December – March
The * represents a unit that is new to that quarter. Following the items with an * are items that are to be reviewed.
- Talk about how economics work in simple terms (goods people buy and use, services people do for one another, making choices)*
- Investigate and draw maps of various spaces, classroom, school, neighborhood *
- Identify cardinal directions and apply them to maps*
- Define and locate North and South poles and equator*
- Define and give examples of a continent, mountain, river, lake, and ocean*
- Talk about phrases related to time
- Discuss changing historical periods
- Work on calendar skills
- Focus on character traits: politeness, achievement, courage, honesty, reliability, bravery
- Practice and recite American national songs and Pledge of Allegiance
- Discuss national and Massachusetts holidays and changes of seasons
- Study folktales, legends, and stories from America and around the world and describe their main characters and qualities
- Survey biographies of famous Americans of different ethnic groups, faiths, and historical periods.
Resources:
Economics:
Video:The Difference Between Wants and Needs- Discovery Video (16:00) Two young friends wake up and find themselves on a desert island where the ‘Genie of Wise Choices’ lives. While there, the genie helps the children understand the importance of making good choices as they are faced with the difficult task of choosing between an essential need or a desired want. Water, food, clothing, shelter, and clean air are all introduced and discussed as your students learn about the difference between a need and a want.
Video: How our Economy Works, Earning and Spending Money (18:00) Discovery Video- People work to earn money to satisfy their basic needs and wants. Help students understand the two, as well as the difference between goods and services. Explore a variety of jobs, including production and service workers, and introduce students to banks and the concept of saving money.
Video: If You Made a Million (17:51) Discovery Video- Based on the classic children’s book by David M. Schwartz. Marvelosissimo the Mathematical Magician is your expert guide as you learn about the various forms of money and how it can be used to buy things, pay off debt, and build interest. There will be no doubt this is time well spent for one and all. Part of the Weston Woods Series.
Holidays:
Video: Martin’s Big Words: the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, JR (8:00) Discovery Video-Based on the classic children’s book by Doreen Rappaport. Using quotes from some of his beloved speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., comes to life in stunning collage art and vibrant watercolor paintings in this profound and important biography about beliefs and dreams and following one’s heart. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his own words, will inspire and affect you, too. Narrated by Michael Clarke Duncan. Part of the Weston Woods Series.
Video: Animated Hero Classics: George Washington (29:20) Discovery Video – Learn about George Washington. He was a great man who served his country as patriot, soldier, and the first President of the United States. This program is a lesson in leadership.
Lesson Plan: Reading Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers
Character Traits: Kindness, honesty, politeness, self-esteem
Activity: Clifford the Big Red Dog Activities to reinforce character
Geography and Map skills; Maps of the continents, U.S.
Activity: Follow Flat Stanley’s Adventures and learn about the world. The namesake of the project is the title character of a 1964 book by Jeff Brown. Stanley Lambchop is a normal boy who finds himself flattened by a bulletin board, but that doesn’t stop his adventures. He is sent through the mail to places all around the world, where friends and family take him on trips, see sights, and increase the knowledge of the world of not only Stanley but also anyone reading the book. (Year long project)
Video: Maps Models and places (15:04) Discovery Video- Students discover the relationship between the real world, small models of real locations, and the purpose of maps. Engaging models of a neighborhood, school, and face become “maps” before their eyes. Information on the models corresponds to simple maps with special attention given to relative location and scale. A globe is a view of the world from high above. Students distinguish between water and land on a map and on a globe. They also identify places on the map from stories of the past (like where Columbus landed) and today (like where the president lives.)
Video: Globes and US (18:00) Discovery Video – Learn about latitude and longitude, grids, degrees, minutes, seconds, time zones, scale, legends, keys, cardinal and intermediate directions, and hemispheres through live action and animation.
Video: Understanding and Making Maps: An Introduction (18:58) Discovery Video – Connect drawings to maps and models to globes as students see their community from above and begin to understand scale, relative position, and direction. Packed with definitions for terms like symbol, compass rose, cardinal directions, and legend, the program depicts students making a variety of maps and finding locations on a simple grid map.
