Social Studies Grade TwoConcepts
Students will know that:
.
Skills/Abilities Objectives
Students will:
Students will:
Students may:
.
Relate the occupations to meeting local needs and wants. Arrange for students
to visit various locations and conduct interviews with local people. Students
may create profiles of people interviewed.
Initiating research To initiate research, have students generate a list of ways they can use to find information about people working in the community (interview, field trip, make a video, take pictures, write a letter, visit, read about it in a book, watch a video). Use these various methods to access and record information.
Check available resources first and plan from there. For example:
When studying the various the people in the community and their jobs, include examples of women and men working in nontraditional ways. Discuss the opportunities for both women and men to pursue careers that interest them regardless of common perceptions.
Tell the following stories.
Profile: Denise Needham
Denise is a carpenter. In fact, she has her own company called the Women's Renovation Company. She builds balconies, fixes steps, and remodels basements. She has had jobs all over the province. During the summer when she has a lot of work, she hires another woman to work with her. She hires a woman because so far no men have applied.
She says, "I have always liked working with my hands." She likes to make or fix things and have something to show for her work.
Denise has taught many women and men carpentry skills. In fact, she often has the owners of the house help her with the work. That way they can save money and take part in the project.
People at the YWCA think she is doing something important. The Regina YWCA gave her a `Woman of the Year' award in 1992. The award was a way of saying, "Thank you for being a leader. Thank you for teaching women and girls how to be carpenters and fix things."
Has she had problems because she is a woman carpenter? She says, "Absolutely none. People want a good job done. It doesn't matter if you are a woman or a man."
Bonnie was not born on a farm. She was a city girl from Saskatoon. When she was 12 years old, her family moved to a farm near Vanscoy. Did it take her long to adjust to living on the farm? She said, "About 3 days after moving, I was a farm girl! It felt right. I loved it."
She joined the Vanscoy 4H Club very shortly after moving to the farm. 4H Clubs have the motto, "Learn to do by doing." Bonnie says this is the best way to learn how to look after livestock and develop a sense of responsibility. She belonged to the 4H Club for 9 years.
When she graduated from high school, she decided she wanted to stay on the farm. She already had some cattle, but she wanted to do something different. Her neighbour raised sheep and she thought that would be a good thing for her to do too. So, at 18 years of age, she went to the bank and borrowed $2 000.00. With that money she bought some sheep.
Later, when Bonnie and her husband were married, she continued raising sheep, and her husband continued growing grain. Of course, their work often overlaps and they often help each other. But like many farm families, they each have their major responsibilities.
Looking after the sheep was often difficult when Bonnie's own children were small. Especially during lambing time. It's important to be with the ewe when the lamb is born, just to make sure everything is okay. "When they were young, my children spent a lot of time in the lambing barn," observed Bonnie. "But in a way raising young children and raising sheep go together. When I had to get up at 3 o'clock in the morning to feed my baby, I would just put on my coat and go check on the sheep too."
Bonnie has been raising sheep for about 15 years. She has about 250 sheep, including the lambs that were born between Christmas Eve and the end of January. Every year she sells some of her lambs privately and has a local abattoir cut and wrap the pieces the way the customer wants them. She also sells registered stock to other farmers for breeding. Every year she shows some sheep and lambs at the Western Canadian Agribition in Regina as well as at other exhibitions across the country.
Every year in early spring, the sheep are shorn. Bonnie hires a professional shearer who usually comes with an assistant. Of course, Bonnie and her husband help too. Bonnie sells some of the wool to local spinners and weavers. She sells most of it to companies in eastern Canada. Some of the wool is then sold in Canada, and some is exported to different countries.
Sheep seem to do well in the Saskatchewan climate. They don't seem to mind the cold. As long as there are some shelters for them, they can be outside even when the temperature is -35 C0.
According to Bonnie, women and children and sheep are a good combination. Although sheep can be very stubborn, they are small, gentle and manageable. They seem to respond well to the gentle handling by women and children.
It seems like there are more and more women farming. But women have been always taken an active role in farming, even during pioneer times. Although the land had to be registered in the man's name, the woman always did much of the work, and often took charge of part of the operation. The woman would often raise chickens or turkeys. She would usually plant, care for, and harvest the garden that was so important for the family's winter food supply. She would usually take charge of caring for the children. What could be more important than that?
Perhaps it's just that people are finally recognizing that the work women do on the farm is just as important as the work that men do. And it's when women and men work together, learn from each other, and support one another that the farm work gets done the best.
