Educator+Teaching+Materials

=//**EDUCATOR TEACHING MATERIALS:**//=

Second Grade: Rules, Rules, Everywhere
Students will explore why rules are important and be able to explain how rules keep order and safety in places.

As a springboard to this unit, the media specialist will read, __Where the Wild Things Are__ by Maurice Sendak.

After reading this book, the classroom teacher will review the Process Guide (see "Gr 2 - Process Guide1-card game" attachment below). The teacher can either display the Process Guide and walk students through it or give it as a handout for students to use. The teacher will then break students into groups of three or four. Once they have their groups, have members decide on a card game. They can choose either Addition Snap or Subtraction Snap. Hand out the chosen card game folders and cards (see "Gr 2 - game directions" attachment below). Inside the folders, children will either find directions to playing the game or just a title page. This is PURPOSEFUL! Have children play the game. Try to avoid answering questions to those that do NOT have directions. Feel free to help those that do have directions. Once the students have had the opportunity to realize how difficult it is to play a game without directions, call all students back to the carpet. Discuss the problems and successes with the two card games. Keep a list of positives and negatives while each group shares. Then ask the question "What did we learn?" Use chart paper or a pre-made poster to record students comments (see "Gr 2-charts" attachment below).

The teacher will use the statements given by the students to present the essential question, "Why are rules important?" The teacher will refer back to the Wild Things in __Where the Wild Things Are__ asking students how the Wild Things followed or didn't follow rules. Record comments on chart paper or a pre-made poster (see "Gr 2-charts" attachment below). As students begin to see that the Wild Things were lacking in rules, they will want to rectify this. Explain that we have to be good citizens and teach the Wild Things about rules. Ask "What rules should we teach the Wild Things?" Make a list of all the ideas. Record suggested rules on chart paper or a pre-made poster (see "Gr 2-charts" attachment below). Then have students choose what rule they want to teach the Wild Things (have children write their name next to the rule they choose. More than one child can sign up next to the same rule). This will create your small groups or partners.

Explain that the class is going to create a "rule book" for the Wild Things (see "Gr 2 - Process Guide 2-Comic Life" attachment below). We are going to show the Wild Things what the rule looks like when it is broken and what the rule looks like when it is followed. Each group will use a camera and Comic Life to create their page. The Media Specialist and the teacher will be working together to help students take pictures of what the rule looks like broken and what it looks like when being followed. Students will act out the breaking of the rule and freeze. A snapshot will be taken. Then the students will act out the correct way to follow the rule and freeze. Another snapshot will be taken. The images will be downloaded to the computers in the media center where students will go about creating their comic pages. Each page must have the rule, both images and an explanation of each image.

Once all pages are complete, the book will be reproduced and bound, and the book will be placed in book bins for Self Selected Reading and in the library for check-out.









Fourth Grade: More than a Bill
Students will explore rights and responsibilities of individuals within a group and be able to explain how rights and responsibilities affect us, our community, and our government.

In the media center, students will be given a process guide (see "Gr 4-Process Guide" attachment below) and the 1, 2, 3 graphic organizer (see "Gr 4 - Graphic Org 123" attachment below) to explore a website and give 1 known fact, 2 questions, and 3 new ideas. Students will use the 1,2,3 graphic organizer to explore Ben's Guide to U.S. Government, specifically the rights of citizens (Bill of Rights) and the responsibilities of citizens. Students will then come together in their classroom to share their new information as well as questions they still have. As students share, questions about how rights and responsibilities are made (laws are made) will surface. The teacher will then use the questioning to introduce the essential question, "How do we create and develop rights and responsibilities (laws)?" This will springboard us into investigating how government passes laws (the legislative and executive branches). We will return to Ben's Guide to U.S. Government to discover how laws are made using a second 1, 2, 3 graphic organizer (copied on the back of the original handout). Students will then role-play this process to determine the necessary rights and responsibilities for the classroom community.

First, students will represent citizens (constituents) in the class community. They will write a right and/or responsibility on a note card and give a short explanation as to why it is necessary to have for a safe and productive classroom. Once all rights and responsibilities have been written and collected, students will choose which member of congress they would like to represent, the House of Representatives or the Senate. The teacher and media specialist will represent the President and Vice President. The teacher or media specialist will make copies of the cards, half for the House of Representatives (on red paper) and half for the Senate (on blue paper). Within each group (the House of Representatives and the Senate), students will be broken into committees. Each committee will review the bills and make one of three decisions; make no changes to it and send it back to the larger group for voting, make changes and send it back to the larger group for voting, or do nothing with it by tabling it meaning there is no vote on it. Once this happens, each card is presented to the larger group for voting. If it passes with a majority vote (a sticker is placed on it), then it transfers to the other congressional house for second voting. Again, it is presented and the majority of the members must vote yes for it to pass. If it passes, a second ticker is placed on it and it goes to the President for signature or veto. This will continue with all note cards the Senate or House of Representatives feel need to be voted upon. As the President signs the bills into law, they will be added to a Classroom Bill of Rights and Responsibilities that will be signed by all students and teachers involved. These will become the classroom rules that all "citizens" in this class signed and will obey. Post the signed Bill of Rights and Responsibilities in the classroom.