Social Studies Grade Two

Module Two - Rules

Concepts

• decision making, change, rules, leadership, choices

Students will know that:

• making decisions is an integral part of life.
• groups make decisions to establish rules.

Students will:

• identify various rules and laws.
• make connections between rules and meeting human needs/wants.

Students will:

• appreciate the necessity of rules.

Students may:

• participate in decision making situations.

• Review various rules in the home. Identify the purpose of the rules. Make connections with meeting needs and wants.
• Have students identify and list various rules in your school. Identify the reasons for the rules. Make connections with meeting students' needs and wants.
• Use relevant scenarios to have students participate in decisions regarding rules and how rules might be adjusted according to circumstances.
• Identify rules that address safety.
• Explore the consequences of breaking various rules and/or not having certain rules.
• Read or view stories like fables or legends to explore various rules and codes for living.
• Use the synectics to make personal analogies.

Module 2: Activity Guide

Rules at home and in school

Have students identify and list various rules they have at home. Connect with the reasons for the rules.

Have students identify and list various rules in your school. Connect with the reasons for the rules.

Read a storybook about rules at school or tell a story such as The Boy Who Cried Wolf, or another story that is culturally appropriate to the students in your classroom. Guide students to understand that actions have consequences. What were the consequences of the boy's actions? How might the story have been different?

Identify rules that are there to keep us safe. The teacher may wish to make up a story about an issue that is relevant in your school.

Have students search for other stories about rules and the consequences of breaking them. Have student write their own stories using this theme. Guide the students in making connections between the characters in the stories and their own situations.

Divide the class into groups and have each group make a list of rules for a different area of the school (library, computer room, bathrooms, gym, playground, and lunchroom). Have each group interview the person in charge of that area then organize the information to make a list. Bring together one person from each group to form a panel to report the rules to the class.

Consider the necessity for rules and the consequences if rules did not exist.

Changing rules

Learn about times when special needs people can not follow the established rules. Consider rules in your school and ask, "Would this rule be as easy for a person in a wheel chair (blind, deaf, etc) to keep as it is for you to keep?" Consider rules regarding which door students use to enter the school. A child in a wheel chair may be dropped off at the "teacher door". Discuss the role of students in assisting others to keep rules, for example they may return library books for someone who is not mobile.

Creating rules

Present the following scenarios and as you do sketch a map on the board.

• In Lumsden the school is near a river. (Draw a school and a river flowing by). The river often flooded in the spring and a lot of property was damaged. The government decided to build a dyke along the banks of the river so when the water got high in the spring there would be a high wall of dirt to keep the water in. The students from the school thought that the dyke would be a great place to play. They could climb on top of the dyke and play "King of the Castle" and "Forts". They could slide down the side of the bank.

• St. Mary's school is in the middle of a busy city. (Sketch the school, front door, sidewalk, and street). Parents come to pick up the students and take them home for lunch. They all park on the street in front of the school (sketch cars into your map). The students come running out of the school and look for their parents. When they see their parents they run and get into the car.

• The students in a small town are learning about the environment. As a school project they have undertaken the preservation of a natural area that borders their school yard. (Sketch the school, school yard, and natural area adjacent to the school yard.) The boundaries of the area were defined. The teachers and students have made long term plans for returning the area to its natural state. The teachers and students hope to be able to visit and enjoy the natural area in the future.

What rules might be needed in this area in the future?

• In some schools in Japan, a hot lunch is served to the students. Classroom monitors help to put the food into dishes and hand it out to the other students. A school rule states that classroom monitors must wear surgical masks.

Personal analogies

Use a list of the rules from your school to develop some personal analogies that encourage students to have empathy with another person.

Ask, "How would you feel if ...

• you were the librarian and people took books out of your library without signing them out?"
• you were the playground supervisor and the students kept losing the equipment?"
• you were the lunchroom supervisor and the students made loud noises the whole noon hour?"
• you were going down the slide and other children kept trying to climb up."

Adjusting rules for special needs

Use the resources such as Discover Together: A Disability Awareness Resource, Adventure Holiday and Talk to Me to explore adapting rules.

Use the following scenarios to stimulate discussion about making schools more accessible to people with special needs.

At Central School there is a rule that the students don't use the front door. Tim comes to school on a special bus that has a lift for lowering his wheelchair off the bus and putting it on the street. The bus parks in front of the school.

Do you think that Tim should be able to use the front door?

At Central School there is a rule that the students must all go outside for recess. Bobby has diabetes and every recess he has to have a snack.

Do you think he should be allowed to stay in the school to have his snack?

Help the students develop empathy for people with special needs by using personal analogies such as the following. Be sure to elicit positive feelings.

• What rule might you need if you were a student in a wheelchair? What rule might have to be changed for you?
• What rule might you need if could not hear very well? What rule might have to be changed for you?

Develop a global perspective by using fables from various countries to develop understandings about rules and codes for living.

Chinese teachers tell the following fable to their students. What lesson do the teachers want their students to learn?

The teacher may wish to assign students to practice and read various parts in the form of a play.

Too Much Talk

Student:

Teacher, is too much talk good?

Teacher:

Look at those toads. They talk from morning until night but nobody listens.

First Toad:

Oh! I'm dying of thirst. I've been calling all day, but nobody listens. Why?

Second Toad:

I don't know. Maybe they don't understand toad language.

Teacher:

Look at that big rooster. When he calls everybody listens.

Student:

Hey! Big rooster, why does everybody listen when you call?

Rooster:

I know when to call and when not to call.

Student:

When is the right time to call?

Rooster:

The right time to call is in the morning when it is quiet and everyone can hear.

Student:

Thank you.

Boss for a Week Libby Handy (ELA)