Social Studies GradeThreeConcepts
Students will know that:
Students will:
Students will:
Students may:
Human needs/wants Write the word "people" in the middle of the board. Brainstorm ways in which humans are alike. Answers may include: they are all mammals, all have hair, all have eyes, all have feelings, all need food. Make up a poem or chant to celebrate the likenesses in humans.
Explain that just as humans have many qualities which are similar they are
unique in many ways. Use similarities to explain uniqueness. Using the fact
that all humans need food explain that because of the different environments
where people live they grow different kinds of food and they prepare the food
in different ways. Start a pattern composition:
All humans need food but some grow their own and some buy their food;
All humans have eyes but some are blue, some green, some brown;
All humans need activity but some _______.
While learning about themselves and others, develop understandings about stereotype,
assumptions, bias, and point of view. After experiencing different resources,
ask, "What does this tell us about this person (people)? What doesn't it tell
us about these person (people)?"
Point out that when we access information, we often see a situation or person from one point of view. Other people may have different perspectives. Use resources that present as many points of view as possible. Also, students' own previous experiences may influence their thinking. It may be appropriate to use local situations to help students develop attitudes and actions that counter the bias.
Communities meet needs in different ways
Have students compare the different ways that needs are met in different communities. Compare the housing, foods, schools, recreation activities, religions, community services (e.g., transportation, garbage collection, water supply) in communities around the world.
Have students make connections with the reasons for the differences. These may relate to:
Comparing homes
Make a chart about different types of homes. Divide it into columns. Head each column with a picture of a different kind of house from various parts of the world. Use photographs, sample pictures, or pictures from National Geographic, newspapers, and magazines or sketch pictures. Different types of homes may include tents, Inuit shelter, house boats, round mud houses, stone houses, thatched houses, and houses on stilts. Below the picture list the characteristics of the house such as building materials, where it might be used, how it might be heated, and relative advantages and/or disadvantages of this kind of structure. Have the students consider, "What characteristics are the same and what characteristics are different? Why?"
Use Project Wild, Everybody Needs a Home, p. 26.
Show a picture of a tropical home. Ask, "Is it necessary to heat this home?" Discuss. Ask the students how we heat our homes. (The obvious answer will be furnace, but encourage other answers such as wood stove and fireplace.)
Comparing community water supplies
Show the students a picture of a child in a developing country hauling water from a well. Sometimes the water is hauled long distances and most of the day can be taken up with hauling water. This is often the work of women and girls.
Use synectics to develop empathy. Ask, "What if you had to haul water a long distance every day?"
Guide students to see how this would change their lives.
Use the following activity to illustrate the problem of getting water in some parts of the world and the role that some children play in supplying the family's need for water.
Have the children locate Kenya on a map of the world. Tell them the following story about Msandi:
Msandi is a young girl who lives in Kenya. Every day she walks to the well for her family's water. Msandi knows it's a long way to haul clean water for everyone.
As Canadians, we tend to take water for granted. About two thirds of the world's people must haul their family's water. Half do not have access to a safe supply of water. Unclean water causes a lot of sickness and disease.
Msandi walks two hours to the well and two hours back twice a day to get the water her family needs. If they get a well near their house, then maybe she could go to school again.
Role play a meeting with Msandi. What would you tell her about yourself? What would you want to know about her? Compare her way of obtaining and using water to yours. What are similarities? What are the differences? Discuss practices such as letting the water run while brushing teeth, running the tap water until it is cold or hot, and other ways water may be `wasted'. Ask the students to remember Msandi and all the other children of the world who have to haul water next time the school collects money for an organization like UNICEF.
Explain that Msandi has an important job, she brings her family's water. But she cannot go to school. Discuss the reasons. Ask students what they do to help out in their families? What needs do they help to meet?
Carry water. Simulate Msandi's walk for water. How does it feel to carry a big bucket - can you balance it? Organize a sponsored water relay to raise funds for a citizen action project.
Look at a map of Saskatchewan. Note all the lakes and rivers we have.
In many parts of the world water is very scarce. The arrival of rain is a cause of celebration as it means crops will grow, producing food for the dry season. Many dances and songs are performed in anticipation of rain. Some people believe that by doing these dances the rain will come as a response. Learn about ways groups of people including the Indian peoples of Saskatchewan recognized the importance of rain.
The following is a rain song from Mali, a small African country. A drum rhythm can be made up to accompany the song.
Cekilay, cekilay yaThe rainy season in Mali is from April to August.
Echokeeru oguga ya
Aeekabo A mujo ya Ecokin
Cekilay, Cekilay ya
Itoo Koba Muujoe yaTranslation:
Drum, Drum
Let us turn our backs
King Sunshine is about
to go
Drum, Drum
Rain is about to come.
