A lesson plan for comparing communities

Subject(s): Other, Social Studies Grades(s): Grades 2-3

Jennifer McGinnis

Take A Closer Look at Your Neighborhood

Grade level: 3

Length:45 minutes for two days

Performance Expectations: The students will be able

to compare and contrast their community with another one.

Materials: Paper, colored pencils, crayons, books

for students to read about communities

Procedures:

Introduction: Discuss communities and give the students

a brief description of communities. Like school, home, the city

that they live in, the state that they live in, and other places

around the world. Talk with the students about two different

communities that they can compare and contrast. Read a book on

communities to the class.

Development: Explain to the students that they are

going to make a book comparing and contrasting two communities

that they have been to or know a lot about. Tell them that the

cover must have a title with both places on it, a picture, and

their name as the author. Tell them that the left side of each

page must correspond to the right side of each page. Let them

see an example of a book that you have prepared. Tell the students

that they can compare and contrast anything that they want to

and give them examples like weather, food, sports, and rules.

Closure: Discuss the comparisons of the communities

and ask for volunteers to discuss parts of their books. Have students

write at least four complete sentences about these communities

in their journals.

Assessment: Read and respond to the students’ books

on a separate piece of paper.

Look over the students journals to see if the students

wrote what was assigned to them.

Adaptations: Students could imagine what it feels

like to live in the other community.

Reference: McGinnis, J. (1997)