Your Name(s) Erin Mauldin and Kerry Lance

Date: December 14, 2010

Organizing Concept: Foundations

Yearlong Theme Title: Build a Better Me

Component: 4th Quarter, Build a Better Future

Being There Locations: local neighborhood with new construction (to view an incomplete house and a model home),Habitat for Humanity build site, Home Depot

Guest Speakers: Habitat for Humanity Representatives, job site contractors (electrician, plumber, landscape architect, etc.)

Social Action Project: To create a house warming gift for recipient of local Habitat for Humanity home

Concept: Foundations

Conceptual Key Point: Foundations are the bases on which things stand. Foundations act as the support for further development of structures, communities and learning. Having a foundation provides support for the understanding and knowledge that effects and shapes us and our future.

Guided Inquiries:

  1. Choral read the CKP with your class and highlight the important words. Create pictures above the words that help to illustrate the meaning of the term. Then work with your learning club to create gestures that demonstrate the meaning of the word. Come together as a class to decide which gestures to use and agree upon a body map that the class will use to remember the CKP. (VL, BK, VS)
  1. You will either receive cards showing a foundation (such as learning the ABC’s) or cards showing how you build upon that foundation (such as learning to read). After you have received your card, “Mill to Music” around the room without talking and find your match. When you have found your match, take a seat on the floor and get ready to share your findings with the class. Think, Pair, Share: How did this activity help you to understand the concept of foundation? Be ready to share your answer. (BK, M)
  1. Your learning club will get one ingredient for a recipe. As a group, come up with a list of ideas (using words or pictures) of what foods (or other things) for which your ingredient can serve as the foundation. Share and add your ideas with those of the other Learning Clubs. Come up with an idea for how to use all the ingredients as the foundation for a single recipe. (VL, VS)
  2. (Oven required) When directed add the correct amount of your ingredient into the large bowl. Use the LIFESKILL of cooperation to scoop out small amounts onto a baking sheet. Bake and enjoy!
  3. With a partner brainstorm other ingredients that could be the foundation for some of your favorite things to eat. Decide upon one and write a proceduralal piece where you list the ingredients and sequence the steps to your recipe. Be ready to read it to the class and hear how many others would enjoy eating your dish.

Inquiries:

  1. Take part in a classmate scavenger hunt. For each time you find someone who matches the given characteristic, collect a Lego. When the time is up, return with the Legos you collected to your learning club. Use all of the Legos along with the LIFESKILLS of cooperation and problem solving to work with your LC to create a structure that has a foundation solid enough that it can stand on its own. (BK, LM)
  1. After your Learning Club has built a structure, work with the class to create a community structure that includes all Legos. Discuss with your Learning Club why foundations are important to structures. Listen to this statement and write what you think it means in your journal. The foundation of a community is the individual.
  1. Your learning club will be given a collection of common root words written on Legos. Use prefixes and suffixes to build other words using your root word as a foundation. Write them with dry erase markers on your Legos and stack them on top of your root words. How big can you make your tower? (VL)

a. Measure your word towers using an appropriate tool (ruler, yard stick, etc.). Create a chart that puts the heights of your towers in order from smallest to largest. (LM, BK)

  1. Soak a large seed in water and then carefully pull it apart. Using a magnifying glass, can you find the foundation for the plant’s roots? Its leaves? Create an illustration that shows your findings on half of a sheet of paper. On the other half, illustrate how you think the seed/plant will look after being planted. (N, VS)
  2. Plant your seed and watch it grow. Create a chart and measure the plant’s growth every week. Also, take a digital picture of your plant. Create a PowerPoint presentation combining your measurement data with the digital images to present to your class. In your presentation show and explain how the seed is the foundation of your plant. (VS, LM)

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Topic: Social Studies, Productive Resources and Economics

Significant Knowledge Key Point #1: A resource is something useful that serves as a foundation for people to use in creating, constructing and producing. Resources found in nature are called natural resources and human resources are the skills people bring to their job. Capital resources are things used that help workers make goods or provide services. Some people become entrepreneurs by using their human resources to start their own business. Using resources in a positive way is good for the environment and for humans.

