Responsibilities of Citizenship
Session 4: The Diversity of People in the United States

Materials

• Teacher-selected book about immigrants coming to America
• Globe or world map
• Ingredients to make “trail mix,” mixing bowl, mixing spoons, paper towels

Instructional Activities

1. Ask students if there is “one kind” of person who is an American citizen. Lead into a discussion that the United States is a land of people with diverse ethnic origins, customs, and traditions who contribute to their community by practicing the responsibilities of good citizenship.
   
   
2. Using a map of the United States, tell the students that a long, long time ago only a few people lived in America. Ask: “How do you think other people got here?” Write the students’ ideas on the board, and review it when they are finished.
   
   
3. Tell students that thousands of years ago the ancestors of American Indians (First Americans) came from Asia, across a land bridge into what is now known as Alaska. Show the movement with your finger or a pointer. What are ancestors? (An ancestor is a relative from long ago, like your great-great grandma.) The ancestors of the Americans Indians (First Americans) traveled and settled in both North and South America. Point out both continents. Continue with the following information and activities:
   •    Later, people came from Europe to America. Point to Europe, and move your finger across the Atlantic Ocean to North America.
   •    Some people traveled from Africa. Show movement from Africa to North America across the Atlantic Ocean.
   •    Later more and more people came. They landed in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Point to each city.
   •    Later people moved west and settled. Show movement across the United States from east to west.
   •    People started coming from China. Point to China, and trace the path they may have taken across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco.
   
   
4. Read a teacher-selected book about immigrants coming to America. Discuss reasons people might come to America. While reading, pause for understanding of the following concepts:
   •    Immigrants are people who come to a new land to make their home.
   •    The “melting pot” is created when immigrants of many backgrounds and cultures blend together to make our country.
   
   
5. Explain that America is called a melting pot because all of these people from different countries and cultures have come here to live as Americans.
   
   
6. Ask students if they have ever eaten “trail mix”? Ask them what happens when you put cereal, pretzels, small crackers, and dried fruit in the bowl together? The individual items all mix together to become “trail mix.” If the resources are available, make “trail mix.” TEACHER NOTE: Peanut allergies can be life threatening. Before adding peanuts to the “trail mix,” please check with the school nurse.
   
   
7. Emphasize the “melting pot” idea when all the individual ingredients are mixed together. Show students the new mixture. Talk about how the trail mix is like the different groups of people making the trail mix taste better with a variety of ingredients. The mix takes on a new shape and a new flavor. By themselves, the pretzels taste the same. When you add all the other ingredients, the taste of the trail mix is more flavorful. The trail mix is like a community where all kinds of people come together.
   
   
8. Review the teacher-selected book, and ask students to elaborate on reasons immigrants came to America.
   
   
9. Explain to the class that the people wanted freedom. Many of the immigrants couldn’t go to the church they wanted to. Their government said they all had to go to the same church. They wanted the freedom to be able to say what they wanted to say. Some of the immigrants came from countries where you could not talk against the government, where you couldn’t have an opinion. They wanted freedom.
   
   
10. Discuss what happened to the freedoms of American Indians (First Americans) when immigrants claimed their freedoms.
    
    
11. Tell students you would like them to ask a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent or any adult relative to share stories about their ancestry.
    
    
12. Have students explore their own ancestry with the help of their family members. Follow up with a class discussion of their findings.
    
    
13. Allow the students, with teacher’s guidance, to mark the locations of their ancestors on the map using pushpins. Mark the location of your ancestors on the map to share with students.
    
    
14. Allow time for everyone to review the map. If there is not a great deal of variety in the locations of homelands, discuss possible reasons why so many of one nationality settled in the same area. (They may have missed their homeland. They may have wanted to maintain their culture. It may have made being in a foreign land easier when they were with people from the same area.)
    
    
15. Have students draw a family portrait and share it with the class.
    
    
16. Help students make a class quilt or mural with their family portraits.