Lesson Plan: Community Culture Trunk Introduction

Makayla Johnson
Date: 10/23/17
Subject: Social Studies
Length of Lesson: 45 min
Grade level: 2nd

Social Studies Core Curriculum Objectives: Standard 1: Students will recognize

and describe how people within their community, state, and nation are both similar
and different.
Objective 2: Recognize and describe the contributions of different cultural groups in
Utah and the nation.

a. Identify various cultural groups within the state and the nation.
b. Describe contributions of cultural groups to our state and nation.
c. Explain ways American Indians and immigrants have shaped both Utah’s and
America’s culture.
d. Compare and contrast elements of two or more cultures within the state and
nation.

Language objectives:

Reading: I can identify main ideas. I can use context clues to determine meaning of
words.

Writing: I can compare and contrast information. I can describe events, people,
processes, and procedures.

Speaking: I can retell stories or events.

Listening: I can follow multiple directions. I can organize oral information using
pictures and objects.

Academic language/vocabulary:

- Continent
- Country
- Culture
- Tradition
 - North America
- South America
- Europe
- Asia
- Africa
- Australia
- Country
- Map
- Suitcases

Introduction/background knowledge: I will be activating background knowledge

for all students by getting them to think about where their family comes from. I
want the students to think about their home life and the traditions they celebrate in
their family. I have also tailored this lesson to all of my students in the class. I picked
specific countries to visit that my students’ families are from. This gave my ELL
students a chance to share about their cultural backgrounds and feel included in the
class.

Assessment:

I will be assessing what my students respond and share about the different
countries we discuss in the lesson. I also have a map that the students will fill out
after the lesson to assess if they understand where they visited that day.
ELL: I will be assessing their oral responses a little more than their written ones. I
want the students to share where they are from and give some background on their
cultures to the class. This will help them develop their communication skills and
have a chance to highlight their culture.

Preparation:

 Power point of different people, places, and things within the cultures of the
kids within the class. Ex. Names of places, food, customs, celebrations,
language, food, clothing, shelter, traditions, and celebrations.
 Crayons, colored pencils, markers.
 Continent bulletin board
 Push pins
 Yarn
 Continent outlines
 Time: Lesson: Management:
2:10-2:20 Introduction: Introduction:
“Today class we will be Students will be asked to
talking about different be sitting at their desks
cultures we see everyday.” with nothing on their
“Can anyone tell me what table and sitting in
culture is?” Definition of listening position.
culture: the customary
beliefs, social forms, and
material traits of a
racial, religious, or
social group.
“For example, some of my
family comes from Italy
and so during special
dinners my grandfather
would make his old,
homemade, family
traditional raviolis that his
mother would make. This
is a tradition from my
grandfathers culture
(Italian) he had us do
growing up”
“Can anyone tell me what
a continent is?”
Definition of a
continent: any of the
world's main continuous
expanses of land (Africa,
Antarctica, Asia,
Australia, Europe, North
America, South
America).
“For example this is North
America (shows on map)
this is one continent. We
have seven all together.”
 “Can anyone tell me what
a country is?
Definition of a country: a
nation with its own
government, occupying
a particular territory.
“For example, the United
States of America is a
country IN North America
(continent)
At this moment I will then
be pulling out a poster
board that will have a
world map drawn on it
and have the power point
on the smart board.
Time: Content/activity: Management:
2:20-2:40 I am matching up the Students who answer
smart board and world correctly what
map. We asked the content/country we are
students to tell us where about to highlight will get
their families come from. to come up to the poster
We got: Puerto Rico, board and pin that specific
Thailand, France, place.
Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, Students will be coloring
Brazil, Kuwait, Somalia, and filling out a map of
and Germany. These are their own.
the countries I will be
highlighting. We will be
traveling around the map
to each continent that has
the previous countries I
am highlighting. For
example, When visiting
Europe we will be
discussing France,
Scotland, and Ireland.
Since we have ten
countries to visit I am
 going to have to make
discussions a little short. I
do plan on however
building off of this lesson.
In the future we will be
revisiting places with our
“suitcases” which will be
within their interactive
social studies and science
notebooks. When we do
we will go deeper into
traditions and cultures.
This is my introduction.
As we travel through the
power point and map I
will be having students
answering where they
think on the map that
country is. If they get it
correct they will come up
to the map and pin where
that country is. Then we
will go into some basic
information on that
country. After we have
pinned and yarned all of
the countries I want to
take the end of the string
and reconnect it back to
Utah. I will then explain,
“As we can see our yarn
goes all over the board
showing us where some of
our families come from.
Who can tell me though
why I would be placing
the end of our yarn back
to Utah?” I am hoping the
class will come to the
 conclusion that even
though we are from
different parts of the
world, we are all here in
Utah and we have brought
all of our cultures and that
is awesome! After our
discussion students will
get maps of their own to
fill out every country we
visited (look at attached
photo of map).
During this time I plan to
go from table to table and
continue discussions with
each table.
Time: Closure: Management:
2:40-2:50 To wrap up I will be re- Students will put their
visiting what a continent maps in the middle of the
is, what a country is, what table, teacher will collect
culture is, and ask if them, and then they will
anyone would like to pack up for the day.
share something new they
learned about another
student or country.
If we have time: I will also
be giving students a sneak
peak of the “suitcases” we
will be making and
collecting artifacts to put
in them.
Evaluation:
“I will be able to define
continent, country, and
culture.”
“I will be able to discuss
different cultures and
traditions with my class.”
“I will be able to think
 about where my family
may be from and what
traditions we do.”

Adaptions/modifications:

For adaptions I will be using a power point and map to be used when discussing
continent, countries, and cultures. This gives a visual representation. Having the
visual representation along with the classroom discussion will help ELL students
understand the content more. When we are making our maps I will be walking
around and helping students with extra instruction if needed.

Integration:

We will be integrating map skills to find different continents and countries. We will
also be using technology to give us extra visuals to use when having our discussions.