As a follow-up to the above profiles the teacher and students may choose to do the following:
Plan visits to various work places in the community, such as the firehall, police station, a bakery, library, radio station, newspaper, book store, elevator, machine shop, lumber yard, etc.
The visits may be done as a whole group or, if there are enough parent volunteers, the class may be divided to visit different places. Have students interview employees or managers about their work.
If possible, before the visit, use books and videos to study the workplaces that will be visited. If resources are not available, discuss what the students expect to see and experience. Discuss possible questions they might ask.
On returning to the class, create profiles of the people interviewed. The profile may include a photo, drawing, or other picture along with some information. The profiles may be displayed in a big book, on a bulletin board, as mobiles hung from the ceiling, or on small display boards set on tables.
If possible, on some of the trips have an older student or parent videotape the experience. Edit the videotapes and have various students provide narrations. Use the videotapes for an open house presentation.
The teacher may choose to categorize jobs and choose titles for the categories. Categories could include people who:
Health care Learn about people working in health care in your community and the responsibilities of citizens related to the wellness of themselves and others.
The teacher may wish to have students make personal action plans for their own wellness. These plans could include:
Organizing a business To deal with concepts related to economics, have students organize and carry out an activity involving the steps in producing and selling a product (i.e. popcorn). Steps could include establishing a market, cost factoring, specialization of jobs (advertisers, poppers, baggers, boxers, and sellers). Pose a situation that would cause unemployment such as decreased demand or scarcity of raw materials. Consider consequences with the students.
Profits may be used for a special project.
The elderly Some experiences may include:
Invite an Elder(s) who can tell stories and provide friendship, a role model, and guidance to students.
Develop empathy by giving students opportunities to explore and express their feelings regarding the elderly. Have them reflect upon how they would like to be treated when they are elderly.
Learn about the role of elderly people in various cultures. Use resources such as The River That Gave Gifts, My Kokum Called Today, or Fox Song. Invite Elders to the classroom to help develop understandings and perspectives about Indian and Métis peoples. Plan with Elders well ahead of visits.
Take students for a walk to discover the services provided in the school neighbourhood. Record the information using a web or concept map. Conduct a focused imaging exercise that develops an understanding of what life would be like without services such as street lights, roads, sidewalks, schools, and mail service. Discuss the work of the people who provide these services.
Role play scenarios that show how citizens are responsible for looking after services. The scenarios may reflect real situations from the community or could include:
Utilities
Discuss the reasons for having a house. Speculate on the possibility of living outside during the winter without a house. Discuss animal houses.
Present the sentence: My house is a place to ___________________. Explore many different answers. Students can write about some of their ideas in their journals.
Read a book and/or view a filmstrip or video about the construction of a house. Discuss the utilities provided in most Saskatchewan homes. Explore ways these services may vary in different locations.
Learn about some or all of the services that the community makes available to service homes. Consider water, streets or roads, sidewalks, street lights, and waste disposal.
Use maps to study transportation routes in your community. Mark routes on maps, for example how they get to school, church, the mall, and the playground.
Use Project Wild, Everybody Needs a Home, p. 26.
Ask the students how we heat our homes. (The obvious answer will be furnace, but encourage other answers such as wood stove and fireplace.) Visit the furnace room in the school. Explore how the furnace works, how the heat gets to the classroom, and especially the fuel used. Draw diagrams.
As a homework assignment find out what type of heating and fuel is used at home and in other buildings in the community. Find out where the fuel comes from.
Read a story such as Changing Times: Bobby and Mary at Home that refers to the use of wood and/or coal in furnaces or wood stoves. How might the use of wood or coal to heat the house affect the lifestyle of the family? How might it affect the role of the children? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Discuss energy issues and sustainable approaches to energy use. Make plans for saving energy in the school and home. Enter objectives on a template and assess progress at regular intervals.
Learn how the energy that is used in your community is made available.
As a homework assignment have students explore the water supply in their own home. Find out where it enters the house and how to turn it off.
Learn how the Indian peoples and immigrants got water in the summer and winter. Before the days of running water many people used melted snow.
Have the students write in their journals about how they get water in their house and how they feel about this method of getting water.
Learn about current issues relating to water. These issues include maintaining a plentiful water supply, preventing our water supply from getting polluted, and the rights of all humans to a safe supply of water.