Standards Addressed:

SS3E1 The student will describe the four types of productive resources:

a. Natural (land)

b. Human (labor)

c. Capital (capital goods)

d. Entrepreneurship (used to create goods and services)

Guided Inquiries:

  1. Choral read the SKKP with your class and highlight the important words. Create pictures above the words that help to illustrate the meaning of the term. Then work with your learning club to create gestures that demonstrate the meaning of the word. Come together as a class to decide which gestures to use and agree upon a body map that the class will use to remember the SKKP. (VL, BK, VS)
  1. Watch clips from the Discovery Channel show, How It’s Made. When your teacher pauses the video, you will hold up and display the appropriate resource cards (natural, human, capital and entrepreneurship) to show which type of resource is being shown in the clip. Discuss with your learning club the ways that resources are the foundation for the production of goods. (VS)
  1. What does it take to build a house? As a learning club, brainstorm and chart the supplies (natural and capital resources) and the people (human resources) needed to complete construction of a house. Then listen and look carefully as How a House is Built (by Gail Gibbons) is read aloud. Keep a list of any resources you missed, and add it to your chart. Then cut out each item and sort them into 3 categories: natural, human and capital resources. (VS, LM)
  1. Work in a “Snakes and Donuts Factory” to create goods with Play-doh . The Play-doh is your natural resource and your team will be the human resources that will serve as the foundation for producing your goods, snakes and donuts. Your “snakes” must be the exact length of an unsharpened pencil. Your “donuts” can be made by joining the two ends of a “snake” together. Once you have practiced your skills, you will produce snakes and donuts for a profit and compete with your classmates’ factories. Discuss with your group the pros and cons of the strategies you chose toproduce your product. (VS, BK)Adapted from , see resources for further details.

Inquiries:

  1. Use the supplies in the immersion area to create a bulletin board showing all of the resources that serve as the foundation for building a house. Add requested information and label with specifics about the natural, human and capital resources, as well as entrepreneurship, which will be needed to create a habitable house for a family. (VS, VL, BK)
  1. Create a 4 section chart (or graphic organizer on Kidspiration) with natural, human, capital and entrepreneurship as the categories. Use a “How it’s made” book (baseball bat, cherry pie, pogo stick, etc.) to complete the chart about your good/product. Do not include the name of your product. When you present the information, see if your classmates can guess what your resources combine to make! (VS, LM, VL)
  2. Design a comic strip that shows the steps that go into the production of your good. Leave out the last frame- let your reader guess how it ends!
  1. Choose one of the resource songs from the list. Alone or with a partner, create gestures that you will perform while singing or rapping your song. (M)
  2. Compose your own song or rap about the 4 productive resources.

Skill Key Point #1:We use strategies to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words based on how they are used in context (i.e. in a book or conversation).In order to communicate what we mean to say effectively, we must increase our vocabulary, the foundation of oral and written language.

Standards Addressed:

ELA2R3 The student acquires and uses grade-level words to communicate effectively. The student

a. Reads a variety of texts and uses new words in oral and written language.

d. Determines the meaning of unknown words on the basis of context.

ELA3R2 The student acquires and uses grade-level words to communicate effectively. The student

a. Reads literary and informational texts and incorporates new words into oral and written language.

f. Determines the meaning of unknown words on the basis of context.

Guided Inquiries:

  1. You are an artist who will represent a new vocabulary word (from2nd/3rd grade Science/SS: mountains, marsh, swamp, coast, Piedmont, Atlantic Ocean) using only pictures. You may draw on a dry erase surface or SmartBoard.The challenge is to get your partner to guess which word your drawing represents without using words, written or spoken. (VS, BK, VL)
  1. Write 3 vocabulary words from our current unit of studyon note-cards. Split into 3-4 teams using the Mix-Freeze-Group strategy. Lay the cards/vocabulary words out on the floor. One person from each team kneels behind the fly swatter. A definition or clue to the meaning of one of the words will be shared.The first person to smack the correct word with their fly swatter takes the word back to their team. (VL, BK)
  1. Use “Word Swords” to match vocabulary words with their definitions. Sit at a table with vocabulary cards face down and choose one when prompted. Use your sword to strike the matching definition on the wall and pass your sword to a partner who will work with you to make the most matches of any other group! (VL, VS, BK)

Inquiries:

  1. Work with your learning club to complete a Frayer Model using a new vocabulary term from SS or Science. Write the term in the middle of the organizer. Then in the four corners, write a definition (using dictionary), characteristics, examples and non-examples.Be prepared to take on the role of teachers as you will instruct the rest of the class using your model. (VS, VL)
  2. Predict the meaning of 5 different vocabulary words before your classmates present their lessons. After you have learned about each word, think about how your prediction compares to the actual meaning and write a new definition in your own words.
  1. Rewrite your list of vocabulary words using items found in nature. Bring your list to the great outdoors and use sticks, rocks, etc. to write each word. Use a digital camera to collect images that you can compile into a vocabulary slideshow using MS Photo Story. (N, VL, VS)

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Significant Knowledge Key Point #2: Producers and consumers provide the foundation for our nation’s economy. Producers are people who make goods, things that people buy and sell, or do work for other people called services. Consumers are the people who buy the goods and services that the producers provide. A healthy economy depends upon consumers that buy goods and servicesthat are provided by producers.