Read Bringing the Rain to the Kapiti Plain to show the importance of the arrival of the rainy season.
Use rain poems and songs for example:
Robin in the Rain - Raffi Singable Songbook
The Rain - poem in Spectrum of Music 3 (use sound effects)
Worms After the Rain -Lee and Sandy Paley from the album Sing Me Sun
Rain, Rain Go Away
Classroom Rights Develop classroom rights with your students, for example:
Identify responsibilities that accompany these classroom rights.
Use the template Checklist of Attitudes and Actions: Classroom Rights and Responsibilities as a model to develop a tool for assessing attitudes and actions about rights and responsibilities.
Rights of Children Everywhere
The United Nations defines the rights of all people to live in peace and good
health and to be able to develop their full potential. This definition is called
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The United Nations developed
and agreed upon The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, describing
the basic needs of children, as well. It was adopted by a unanimous vote on
November 20, 1959. This was a unique historical event of the twentieth century
because the idea that a child has rights was relatively new and never before
addressed by the international community.
United Nations Declaration Of The Rights Of The Child
Organizations that help families
Working in groups, find out about organizations that help children. Write away requesting information about what the group does to help children. Use the vertical file in the resource centre. The following information about organizations that protect the rights of children or help children has been included to provide a resource base for the research. Use it to build up vertical files.
The teacher may use the material for information and also to get students involved themselves in helping others.
Use the data base: Canadian Children Safety Network for information.
Block Parent Plan
Contact your local police department or the RCMP.
The Block Parent Plan was set up so children can be safe on the streets. This plan is particularly helpful to children on their way to and from school. One person in each block is asked to be a Block Parent. They are given a sign to put in their window so the children in the neighbourhood know which house to go to if they have trouble when they are on the street. If the Block Parent is not going to be home they take the sign out of their window.
Save the Children - Canada
Save the children is working to stop the abuse of children's rights. Save the
Children works in Canada and around the world. Save the Children works in the
communities where children live, making them better and safer places to live.
Save the Children builds schools, clinics, and wells. Save the children involves
the people living in the communities in planning and carrying out the projects.
It sponsors an annual "Valentine Tree Project". For more information contact:
Save the Children - CanadaSafe Kids Canada
3080 Yonge St.
Suite 6020
Toronto, ON M4N 3P4
Accidents are the main killer of children under 14. Accidents kill 2,000 Canadian children every year and put another 75,000 in hospital. This campaign is aimed at prevention. They are attempting to focus the attention of governments on the need for accident prevention programs.
Camp Easter Seal
Saskatchewan Abilities Council
2310 Louise Avenue
Saskatoon, SK S7J 2C7
Tel: 374-4448
Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)
The CNIB works to make the lives of blind people happier. They supply books, magazines, and other reading material in braille. The CNIB realizes that children who become blind will need special help learning their school work. Braille is an alphabet made of dots. Blind people can read braille with their fingertips. The CNIB also supplies taking books for the blind. Books are recorded onto tapes. First a master tape is made and then cassettes are made from the master tape. Blind people can listen to books. CNIB keeps its braille books and talking books in a library. Blind people borrow books from this library.
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of Canada
89 Granton Drive
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 2N5
Some children have a disease called diabetes. Children with diabetes must have daily injections of insulin in order to live. The Canadian Juvenile Diabetes Fund raises money so they can do research. They are looking for ways to prevent and cure diabetes.
Plan International of Canada
95 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, ON M4V 3B5
Tel: 1-800-268-7174
Plan International of Canada works with children whose basic rights are not being met. They work with families and communities to provide the basic rights of children all over the world. They sponsor an "adopt a child" program.
World Vision Canada
6630 Turner Valley Rd.
Mississauga, ON L5N 2S4
Tel: 1-800-268-1650
World Vision Canada works with needy children around the world. They help children fight hunger, disease, ignorance and despair. They give suffering children clothes, food, health care, education, aid for their community, and assurance that someone cares. Through World Vision Canadians can help a needy child. They will receive a picture of the child they are helping, a history of the child and progress reports.
Kids Help Phone
Canadian Children Foundation
60 Bloor St. West
St. 410
Toronto, ON M3W 1A1
Tel: 1-800-268-3062
Kids Help Phone offers service to young people on subjects such as: physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; loneliness and depression, school and family problems, pregnancy, alcohol or substance abuse, delinquency, parental divorce, and suicide. It's a bilingual national service that operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
The Terry Fox Foundation
60 St. Clair Avenue East
Suite 205
Toronto, ON M4T 1N5
Christian Blind Mission International
P.O. Box 800
Stouffville, ON L4A 9Z9
Tel: 1-800-567-CBMI
Christian Blind Mission provides the following services: cataract operations, vitamin A for children, hearing aids, braces, crutches, special shoes, tuition and board at CBMI school and wheelchairs.
