Social Studies Unit for EDU 383 Social Studies Methods

___Audrey Palmer____
Social Studies Unit Topic:
Family

Name

Grade Level:
First

Enduring Understanding
The value of studying families lies in understanding how everyone needs to work together
with those around them and support one another in order to find success and celebration in
all they do.

TABLE OF SPECIFICATIONS AND UNIT DESIGN

Essential Questions for the Unit (2-5)
1. What are the roles and responsibilities of families? {Civics}
2. How do families change over time? {Sociology and
Anthropology}
3. How do families meet their needs and wants? {Economics}
4. How are other families in other cultures similar or different?
{Geography and Anthropology}

Introductory Lesson
List Learning Targets for Lesson

Background Materials
Used:
See Resources Tab on
Website

Content Areas
Addressed

1) Students will recognize how we all come from different

families, but yet we all share similar physical, social, and
emotional needs.
{SS6.A.1. Explain how people have common physical,
social and emotional needs}
2) Students will learn to appreciate the diversity among their
friends and their families.

List 1-2
(6 areas of SS,
Reading, Math,
Science, etc)
Sociology (Social
Studies)
Language Arts
(Speaking and
listening)

3) Students will be able to recognize fun facts about their own

families, and must be willing to listen to what other families
are like.
Possible Lesson Activities/Integrated Learning
Students should be bringing a knapsack back to school, in which they have put little
things or pictures inside to represent their families.
The teacher will explain what is in his/her knapsack to give kids an idea of what they
need to say or add to their bags.
Give time for students to draw anything extra to cut out and add to their bag. (Some
students may not have much in their bag).
Have everyone in the class share a little bit about their family by showing us what is
in their knapsack. Teacher may need to give child prompts (i.e., The people in my
family are_______, Our favorite thing to do is______, We like _______, We live/have
lived________.)

 Read All Kinds of Families by Nora Simon

Day #2 Lesson List Learning Targets for Lesson

1) Students will be able to recognize the basic structure of a
family, specifically their own, by making a family tree.
2) Students will recognize that their family may not look like
everyone elses.
3) Students will be able to discuss how their family has
changed over time.

Content Areas
Addressed
List 1-2
(6 areas of SS,
Reading, Math,
Science, etc)
Anthropology
Reading

Possible Lesson Activities/Integrated Learning

Ask the students if they have ever thought of their family like a tree. Explain how
everybody who is born has a family tree, (their parents have parents, who have
parents etc.)
Read Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney
Students will create their own family tree using the template you hand them. *Point
out how their parents tree got bigger whenever they started having kids. Explain
how every generation makes the tree even bigger.
Bring students back to carpet and demonstrate how you would turn your family tree
into a timeline. Dont worry about adding dates, just sequence the life/birth of your
parents, you, brothers/sisters, and any kids you have.

 Give students a long strip of paper to create a timeline of their own family. Give
them crayons to color pictures of each family member- just make sure they label
each person.
Give students a time to share their family trees and timelines.

Day #3 Lesson Instructional Objectives for Lesson

1) Students will have discussions about authority and what
authority looks like in a family and classroom setting.
{SS1.A.1. Explain how laws and rules are made and
changed to promote the common good}
{SS2.C.K. Describe how groups need to make decisions
and how those decisions are made in families and
classrooms.}
2) Students will look at their role and responsibilities of
themselves and the authority of their families.
{SS1.B.1. List the rights and responsibilities of citizens.}

Content Areas
Addressed
List 1-2
(6 areas of SS,
Reading, Math,
Science, etc)
Civics, sociology
Reading

Possible Lesson Activities/Integrated Learning

Show the students a video clip from the Jimmy Neutron Movie where the parents are
kidnapped by aliens and the kids go crazy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=hA1BikUzBKc
Have students raise their hand if having no parents sounds like fun. What would
happen if we didnt have parents?
Bring students to carpet and talk about the important roles our parents have.
Make an anchor chart: Talk about how every family needs a leader, or leaders, who
take charge and have authority. What is authority? (Authority means to have the
right to use power. It is the right to tell others what to doYour parents tell you what
to do. It is their right as parents. The law also says they have the right to use power.
They have authority. Authority can help keep us safe, settle arguments, and keep
order. {From What is Authority found on
http://www.civiced.org/resources/curriculum/lesson-plans} Discuss the benefits and
costs of authority with your class.
Discuss how the authority of a home or organization usually has the most
responsibility. Ask the students if they know what their parents do for their home. Talk
about how they have a job, take care of them, love them, etc.
Ask the students if any of them have jobs/responsibilities in their home?
Read I Just Forgot! By Mercer Mayer
As a class, make a list of all the jobs/chores Little Critter has in the story, then add on
the jobs the students have at home.
Discuss how we are a family at school. We all have to take care of each other. Who is
the authority here at school?

