch, J (2010). Science Stories: Science Methods for Elementary and Middle School Teachers.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, p. 321)

While making your lesson plans, answer fully each of the questions listed
below (point form or through discussion in your group your subsequent
lesson plan should demonstrate that these elements have been
considered):
Goals:
experience?

What am I hoping the students will get out of this

Main Ideas:
What are the ideas at the heart of this experience? What
concepts am I
hoping the students will understand as
a result of this lesson? (How does it
connect to the big
question?)
Procedures:
Engage

How will I spark students interest in the topic?

Explore
exploring on behalf of

Activity: What will the students be examining and

their own learning?

Explain

What kind of meaning will students understand from this

experience? How can I help students by scaffolding their ideas?

Elaborate

How will the activity connect to what we have been doing in

class? (or in this topic/overarching question? To the students
lives?) How will I help students organize their thinking and pull
this lesson together?

Evaluate

How will I know what the students have learned?

On the next plate is one possible template that you can use to plan your activity.
This is only one suggestion you need to use something that
makes sense for you.

Grade: ONE

Activity: My Communities
Booklet

Goals/Key questions

(remove the italics with the required

information)
Goals: Why are communities important to you and how are communities different
for different people?

This lesson will meet the overall goal by:

Providing students an opportunity to explore what community means to them
and how they fit within their own communities.
Completing the booklet, they will be able to see how they fit within a variety
of communities and how they are all interconnected
Viewing others communities and comparing they will understand that
community means something different to everyone.
Students will begin to understand the connection between themselves and
society though examining their various communities

Objective (connected to PofS): Students will have a deeper understanding of

what a community is and what different types of communities
can look like. It will show them how they are involved in more
than one community and how some of the communities they
belong to are the same as others. This can lead to questions to
students thinking about what their role is in each of their
communities.

Outcome 1.1.3- Examine how they belong and are connected to their
world by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions for
inquiry:
What helps us to recognize different groups or communities (e.g., landmarks,
symbols, colours, logos, clothing)?
In what ways do we belong to more than one group or community at the
same time?
In what ways do we benefit from belonging to groups and communities?
What are out responsibilities and rights at home, at school, in groups, and in
communities?

Pre lesson Considerations

Lesson overview of main ideas to be learned and prelearning required:
Students will have an idea of what a community is from the last lesson

Materials needed/preset up required/logistical considerations needed

(seating arrangement):
Pre-made craft (construction paper and stapler)
Markers/pencil crayons/crayons/writing utensil for students use to complete activity
White board/large paper for brainstorming different communities as a class

Content:

Introduction
(Pos)
(how will you
engage students?
Connections to
previous
learning?)

Time estimation:
3 min

Introduction
(how will you
engage students?
Connections to
previous
learning?)

Time estimation:
2 min

What is the teacher

doing?
Include Key questions,
logistics, key concepts that
will be addressed,
methods of formative
assessment
Hand out PoS
overview sheet to
each student
Go through each of
the points on the
sheet, elaborating
where necessary
Ask if there are any
questions of
anything that stood
out to anyone.
Ask students what
they can remember
about what a
community is?
Redefines (from last
class what a
community is) Ex. A
group of people
living in the same
place or having a
particular
characteristic in
common

What are the students doing?

Following along on their copy

of the overview sheet
Listening
Asking questions if they need
Thinking about things that
may stick out to them

Recalling what they already

learned about communities
Thinking about what
community means to them

Ask students to be
thinking about what
community means
to them

Transition
consideratio
ns

Activity 1
(add more if
needed)

Time est: 4
min

Transition
consideratio
ns

Ask the class to

volunteer examples
of communities
based on the given
definition (raise
hands)
Examples may
include Family, city,
school, province etc.
Brainstorming is
recorded on large
paper
Organize these
communities from
smallest to largest.
Handing out pre-made
crafts and writing utensils

Activity 2

Time Est: 9
min

Show exemplar of
activity and explain
how it is organized.
Starting with
themselves, and
growing into larger
communities.
Provide students
with the materials to

Suggesting examples of
communities
Participating in brainstorming
Listening to ideas

Passing around exemplar to

get ideas fro their own craft
Students begin considering
what their communities may
look like
Students use materials to fill
out appropriate sections with
who is included in their
communities

Conclusion
-

How will you

know if
students
learned what
you hoped?
Connections
to next
lesson

Est time: 2
min

make their My
Communities
Booklet
Encourage students
to consider their
roles in each
community they
belong
Have them draw
themselves enacting
their role in each
community
Have students
present their My
Communities
Booklet to the rest
of the class and tell
who they put in
which community
and why
Concluding remarks
on communities and
their
diversity/importance

Students identify what their

responsibilities are in each
community
Students can use words or
drawing to depict their
communities

Students are verbally

explaining the different
communities they belong to
and the importance of
belonging to these
communities
Students are listening to the
different communities that
their classmates are in, and
thinking about how some of
these communities could be
overlapping with their own.

Assessment: Formative

Brainstorming
Observing the activity
Listening to students talk about their communities
Checking students end products to see if they understood the activity

Accommodations/Modifications: Not enough time:

Only allow a few students to show and tell

Ask the students to finish up their booklets at home. Provides a good
opportunity for them to discuss different communities at home with their
partners and includes the parents in the students work/classroom by helping
finish the project. The students can bring back next class and show.

Extension and extra time activity: Deeper discussion

Why did you place certain things/people in which section of your community?

What roles and responsibilities do you have in each of these communities?

Do your communities overlap?
Do you belong to the same communities as some of your classmates?

Reflection on how the lesson went.