Unicef
Unicef Saskatoon
314 - 220 Third Ave S.
Saskatoon, SK S7K 1M1
Tel: 242-4922
Unicef Regina
2724 - 13th Ave.
Regina, SK S4T 1N3
Tel: 352-5449
Have a United Nations Day celebration on October 24th. People all over the world celebrate United Nations Day and it is, therefore, one of the biggest celebrations in the world. Celebrations could include an assembly, program, parade, dance, sing-song, or exhibits. You may choose to celebrate similarities and diversity of people all over the world. Choose a theme such as We Share Our World, We Are One People, or We All Belong to the UN. Invite community members to the celebration. Send UN Day greetings to students in other parts of the world or send a message to the United Nations. Messages to the United Nations can be sent to Education Information Programs, Department of Public Information, United Nations, New York, New York 10017.
Take part in the Unicef Hallowe'en fund raising campaign held in October each year.
Tell the students the story of two Unicef heroes Audrey Hepburn and Aden Bowman Collegiate.
Profile: Audrey Hepburn You may not recognize the name, Audrey Hepburn, as the name of a very famous movie star. But your teacher and parents do.
Audrey Hepburn starred in many movies and became rich and famous. She could have continued that life. But she decided to retire from movies and become a full-time UNICEF Ambassador. As an Ambassador, she visited hundreds of UNICEF projects in many countries of the world. At the projects, she helped feed and care for the children who were hungry and sick. As an Ambassador, she also appeared at banquets, concerts and television shows all over Europe and North America to help raise money for UNICEF.
Why would a famous movie star do this? Her reason was simple, "UNICEF once helped me."
Audrey Hepburn was born in the Netherlands before the second world war. During the war, her father was killed. When she and her mother were hungry and cold, a UNICEF volunteer gave them food and some clothes. Perhaps UNICEF saved her life. Becoming an Ambassador was her way of saying, "Thank you."
When she died in 1993, many people around the world said `thank you' to her for the work she did to save the lives of children.
Profile: Aden Bowman Collegiate, Saskatoon
If you drive by Aden Bowman Collegiate, you will notice that two flags are flying on their flagpole. One is, of course, the flag of Canada. The other is a UNICEF flag. Aden Bowman is the first school in Canada to receive a UNICEF flag.
Why did UNICEF give the high school a flag? It was to celebrate an anniversary. An anniversary marking 30 years of raising money for UNICEF. In 30 years, the school has raised more than $175 000.
Harry Belafonte is a well-known singer and ambassador for UNICEF. To help with the celebration, he was in Saskatoon and met with students of the school. He signed a photograph for the school.
"UNICEF Aden Bowman - The Children of the World are better off because of you. On behalf of the ambassadors for UNICEF we are thankful. Peace, Harry Belafonte"The students have worked hard to raise all that money. But they had fun too. Each year they seem to come up with new ideas of how to raise money. They have had garage sales, starv-a-thons, walk-a-thons, penny trails, fun nights, car packing, auctions, pancake breakfasts, contests, and many other events.
Each year the students also work hard to learn about children in other countries. They learn about children who are hungry and have nowhere to go for food. They learn about children who are sick and have no doctor or hospital to go to. They learn about children who die because their community doesn't have clean water. They learn that these problems are our problems because they affect the whole world. They learn how people in Canada can work with UNICEF and other groups to make life better for all the children of the world.
The students and teachers of Aden Bowman are proud to be Number 1 in Caring! Many other children across Saskatchewan are right up there with them. Many of you are learning about the needs of children. Many of you care enough to say, "I'll help."
If enough of us care and help, perhaps some day we won't need groups like UNICEF anymore.
Use the following information about the United Nations to initiate further research. Have students generate questions about the United Nations, for example:
United Nations
In 1945, at the end of World War II, leaders from many countries came together to form the United Nations, an organization they hoped would prevent war. The goal of the United Nations is for all the countries of the world to get along well. About 160 countries belong to the United Nations. Each nation sends a person called an ambassador to the United Nations' headquarters. These ambassadors speak for the people in their nation. All of the ambassadors from the different countries meet together to talk about rules. A meeting of the ambassadors is called a General Assembly. Ambassadors often try to agree about how the nations should work together.