Standards Addressed:

SS3E3 The student will give examples of interdependence and trade and will explain how voluntary exchange benefits both parties.
a. Describe the interdependence of consumers and producers of goods and services

Guided Inquiries:

  1. Choral read a rhyme called Simple Simon and the Pie Man. When finished, answer the following questions:
  1. Who is the producer in the rhyme? [The pie-man]
  2. What is the pie-man selling? [Pies, cakes, muffins, etc.]
  3. Who is the consumer in the rhyme? [Simon]
  4. What did Simon want to do? [Buy a pie.]
  5. How much would Simon have to pay for the pie? [A penny]
  6. Do you think Simon bought the pie? [No, he didn't have a penny.]
  7. What other goods and services do consumers buy from producers? [Toys, clothing, automobiles, houses, music, etc.]
  8. Name some producers and tell what they provide for consumers. [School librarians help teachers and students find books, cooks prepare meals for diners, nurses take care of sick people, etc.]
  9. Complete a producer/consumer sort on Smart Board. (VL, BK)
  10. Decide whether this statement is true or false: Producers and Consumers cannot exist without each other. Write a persuasive paragraph (with at least 3 examples) to defend your point of view.
  1. View “A Farmer’s Many Hats” webpage that shows the different roles a farmer (a producer) plays.Find an adjective that describes what a farmer might do while wearing each hat. Then write a short sentence using the word in the sentence. (VL)

Inquiries:

  1. Create a 3 column poster (or chart on MS Word) with your learning club. Label the columns, Producers, Goods & Services, and Consumers. Sort the set of cards under the correct category (Hint: you may need to duplicate some). Be sure to think of all the people or consumers who benefit or use the goods or services. Add pictures to your chart once you have completed sorting. (VS, LM)
  1. Demonstrate your knowledge about producers, consumers, and the interdependence between the two. Using create a simple 3-4 panel cartoon, illustrating the concepts of consumer, producer, and how a producers serve as a foundation for consumers and vice versa. (VS, VL)For example, Fancy Factory makes designer purses (goods). The person who buys the purse is a consumer. If no one buys the purses, Fancy Factory will not make a profit.If Fancy Factory doesn’t make designer purses, the consumer will not be able to buy that type of fancy purse.
  1. Compare prices from different sales ads and generate a shopping list. Cut out pictures of different goods/services and paste on a piece of construction paper. Write the cost of each item next to the name of the item. Find the total cost if you buy one of each item, and decide how many of each item you can buy without going over your dollar amount. (LM)

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Significant Knowledge Key Point #3: To allocate goods and services is to decide by whom those resources will be used. Because of scarcity, or a limited supply of resources, people and nations must make careful choices about how they earn, spend and save money.At the foundation of every economic choice is the weighing of costs and benefits.

Standards Addressed:

SS2E1 The student will explain that because of scarcity, people must make choices and incur opportunity costs.

SS2E2 The student will identify ways in which goods and services are allocated (by price; majority rule; contests; force; sharing; lottery; command; first-come, first-served; personal characteristics; and others).

SS2E4 The student will describe the costs and benefits of personal spending and saving choices.

Guided Inquiries:

  1. Watch the power point about our exciting upcoming skydiving trip. In your learning club discuss if you think you would like to participate in this wild and crazy adventure with your teachers. Wait! There’s a catch! Not everyone can go. Only three students can take part in this incredible activity. Discuss in your learning club how your teachers should decide who will participate. Who should they take? Create a chart/poster describing how your teachers should allocate the trip. Be prepared to share your thoughts with the class. (VS)
  1. Think-Pair-Share about a time when you traded something you owned for something you wanted from a friend. If you have ever traded goods or services, you have bartered. Read The Scarecrow’s Hat by Ken Brown. After reading this story, list all the different goods that were traded in order to get the scarecrow’s hat. In your learning club, list two pros and cons of bartering based on the story. (VL)
  1. Participate in a class “Snack Stand” where everyone will bring in snacks to share. But, you won’t have enough treats to give everyone, so you will need to decide who will get one of your tasty treats. Think about the ways in which you can allocate your goods to your classmates(price; majority rule; contests; force; sharing; lottery; command; first-come, first-served; personal characteristics; and others). At your turn, explain to your classmates how your goods will be allocated, and proceed with allocating your goods based on your method of choice. (BK, VL)

Inquiries: