Becoming A Classroom Community

This is a week lesson to begin the discussion and process of becoming more of a community in our classroom and beyond. You will learn what a community is, what it means to be a good community member, and things you can do to be a good member and community.

After reading the book, Humphrey the Whale and coloring the flower activity we will talk about what it means to see a beautiful community. We will discuss what makes each flower beautiful and then compare and contrast those things with what some things we can actually do make our community more beautiful. For example, planting flower, donating old clothes etc.

1. Read humphrey the whale (refer to online youtube reading in Powerpoint if wanted)

2. Hand out flower to color and explain to the students to color it to make it the most beautiful flower they know and cut it out, and bring it back to school.

3. Hang up all the flowers and have a sit down discussion with the students about how each flower is beautiful and how it makes our classroom more beautiful, i.e. brings more color to the room, each person got to contribute etc. 

4. Talk to the class about ways we could improve our classroom in other ways i.e. kind words, help when a peer needs it etc.

5. Expand this to our school, and greater community. 

Have the children work in small groups to come up with their own way to help the school community.

Examples could include:

-decorating the school once a week with new, beautiful pictures.

-helping pick up trash after lunch is over

etc. 

The small groups will meet with me one at a time during center time to help flow their ideas and this process since they are still young. I will only scaffold and lead when necessary, the ideas will strictly be theirs. 

Through this webquest the child will learn to look at their surroundings with more respect. They will begin to see that helping one another, being kind, and working together can create a happier and more fun place to be for everyone. The students will act in a more positive manner both during the project and in regular day learning in the classroom and outside the classroom. 

•"Dictionary.com - The World's Favorite Online Dictionary!" Dictionary.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 10 July 2016.•Ohio's New Learning Standards: Social Studies Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2016, from http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Ohio-s-New-Learning-Stan…•McBride, H., & Flagg, L. (2012). What is a community?: A first grade civics lesson plan utilizing inquiry based instruction. The Georgia Social Studies Journal, 2(1), 10-19. Retrieved July 10, 2016, from https://coe.uga.edu/assets/files/misc/gssj/McBride-and-Flagg-20121.pdf.•What is a community? (n.d.). Retrieved July 10, 2016, from https://www.learningtogive.org/units/what-community-1st-grade/what-comm…•Tokuda, Wendy, Richard Hall, and Hanako Wakiyama. "Humphrey the Lost Whale Paperback – December 1, 1992." Humphrey the Lost Whale: Wendy Tokuda, Richard Hall, Hanako Wakiyama: 9780893463465: Amazon.com: Books. Heian Intl Pub Co, Oct. 1986. Web. 10 July 2016.•Importance of Classroom Community. (2010). Retrieved July 10, 2016, from http://performancepyramid.miamioh.edu/node/233