People in international development
Teacher background
"Educate a man and you educate a person - educate a woman and you educate a community."This slogan reflects a changing attitude in international development. Organizations are beginning to recognize the crucial, though understated, role that women play in their communities as powerful agents of change.
In many developing countries women are most often the caregivers. They and their daughters fetch most of the water a family drinks and control its use; gather firewood; grow and prepare food; and care for the sick. Most important, they teach values and customs to children. If a woman learns to take practical steps to prevent disease and improve health, and if resources are in place to help her maintain healthier household habits, she will ensure that this knowledge is passed on.
In many cultures women do not have an equal place with the men in their communities. Age-old traditions and beliefs value sons more than daughters. In some families this means that men and boys eat more and better food, and sons attend school while their sisters work in the home.
Practices such as these affect the lives of girls and women everywhere, but they also affect development. A malnourished girl is much more likely to die later in childbirth or bear sickly babies than a young woman who eats well.
Changing harmful attitudes toward women is difficult. Community workers who share the same cultural background as the people they are trying to help stand a better chance of changing practices and attitudes. Involving women in primary health care today is practical and effective and it helps communities right away to make changes for a stronger tomorrow.
Adapted from:
The Canadian Red Cross Society. (1992).Community actions
Global Report: Red Cross International
Education Programs Number 11. p. 3.
The following may provide a model for community action that can be adapted and used locally, both in the school and in the larger community.
Community Project in Korea
The Korean War (1950-53) had left Korea a devastated country. A plan to rebuild their communities started in 1971. It was called Saemaul Undong, meaning New Community Movement. The motto was, "diligence, self- help, and cooperation." The initial purpose was to help farmers improve their productivity. The program spread to urban centres.
The program was based on the understanding that local people should identify the things they want changed in their community. It is a model of empowering people to make decisions regarding the things that affect them. Community members identify things that need changing and set priorities. They elect a leader, draw up their plans, and get organized. The national government supplies materials and advice. Local residents do the work. Community improvements such as the building of bridges, community halls, factories, and road repairs were and are still being made. Improvements in health, sanitation, and agricultural production have been realized. Projects such as reforestation have been carried out. This program has helped Korea to move ahead to be a modern, productive, prosperous, and self confident society.
Using the New Community Program in Korea help students understand that:
Use the following materials about Hiroshima to develop understandings related to Hiroshima as the "peace city".
Hiroshima the Peace City
Today the city of Hiroshima in Japan is known as the peace city. At 8:15 on the morning of August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Almost the entire city was devastated in that single moment at the tremendous cost of thousands of human lives. For the survivors, too, there were physical and mental scars that would last a lifetime. The suffering lingers for many even today. The people of Hiroshima pray for peaceful coexistence and prosperity of all mankind and yearn for the realization of real world peace.
The Peace Memorial Museum and park has been built in Hiroshima to remind everyone about the importance of peace. Some of the many statues and monuments in the park include the Children's Peace Monument.
The Children's Peace Monument is called the "Tower of a Thousand Cranes", Thousands of folded paper cranes are offered there through the year. It was built in honour of Sadako and other children who suffered from atomic bomb disease. Sadako Sasaki was eleven years old when she died of leukaemia in October, 1955.
It also includes The A-Bomb Dome. The city of Hiroshima was totally destroyed by the A-Bomb explosion and has been rebuilt. The ruins of one of the destroyed buildings have been left standing as a reminder of the destruction. It is preserved as an appeal for world peace and as a witness to the horror of nuclear weapons. World wide campaigns raised funds to preserve this building.
The Flame of Peace is a flame in the Hiroshima Peace Park that will burn continually until the day when all nuclear weapons have disappeared from the earth.
Japanese school children visit the Hiroshima Peace Park with their teachers. They make colourful chains of paper cranes and place them on statues and monuments.
Learn about the effect of war on women and children. There were many stories of heroism and bravery connected to the bombing of Hiroshima. Tell the story of Kinuko Laskey.
Profile: Kinuko Laskey Kinuko Laskey was 16 years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. She was a volunteer in a hospital 1.4 km from the centre of the blast. Seconds after the air raid warning, she was surrounded by an orange light and was blown out of the room. She managed to crawl to a broken water pipe, where she lost consciousness.
When she revived, a doctor carried her inside and stitched her face with heavy needles and no anaesthetics. He apologized for not attending to her sooner, but he believed that she was dead. She crawled through the city until she reached a train station and begged a man to carry her onto the train. It took her 15 or 16 days to get to where her mother and sister lived. They took care of her, but because of all her terrible burns and other injuries, she believed that she had no future. But she was wrong.
