Lesson Overview:

Title: 3 Types of Communities

Subject: Social Studies

Grade: 3rd

Duration: Two half-hour sessions

PA Core Standards: Standard - 7.1.3.A

Identify how basic geographic tools are used to organize and interpret
information about people, places and environment.

Standard - 7.1.3.B
Identify and locate places and regions as defined by physical and
human features.

Standard - 7.2.3.A
Identify the physical characteristics of places and regions.

Objectives: Students will label a community as urban, suburban, or rural, and

name the characteristics that make up this type of community.

Inquiry Question: What distinguishes a community from the other two communities?

Materials

Day 1: ● Anchor chart paper

● Marker
● Printed photos of communities

Day 2: ● Google maps

● Plain white paper
● Crayons or colored pencils.

Methods: Day 1

Anticipatory Set: (1:20 – 1:25) Play “Old Town Road” (Kidz Bop version) as students
come to the carpet. Use that as an opener to rural communities.

Introduce and Model (1:25 – 1:30) Make an anchor chart with the students. Start with rural.
Knew Knowledge: Show students photos of rural communities. Explain rural is the
country. Write that down. Then brainstorm with students what types of
things are found in this community. Also, write these down. Some
things that should be written are farms, fields, animals, trees, and a
few people. You should be guiding students to these conclusions.

(1:30 – 1:35) Next repeat this process for suburbs. Show pictures of
suburban communities. Explain that these are neighborhoods. Some
things that should be written are houses, sidewalks, and driveways.

(1:35 – 1:40) Finish the anchor chart with urban. Tell students that an
urban community is a city. Some things that you should have down are
lots of people, buildings, attached homes, apartments, and cars.

Formative (1:40 – 1:50) Mark 3 corners of the room as rural, urban, and
Assessment: suburban. Read off a characteristic of a community.

● Lots of houses
● Cows
● Tall buildings
● Sidewalks
● Lots of people
● Bicycle lanes
● Corn fields
● Parking meters
● Fast speed limits
● Street lights
● People in horses and buggies
● Clear skies to see the stars
● Alleys

Then have the students go to the corner that they think it is describing.
Keep playing until the time is over.

Methods: Day 2

Provide Guided (1:20 – 1:35) Use google maps in Lancaster county. Zoom into urban,
Practice: rural, and suburban areas For each community ask “What types of
things do you notice? Based on that information, what kind of
community do you think this is?”

Provide Independent (1:35 – 1:50) Have students identify an area they are familiar with:
Practice: their neighborhood, where their cousins live, their favorite vacation
 spot, where they go horseback riding, etc. Explain that they will be
drawing a picture of this community. At the top of the paper, they
must label it as an urban, suburban, or rural community. They must
then label characteristics of the picture that they drew, such as
townhouses, cows, sidewalks, trees, traffic, etc. Their labels serve as
the proof or justification of their chosen community. Students must
have at least 3 characteristics.

Summative Collect student’s drawings of a community. Grade them using the

Assessment: rubric below. The assessment should answer the question “What
distinguishes a community from the other two communities?

__/1 Labeled as urban, suburban, or rural.

__/6 Drew and labeled 3 characteristics that matched the type of
community.
Urban
Rural
Suburban