Curated OER
Places We Live
Young scholars compare/contrast rural and urban communities, and view and discuss the images on the Illinois quarter. They discuss Abraham Lincoln's life, complete a chart and a Venn diagram comparing urban and rural settings, and create...
Curated OER
Homelessness
Students explore homelessness. In this speaking, listening, and critical thinking lesson, students listen to and discuss 3 scenarios in which families from urban, rural, and suburban communities became homeless due to different...
Curated OER
Letters from the Road
Students examine and differentiate between rural, urban, and suburban communities. They describe their local areas, view and discuss the images on the West Virginia Quarter, and write a friendly letter describing a camping trip.
Curated OER
What Type of Community?
Students compare and contrast suburban, rural and urban communities. They read books such as The Little Red Hen and identify the type of community in each book. Using computer software, they write about each type of community and...
Curated OER
Environmental Art
Students create their own environmental art after the teacher shows them a variety of example and has a discussion about it. They then write an initial personal definition of environmental art.
Curated OER
Conditions of City Life in the Late 19th Century
Students examine tenement life. In this lesson on early urbanization, students research the role of journalism for social change in early American cities. Students write a journal article for themselves that demonstrate an understanding...
DePaul University
Breaking the Food Chain
Throughout history, the growth of big cities has resulted in the destruction of ecosystems. In the case of Chicago, IL, a grassland that was once home to bison, deer, wolves, and foxes quickly became a booming city of over three million...
Curated OER
Writing A Storybook
Students create a storybook using vocabulary from the topic "urban and rural life". They write about past events in a children's story. They present their story to the class at an author's tea.
New York City Department of Education
Grade 2 Literacy in Social Studies: Where Is Home?
What makes a community? How communities differ? Young scholars research different types of communities, small rural towns, and large crowded cities. They respond to writing prompts, and write essays in groups to understand the wide...
Curated OER
The Growth Of A City
Students define what a city is. They investigate the top 10 - 15 most populated cities. SDescribe factors influencing the location and growth of urban sites. They site examples of cities that have grown with different models of urban...
Curated OER
Reading Multicultural Literature
Students read several fictional pieces which examine issues of urbanization and rural cultures. They discuss how the place a person lives affects the kind of person they become.
Curated OER
Writing a Storybook
Students explore language arts by creating their own stories in class. In this book making lesson plan, students read the story City Pig in class and create storyboard illustrations in order to analyze the story. Students utilize these...
Curated OER
Improvisational Setting - "Where are You?"
Second graders explore setting through improvisations. In this theatre lesson, 2nd graders perform a variety of improvisations in different settings and chart how they established the setting in the different environments.
Curated OER
Character Building from Inside Out
Students relate the facial muscle location with a person's expressions. In this visual arts lesson, students write a fictional story about a character. They use digital cameras and computer softwares to create an animation film about it.
Curated OER
Street Language and Learning
Young scholars examine the type of language they use on the street in the city. In groups, they brainstorm ideas about a topic they decide on from a cluster of words. Using those ideas, they organize them into a written paper using...
Curated OER
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
"People Everyday" offers class members an opportunity to develop their literacy analysis skills and to develop media literacy. Guided by an included list of discussion questions, groups examaine the word choice, literary devices used,...
Curated OER
Critical Consumerism
Develop critical thinkers and awareness of the media's techniques. Impressionable minds analyze advertisements they see all around them in this potentially 3-week long unit of five complete lesson plans. Extended discussions, outside...
Curated OER
The blues highway: An integration of music with geography
Learners analyze the movement of the blues from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and how place and the environment affected the development of the blues. They define the blues, where it originated and how and why it moved to Chicago....
Wild BC
Maple Trees and Marmots
Kinesthetic activities simulate animal activity as the seasons progress in a lesson that introduces climate change to primary pupils. The kids role-play maple trees collecting what they need to survive, but as each year comes around, the...
Curated OER
Conservation in Small Places - Composting
A fabulous lesson introduces the art of composting to your gardeners. In it, youngsters learn about the composting process and how it actually works. They discuss the environmental benefits of composting, and use the "lasagna" method...
Curated OER
A New Way of Looking
Students compare and contrast works of art. For this art analysis lesson, students complete art analysis discussion activities and then journal activities.
Curated OER
Critical Consumerism
Students identify the role of advertisements in their environment. For this advertisement lesson, students find advertisements in their classrooms and discuss them. Students write a definition for advertisements and identify related...
Curated OER
Community Explorations
Students identify the strengths and weakness in their community. They take a community walk and take pictures of people interacting with the environment and the "green spaces" in their community. They then write a persuasive essay...
Curated OER
Create a City: An Urban Planning Exercise
Students explore the effects of population growth in Arizona. In this history lesson, students work in small groups to create a "perfect" city. Activities include examining the Arizona census results then discussing the importance of...