Kinuko now lives in Vancouver with her husband. She spends much of her time trying to educate people about the horrors of bombs and war. In 1982 Edward Kennedy invited her to speak at a U.S. Senate hearing about her experiences.
In Hiroshima where the bomb fell, some of the ruined buildings have been left as they were. The area around them is built up as a park. It is a memorial to the many people who died and those like Kinuko, who were severely injured. What would be a good name for the park? The Japanese people called it Peace Park.
Kinuko often speaks to school groups and teaches the students to fold paper cranes, a symbol of peace in Japan.
As a follow-up to the story, the teacher may have students do one or more of the following:Adapted with permission from the Saskatoon Women's Calendar Collective, Herstory, 1991, p. 64.
Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands was born on January 19, 1943 in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada where her mother Princess Juliana had come to wait for the war in Europe to end. The building where Princess Margriet was born had been declared Dutch territory so that the Princess would have the Dutch nationality of her father. The Dutch people were so grateful to the Canadians for their help during the World War II that they gave the Canadians a lot of tulip bulbs. The tulips can be seen blooming in Ottawa every spring.
Explore the effects of war on children and their communities. How did the experiences of the Dutch princess differ from the experiences of great numbers of other children?
Compare the peace flames in Ottawa and in Hiroshima. Use focused imaging to help students understand the strength, optimism, and hope that the flame represents. Draw their representation of the peace flame and incorporate their hopes for the future into the picture.
Learn about Canada's role as a peace keeper. Use current events.
Learn about famous peace makers such as Chief Poundmaker, Lester B. Person, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. Use them as examples to develop understandings about peace and community living. Work in groups to list qualities of peace keepers. Write about a peace keeper they know or would like to know.
Learn quotes from famous peace keepers. Using current events and events in the school have students reflect on what famous peace keepers may have thought or said about the events.
Use the following saying to initiate discussion about peace at home and in the world:
If there be righteousness in the heart,Confucianism
there will be beauty in the character.
If there be beauty in the character,
there will be harmony in the home.
If there be harmony in the home,
there will be order in the nation.
If there be order in the nation,
there will be peace in the world.
Have a peace celebration, possibly connecting it with Remembrance Day. Use Let's Celebrate, page 215.
Reflect through journals or artistic interpretation about times they feel at peace and times they do not feel at peace.
Assess attitudes towards peace using the template Assessment of Attitudes and Values. Use a caption such as This is how I feel about peace in the classroom and school, or This is how I feel about fighting on the playground.
Conflict resolution Using the classroom and the school as an example ask the students to identify times when there is conflict among people and identify causes of that conflict.
Use literature to explore conflict and conflict resolution.
Through discussion, example, and drama in context show that conflict can have positive outcomes. Ask the students to reflect upon times in their lives when conflict bas had positive outcomes and write about it in their journal or use the incident to write a story.
Use role play to explore different ways of resolving conflicts. Establish group and individual objectives for using conflict resolution in the school. Enter the objectives on a template and evaluate group and individual progress over a period of time.
Create a list of guidelines for solving conflicts which arise in the family and community. Choose group and individual objectives, enter them on a template, and assess progress at regular intervals.
Set up a "Peace Desk" in the classroom. If two people are having a conflict they sit facing each other at the Peace Desk and "talk out" the problem.
Ideals and reality
Identify the difference between ideals and reality. Use the following sentences starters:
Use the United Nations Charter of the Rights of the Child to learn about the ideal situation for each child. Establish a list of ideals for children in a perfect world. Record them on a chart titled Ideals.
Your "Ideals" chart might include statements such as:
In an ideal world all children would have enough to eat. In an ideal world all children would live in peace.Have students find evidence in newspapers, magazines, and on the television and radio to indicate that some children do not live in an ideal world. Collect pictures and articles. Start another chart titled Reality.
Your Reality chart might include statements such as:
In the real world some children do not receive health care. In the real world some children do not receive an education.Formulate a summary statement reflecting the understanding that reality does not always reflect ideals.
| Name:_______________ | Dates: | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Code:
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| Demonstrates interest and enthusiasm for classroom rights and responsibilities by discussing and determining them. |
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| Demonstrates interest and enthusiasm for classroom rights and responsibilities by following them. |
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| Accepts Respnsibility. | ||||||
| Shows an appreciation of rights and rules by reminding others about them. |
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| Is interested in protecting the rights of other students. |
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| Is interested in protecting personal rights. |
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| Offers constructive suggestions to other children and adults. |
The teacher needs to determine what criteria will be used to assess these. For example, "Accepts responsibility" could include the following:
Draw a picture of yourself doing something to look after the environment. Write a sentence to tell about your pictures.
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