 Allow students to choose a class job that they will have for the rest of the quarter

Day #4 Lesson Instructional Objectives for Lesson

Content Areas
Addressed
1) Students will be able to identify reasons why families
List 1-2
move.
(6 areas of SS,
Reading, Math,
2) Students will share and discuss about any moves they have Science, etc)
made.
Reading
3) Students will be able to recognize what the opportunity
Geography,
costs are in moving, but also the benefits.
Anthropology,
Economics

Possible Lesson Activities/Integrated Learning

Give each student an index card and tell them to draw a picture of their favorite
possession. Have them explain how it would make them feel if they had to give it up.
Read Yard Sale by Eve Bunting. Talk about how the main character had to give up her
most prized possession when they moved houses. After the book is over, come up
with multiple reasons families may have to move (on an anchor chart).
Give students a simple map of a town, with different landmarks labeled using
pictures and simple words. Give students different scenarios and have them pick out
the best place for different families to live. For each different scenario, tell them to

draw that familys house with a different colored crayon, (so you can assess later how
well they were listening and understood the concept of geography)

Day #5 Lesson Instructional Objectives for Lesson

1) Students will take on the role of either consumer or seller
to better grasp the needs of both parties.
{SS4.A.1. Describe the relationships among consumers,
consumption, producers and production}
2) Students will learn what an opportunity cost is and
experience its struggle.
{SS4.A.K. Identify examples of opportunity cost}

3) Students will work together in groups to solve problems

and work under a budget.
{SS2.A.1. Propose peaceful resolutions of disputes in the
classroom and on the playground}
Possible Lesson Activities/Integrated Learning

Content Areas
Addressed
List 1-2
(6 areas of SS,
Reading, Math,
Science, etc)
SS: Economics,
Sociology
Math

Review: Remember the book we read yesterday? And how we drew our favorite possessions? Today
we are going to do a mock yard sale! *Quickly review the value of money how much each piece is
worth*
Mock Yard Sale!! Divide the class into two sides. {Try to keep a fairly even amount of girls and boys
on each side.)
Give them one minute to come up with a family name for each side.
Explain that one side represents a family who is moving and is going to have a garage sale. They
will be given a bucket of items the teacher has collected for the garage sale. Their responsibility is
to price the items individually using index cards, markers, and tape. Give them a certain amount of
money (probably no more than about $10 first graders will just be learning how to count money)
which they are going to try and raise from this garage sale. Dont overprice the items because
then no one will buy anything!
Explain that the other side represents a family who is in need of certain items. Give this group fake
money and a budget (or certain amount of money which they can spend at this garage sale). Give
them a typical family scenario, i.e. Their family just moved to a new house and they get very cold
at night. What kinds of things may this family need? Explain they only have a certain amount of
money to spend, but they need to make sure that the family has all of its needs met before they
spend any money on their wants. Allow the kids to figure out how they want to divide the money up
or if they should all shop together.
Give each group about 10 minutes to prepare/set-up for the garage sale.
Announce that the garage sale is open for business! Give students about 10 minutes to explore the
yard sale and exchange their money for their new items!
Bring the yard sale to a close, asking the family who hosted the yard sale to bring up all the money
to the front of the room to be counted. Count all of the money together as a class. Ask the first
family if they met their goal from the yard sale? Did the second family meet all of their needs? Did
they have enough money to buy anything they wanted? If not, what did they have to give up?
Explain to the class what an opportunity cost is. The opportunity cost is what we have to give up in
order to have something else.
Ask the class: Did you find it hard to make decisions within your families? Were there any

disagreements? How did this change your view on the decisions your parents have to make
sometimes?
After the class discussion, have everyone go back to their seats and write a short paragraph (2-3
sentences) about something they either bought, or something they gave up at this garage sale.
Illustrate as well!

Day #6 Lesson Instructional Objectives for Lesson

1) Students will be able to identify similarities and differences
between an American family Thanksgiving and a
Vietnamese Thanksgiving.
2) Students will be able to write a letter to a character from
the story.
2) Students will understand that all families and cultures
celebrate holidays differently, but that our families are
what make it special.
Possible Lesson Activities/Integrated Learning
See Lesson Plan

Content Areas
Addressed
List 1-2
(6 areas of SS,
Reading, Math,
Science, etc)
Sociology,
Geography
Writing

Day 7 - Possible Assessments to assess

STUDENT performance (list ideas you
will elaborate on the Assessment Plan)
Paper-pencil test
Collection of Student family
trees/timelines/letter
Collection of writing notebooks

List some of the ways you addressed

the Cognitive, Affective, and
Psychomotor needs of students within
this unit plan
C= Students looked at the difference
between needs and wants; we discussed
what authority is and why it is good for us
A= Students were learning about each
others families and encouraging one

Personal reflection on what was most

challenging and most rewarding for
YOU during the planning of this unit
To me, the hardest part of this unit was
coming up with assessment strategies. Most
of this unit comes from general ideas of
how families are different, but how it is
important to all work together. It is hard to
come up with ways to assess those values
in a formal way. A lot of my assessment
takes the form of informal observations and
subjective thinking.
List some differentiated instruction
techniques you have used based on:
Content = Process = Product =
Or based on Student CharacteristicsReadiness = Interest Level = Learning
Styles
Give students extra time in class to
finish up knapsacks or borrow
materials from the teacher to ensure
everyone has the same opportunity to

another throughout the unit; we discussed

the value of diversity; students should feel
more loved and accepted in the classroom
by also obtaining a classroom job
P= Students were moving back and forth
between the carpet and their desk quite a
bit; the Yard Sale activity allowed them to
get up and move around the classroom quite
a bit

succeed
Teacher will use lots of visuals through
anchor charts and mentor texts for
those visual learners
The yard sale activity is a great chance
for your kinesthetic learners to be
actively involved.
Students will get to choose a class job
in which they will participate in the
rest of the quarter.
For the family tree, the timeline, and
the picture of their most prized
possession, students will all have
different things written down because
they all have different families and
experiences.
For the letter, the students are able to
tell Tuyet almost anything they want to
(within certain guidelines)
Throughout the unit, anytime students
need a sponge activity, they will have
a multitude of different leveled books
and interests to choose from.