Think of slogans to encourage the wise use of water or the rights to clean water for everybody. Illustrate each slogan and make posters.
Find out how the community provides a safe water supply. Make a diagram showing the source of water (for example, river), the water treatment plant, water storage area, pipes leading to a house, sewer pipe leading from the house, water treatment plant, river.
Integrate with health by discussing the importance of a safe water supply.
Make a simple water filter by layering gravel, sand, and charcoal.
Learn that all living things contain water. Do research to determine the water content of a variety of plants and animals.
Between 65% and 70% of the human body is water. Some of this water is evaporated through our skin. Water keeps our mouth, nose, and eyes moist. Our glands secrete liquid. The fluids we drink replaces the water in our bodies. Excess is excreted.
A jellyfish is 93% water and a pineapple is 87% water.
Working in small groups, make a list of all the things in their school that run on electricity. Have students imagine being without it. For example, ask, "What if we didn't have lights?"
Discuss the wiring of the school. Find the breaker box and the meter measuring the amount of electricity being used.
As a homework assignment have students find the breaker box in their homes and find out how to turn off the electricity.
Find out how electricity is supplied to your community. Make a chart showing the flow from a central supply to a home.
Discuss current issues related to the production and use of electricity. In small groups have students identify ways they can save electricity in the school and home. Report back to the class. Record the ideas on chart paper. Make a commitment to save electricity.
In small groups list sources of waste in the home. Identify ways of getting rid of that waste. Have each group report back to the class. Make a master list. Make a diagram to show how waste water leaves a homes and goes to a treatment plant or septic tank. Make a flow chart to show how solid waste is handled in your community.
Invite a health official to speak about the danger of unsafe water and poorly managed waste. Summarize the main ideas in a class composition.
Use examples from current events to discuss the dangers of poor waste disposal
and new approaches to waste disposal including recycling.
Learn about the four R's, recycle, reduce, repair, and reuse. As a class list actions from each that contribute to sustainability in the school and community, for example, turning lights out when leaving the classroom, and recycling paper. Identify resource people who may provide suggestions. Interview parents or older students for ideas. Make a mural, poster, or song to share these understandings with others. Have students pick one action on which to work. Make a template to assess progress.
Remind students that each small action contributes to the solution and that their actions are important. Learn about other `R's'. Help the students understand that it may be necessary for us to rethink our actions or refuse something. For example, we need to refuse to smoke or rethink decisions to buy certain products.
Use stories and other resources to learn that people all over the world and throughout time have valued the importance of maintaining the balance of nature and that we can use their wisdom to plan for the future.
Initiate drama in context with a challenge such as:
The teacher and students may choose to simulate a local business to experience related economics concepts.
Ask students why they and their families live in this community. Make connections between where people live and where they work.
Survey the people who work in the school to determine whether or not they also live in the local neighbourhood. Survey parents about the location of their work. Develop a chart, catagorizing the workers and where they live. Interpret the graph. Mark travel patterns on a map. Make another graph charting the distances people travel to work.
Communication
Identify different methods of communicating in the neighbourhood.
Learn about changes in communication and effects on lifestyles.
Use Mini-unit 2 Signs and Symbols, p. 319, Arts Education: A Curriculum Guide for Grade 1 to develop understandings about communication.
Identify ways people in your community communicate.
Study the technology of communication and how it is changing the way we communicate.
Take a field trip to a television station or a radio station. Read about the development of the telephone or radio.
Learn words in languages other than English.
Agriculture
Brainstorm ways we get food. Record ideas. Keep these ideas for future reference. Include traditional activities of hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering, and growing wild rice. Other suggestions might include store, garden, food bank. Develop an understanding that agriculture provides food and to some extent clothing, shelter and jobs as well.
Give the students a short period of time in buzz groups to speculate on what commodities are produced in their area (farm products, aquaculture products, products from hungint, gathering, trapping). Bring the class together and compile their suggestions on a master list. keep the list for future changes and additions.
Structure a drama that leads the students to speculate about a world without agriculture. guide the students to an understanding of the importance of agriculture to the well-being of the community and the society.
Choose one or more agricultural commodities from your area and using resources such as books, films, filmstrips, and first hand experiences follow the commodity from planting to a final product. Make a chart showing the different stages in the growing and production of the product. make a list of all the people involved in the production of the final product.
Discuss how the products are transported.
Identify some decisions a farmer might make about what to plant, when to plant, whether or not to use pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, and how to market products. Interview a farmer about agricultural decisions.
