Social Studies Unit Lesson

Elementary Education
Name: Audrey Moore
Title: If I were a Pilgrim
Grade: Pre-K/ Kindergarten
Concept/Topic: Social Studies- Needs and Wants, and The first Thanksgiving (Historical Perspective)
Time needed: 30-45 minutes

Backward Design Approach: Where are you going with your students?
Essential Questions:
1. What are the needs and wants that all humans have? How can understanding the needs and wants that we
have, help us to solve a problem in our community?
2. What is the difference between a need and a want, and why do we need to know the difference?

Learning Objectives:
What will the students know?
1. If you were moving to a new place, like the pilgrims, what would you bring with you? Why?
2. How would you choose only a few things to bring with you?
3. Have you ever moved from one place to another?
4. What is a need? What is a want? What is the difference?
5. Did the pilgrims have similar needs as us today? What about wants?

What will the students be able to do? (I can statements)

1. I can create a list of items that I would bring with me if I were going to a new place, with help from my
teacher.
2. I can classify what things are needs, and what things are wants.
3. I can talk about the experience of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, and talk about why we celebrate
Thanksgiving now.

NCSCOS/Common Core Standards:

1. Standard:
- K.E.1 - Understand basic economics concepts.
- K.E.1.1- Understand how families have needs and wants
- K.C.1.1 - Explain similarities in self and others.

Assessment Plan:
1. The teacher can conduct a pre-assessment during the warm-up to gauge what prior knowledge
students already have about needs and wants.
2. Students will demonstrate their understanding by completing a needs and wants sort with a group.
3. The teacher can use a formative assessment as students are answering questions after the reading of
the book, to see what students understand about needs and wants, and know what needs to be talked
about in more depth.
Meeting the student where they are:
Prior Knowledge/Connections:

1.Some students may not come from a family that partakes in anything on Thanksgiving, so they will benefit
from partaking in a discussion with the whole class after the reading of the book The Pilgrims First
Thanksgiving.
2. The items that are discussed as needs and wants in the class may be different from student to student, so
when students state a need or a want to be included on the chart paper, the teacher should also have them
state WHY they are putting the item into the category that they did.

Lesson Introduction/Hook:
To introduce the lesson on needs and wants, make a real world application in which you tie in the
History of the needs and wants of Pilgrims on their journey to America:

1. Warm-up: Tell students that today they are going to learn about things people need, and things people
want. They will also learn about some interesting people called the Pilgrims.
a. Ask students to raise their hands and tell you what a NEED is. Then do the same for WANT. Ask
for examples.
b. After a few examples are shared, show students a powerpoint slide that has short definitions, and
read them to students. Then, reveal the small, moveable pictures at the bottom of the slide, and tell
students that you are going to place them into categories. The teacher should do the first example,
and talk through their thinking, and then have students do the rest. :
i. Need: Something we need to have to live. (food, water, shelter, clothing).
ii. Want: Something we would like to have, but dont need. (candy, toys, TV, pet)

Differentiation/Same-ation:
1. Students who are not grasping the concept of needs and wants yet, or students that need support with
completing a multi-step activity will be paired with students who can help them, for the Pilgrim Family
Simulation.
2. For students who have not previously celebrated Thanksgiving, or have not yet learned about needs and
wants, they will be prepared for the group activity by getting to read a book and have a group discussion
beforehand.
3. The Pilgrim Family simulation activity will be modeled beforehand to ensure that all students are
successful with it.
4. For the English Language Learners, the concept of needs and wants will be enforced when they get to
tangibly work with the picture cards in the simulation, and talk with peers in groups.
5. The Pre-K students will be paired with Kindergarten students so that they have peer support. Additionally,
the picture squares will be cut out beforehand to make more time for discussion and work, and less time
trying to cut.
6. Students who need an additional challenge can be the students who explain their groups reasoning in the
concluding discussion.
Lesson Development:
To introduce the lesson on needs and wants, make a real world application in which you tie in the History
of the needs and wants of Pilgrims on their journey to America:

1. Warm-up: Tell students that today they are going to learn about things people need, and things people
want. They will also learn about some interesting people called the Pilgrims.
c. Ask students to raise their hands and tell you what a NEED is. Then do the same for WANT. Ask
for examples.
d. After a few examples are shared, show students a powerpoint slide that has short definitions, and
read them to students. Then, reveal the small, moveable pictures at the bottom of the slide, and tell
students that you are going to place them into categories. The teacher should do the first example,
and talk through their thinking, and then have students do the rest. :
i. Need: Something we need to have to live. (food, water, shelter, clothing).
ii. Want: Something we would like to have, but dont need. (candy, toys, TV, pet)

Link to resources:
https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/presentation/d/1f4fMa7HkU-FQ5VX9hv4CWwnN6fNqidwOQ-
VXWg1tMHA/edit?usp=sharing

2. Read the book: The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving, by: Ann McGovern
a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SH8SaDjbM

Before Reading: Tell students that they are going to be reading a story about people called the Pilgrims.
1. They lived a long time ago in England, but wanted to find a new home, so they packed up their
belongings and got on ships to come over to America to live and work.
2. (Point out England on a map).
3. They dressed different than us, and had different toys and food, but they still had the same needs as
us. Ask students to remind what the main needs are and list them: (food, water, clothing, shelter)
4. Tell students that as you listen to the story, listen for things that they needed, and things they wanted
to have. Let them know that you will pause occasionally to talk about what they are noticing.