Google Maps Street maps and local maps from Google. See your neighborhood, and find where you live and go to school.
Resource: CultureGrams The World for Kids (Teacher’s Guide.pdf)
Activity: Make a map of your community What is a map? A map is a picture of a place. There can be many different maps of the same place. A map cannot show everything about a place. For a map to communicate clearly, it must show a limited number of things. In this activity, you will get to make a map that shows the things that make your community a special place to live.
Video: Math Monsters: Mapping (15:00) The Monsters are throwing a party and have sent out invitations. One of their guests, Binary Bill has no idea how to get to their castle from his computer shop. Multiplex draws a free form map with just a curving line and emails it to him. This doesn’t work and Binary asks for landmarks. Multiplex quickly adds a few things that can be seen on route – but he doesn’t draw them in the right order. This leads to confusion and a further refining of the map. Ultimately the Monsters leave the castle and go on site to label all the streets in their neighborhood. Then Mina flies up above Monster Land to compare the map to the actual territory. A real world example of how firefighters use maps is included in the video.
Lesson Plan: Back in the Olden Days National Geographic Students will discuss what it might have been like when, and where, their parents and grandparents grew up. The students will conduct interviews to see if their guesses were right. They will conclude by drawing pictures of their relatives living in this time and place.
Culture and ethnicity
Video: Diversity Elementary: Culture and Ethnicity (15:02) Discovery Video – Kayoko travels to meet, among others, Tibetan exile Lobsang Sangay who explains that culture is comprised of acquired things like language, religion, marriage, holidays, food and all the things you believe in. The Professor helps Kayoko realize that her own Japanese ethnicity is the history of her cultural heritage.
Video: Children of other lands: Georgina Williams of Ghana (15:00) Nine-year-old Georgina Williams lives in Akropong, a picturesque town in Ghana’s southern highland area. It’s festival time, and as the program opens, the viewers see Georgina and her Uncle Kwame visiting the local kente weaver to buy her first ceremonial dress. Georgina then attends a festival party at her friend Anita Osuwu’s house, where they play traditional Ghanian games such as “Bamba Bambariya” and “Ampe.” Viewers visit the Okuapemman School, where Georgina and her fellow students sing on their way to classes, encourage their classmates with syncopated applause, and play the “Shakey-Shakey” game during physical education class. Viewers also accompany Georgina and her mother and cousin as they shop at Akropong’s colorful outdoor market and as they fix a traditional dinner. In the program’s finale, Georgina travels to a nearby town, where she participates in one of the world’s most beautiful and festive events: the Odwira Festival.
Folk Tale: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears (9:42) The 1975 Caldecott Medal children’s book by Verna Aardema, with illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon, comes to life in this animated version. A tall tale sets off a chain of mishaps through the jungle grapevine – from Mosquito to Iguana to Python to Rabbit to Owl – in this traditional story from Africa. This video provides instructional support for tall tales, African tales and folklore, predictions, inferences, cause and effect, sequencing, and story elements.
Video: China: Eureka! Fun and Firecrackers: Magic Lantern (14:14) Discovery Video – Chinese children learn to make lanterns for the annual Chinese New year festival.
Video: I want to know : Homes (6:57) Discovery Video – Explore the different kinds of homes that people live in. See how climate and community needs have influenced the construction of habitats used by people all over the world.
Video: African and African American Folktales: (20:00) Three captivating tales provide insight into African and African-American culture. The trilogy contains an explanatory tale, a whimsical and humorous West African story, and a selection from the “Brer Rabbit” tales. Narrated by renowned storyteller Donna Washington, the video includes commentary about each tale’s historical, social, and literary significance.
Video: All About Folktales, Folktales from Afar (15:10) Discovery Video – Folktales are viewed as a way of sharing the customs, values, and feelings of people from cultures different from our own. Especially selected to serve as a “magic window” to the people who first created them are The Tale Of The Gentle People (South America), Anansi the Spider (Africa), and The Crane Maiden (Japan).