Make a pictorial chart comparing some of the foods produced in Saskatchewan with what the students eat. Guide the students in interpreting the chart.
Guide students in reflecting upon the impact of their choices in food. Discuss
things they might keep in mind when shopping for food, for example:
Suggested Resources
(listed in other bibliographies and catalogues)
Resources - health care
About Keeping Well (MHP, V6734)
Dentist (MHP, V2375)
Grinders or Gizzards (MHP, V6732)
The Health Nurse (MHP, V2566)
Hospitals for Help (MHP, V6735)
In Sickness and Health (MHP, V252)
Microbeasts and Disease (MHP, V2725)
The Wellness Team (MHP, V2244)
Under the Same Sun: Health
CIDA
Youth Editions
P.O. Box 1310
Postal Station B
Hull, Qu&eacutbec
J8X 9Z9
Resources - community services
The Baker (MHP, V2565)
The Bank Manager (MHP, V2563)
Carpenter (MHP, V2360)
The Dog Trainer (MHP, V3177)
The Firefighter (MHP, V2560)
The Florist (MHP, V2356)
The Librarian (MHP, V3183)
The Mechanic (MHP, V2561)
The Photographer (MHP, V3174)
The Police Officer (MHP, V2564)
Veterinarian (MHP, V2361)
Welder (MHP, V2362)
Resources - agriculture
Eggs (MHP, V3236)
Flowers and Seeds (MHP, V3233)
Grain Elevator Operator (MHP, V2358)
Growing Things (MHP, V3234)
Plants (MHP, V3232)
Vegetable Processor (MHP, V2370)
Resources - shelter
Carpenter (MHP, V2360)
City Lights (MHP, V8004)
Garbage Collector (MHP, V2357)
A House is a House for Me Mary Ann Hoberman (ELA)
Prairie Boy's Winter William Kurelek (Arts Ed)
Project Wild (Sci)
The Magic School Bus: At the Waterworks Joanna Cole (Sci)
Telephone Installer (MHP, V2359)
Water (MHP, V248)
The Water Treatment Engineer (MHP, V2569)
Waste (MHP, V3250)
What's the Noise - Jeremy and Michael (MHP, V4087)
Use Mini-unit 2 : Observation, p. 325 of Arts Education: A Curriculum guide for Grade 2.
Resources - transportation
Transportation (MHP, V8139)
Use Mini-unit 2 Observation,
p. 325 of Arts Education: A Curriculum Guide for Grade 1 to develop understandings
about transportation.
Resources - the elderly
The Best Present Holly Keller (ELA)
The Big Tree and the Little Tree Jean E. Speare (ELA)
The Crying Christmas Tree Allen Crow (ELA)
Eagle Feather: An Honour Ferguson Plain (ELA)
The Elders Are Watching Dave Bouchard (ELA)
Eye of the Changer Muriel Ringstad (ELA)
The General Frank Etherington (ELA)
In Honour of Our Elders Children of the Curved Lake Reserve (ELA)
A Memory for Tino Leo Buscaglia (ELA)
Mini-Bike Hero Claire MacKay (ELA)
Nanabosho Dances Joe McLennan (ELA)
A Time for Remembering Chuck Thurman (ELA)
Thunder Cake Patricia Polacco (ELA)
Visiting Granny Kim Fernandes (ELA)
The War With Grandpa R. Kimmel Smith (ELA)
The Wednesday Surprise Eve Bunting (ELA)
How will you try to conserve resources? Choose an objective and write on the template. Assess your progress every Friday. Use a happy face, neutral face, or sad face to indicate your progress in meeting your objective.
| Name | Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four |
| Action |
The above rating scale may be used for self or peer assessment of citizen action. Older students could use a numeric rating scale (1 = great, 2 = okay, 3 = needs improvement). This format could also be used as a checklist simply indicating with a check mark or "x" whether the action was completed.
Students andteachers should work together to identify a list of possible objectives. Students then choose one or a few objectives they will pursue.
Criteria teachers chose to use for this activity might include:
| 1 | Student lists objectives for each week. Student consistently chooses realistic objectives. Student meets chosen objectives. |
| 2 | Student generally/sometimes lists objectives for each week. Student generally/sometimes chooses realistic objectives. Student generally/sometimes meets chosen objectives. |
| 3 | Student seldom lists objectives for each week. Student seldom chooses realistic objectives. Student seldom meets chosen objectives. |