After reading: discuss the Pilgrims and their voyage on the Mayflower, and their first year in America.
Explain to students that on the Mayflower there was limited space, and the pilgrims needed to pick items for
their life in a new world.
b. Questions:
1. What is something new you learned about the Pilgrims?
2. What was the boat ride like for the Pilgrims?
3. What was their food like? What did they sleep on? Did they have a lot of room on the ship?
4. How do you think the Pilgrims felt when they got to the new land?
5. How did the native people already living in America help the Pilgrims?
6. Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving today?
 c. Invite Students to share their own stories of moving to a new place.
- Did anyone have to choose to leave anything behind?
d. If students are getting restless after the reading of the story, allow them to take 30 seconds and stand up
to pretend like they are sailing on the mayflower.

7. Pilgrim Family simulation: Say: Now we are going to imagine that we are going on trips to new places,
and we have to pack up our stuff. We have to make sure we have things we need, and some things we want.
Divide students into small groups of 3 or 4.
a. Give each group a worksheet with a cut out of a suitcase and 15-16 options of pictures that are
needs or wants. (Worksheets included in the Appendix A and B).
b. Tell each group that they can choose to bring 4 things they need, and 3 things they want.
c. Make sure to point out that you may think you need several things, but you can only pick 4. This is
like pilgrim families who had to choose what things were most important to take.
d. Once groups are divided up and have their worksheets, they will choose their items they are
bringing, cut them out, and glue them in the suitcase.
e. As students are working, go around to each group to ask about which items they chose to bring, and
which ones they left behind, and why. Ask if it was hard to decide about some items, and why.
f. If students finish early, they can get the worksheet included in the Appendix called Needs and
Wants, where they will write and draw about something they need in real life, and also something
they would like to have.

Specific Questioning:
1. What do you already know about Thanksgiving?
2. What is something new you learned about the Pilgrims?
3. What was the boat ride like for the Pilgrims?
4. What was their food like? What did they sleep on? Did they have a lot of room on the ship?
5. How do you think the Pilgrims felt when they got to the new land?
6. How did the native people already living in America help the Pilgrims?
7. Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving today?
8. What is a need? What is a want?
9. Which items did your family choose to bring? Which ones did you leave behind?
10. Was it hard to decide about some items? Why?

New Vocabulary:
1. Pilgrim - one of the English people who founded the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts in 1620.
2. Mayflower - the ship that in 1620 transported Pilgrims from Plymouth, England to the continent of
North America at a point that is now Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
3.Thanksgiving - a U.S. holiday held on the 4th Thursday in November. On Thanksgiving, Americans
remember the good harvest of the Pilgrims in 1621 and show thanks for what they have now; Thanksgiving
Day.
4. Voyage - a long journey, by air, land, or sea
5. Need- Things we need in order to stay alive
 6. Want- Things we would like to have, but dont really need.

Concluding the Lesson/Closure/Debriefing:

1. Conclude the lesson by leading a discussion about the Pilgrim Family simulation, and what students
learned from it.
2. As students are working, go around to each group to ask about which items they chose to bring, and
which ones they left behind, and why. Ask if it was hard to decide about some items, and why.
3. If students finish early, they can complete a worksheet where they draw a need in their own life on
one half, and a picture of something they really want to have on the bottom half. For each part, they
can fill in the sentence frame to accompany the picture. (Worksheet can be found in the Appendix).

Materials/Resources:
1. Book- The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving, by: Ann McGovern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5SH8SaDjbM
2. A Suitcase worksheet AND a resources worksheet for each group (in Appendix).
3. Scissors, glue, pencils
4. Needs/ Wants Homework
5. Powerpoint slide with: Map including England and North America, Needs/Wants Warm-up:
https://docs.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/presentation/d/1f4fMa7HkU-FQ5VX9hv4CWwnN6fNqidwOQ-VXWg1
tMHA/edit?usp=sharing

Teaching Behavior Focus:

1. I want to provide clear directions and make sure to do a guided demonstration of the activity students will
complete.
2. I want to engage students through discussion, and have a good balance between direct instruction and
student questioning.
3. I also want to do a good job of paraphrasing students verbal content.

Follow-Up Activities/Parent Involvement:

1. Students can go home and tell their family something new they learned about the first Thanksgiving.
2. For homework: Ask students to bring in an item from home that they would bring with them if they were
going to go on the Mayflower. The next day, they can sort the items at the front of the room. One basket can
hold needs, and another can hold wants.

Appendix:
1: Suitcase Worksheet

2: Suitcase Activity Template/Guide

3: Needs/Wants Pictures

4: Needs/Wants Homework
Needs and Wants Homework: Name: _________________________

Something I need to live is _______________ .

Something I want to have is _______________ .