Citizenship: Home, School, and Community
Session 2: Communities Where We Live

Materials

• Construction paper in a variety of colors, cut into 8½" x 5½" pieces
• Paper and pencils
• Chart paper and markers

Instructional Activities

NOTE: The following Web resource may be helpful:
Kids Next Door. <http://www.hud.gov/kids/index.html>.

1. Review the concept of community from Session 1.
   
   
2. Make a list of places in the neighborhood community that are shared by others (e.g., schools, parks, libraries). Write the list on chart paper. Ask students who in their community helps them with certain problems or situations, using questions such as the following:
   •    Who would you call if you needed to find a book?
   •    Who would you call if you needed a ride home?
   •    Who could you call if you saw smoke in your house?
   
   
3. Create a list of people around the community who can be called to help in those situations. (Neighbors could be included in some of the answers.)
   
   
4. Invite community speakers to come and talk about what they use when they help people in the community. Ask the speakers to share what time, talents, and items they use to help the community and to discuss why the students can trust them to do their job. Create a class chart summarizing the information that students learned from each community speaker. If community speakers are not available, read teacher-selected books about the people in the community who support the students and their families.
   
   
5. After the community speakers leave, ask the children to dictate a few facts that they learned about each community speaker. Mount the pictures and sentences on large paper, and staple them into a book for the class library. Later, write a class thank you note to the speakers.
   
   
6. Ask the students, “Who needs to help in our community?” Allow the students to brainstorm, and remind them that “Everyone is a community helper in our community!”
   
   
7. Through class discussion, compile a list of jobs that need to be done in the classroom or school area to make it the best place to learn. Use the pre-cut pieces of construction paper, and have all children trace and cut out their hand pattern and label it with their name. Ask each student to decide what one job on the class list he or she would like to do for the class, and attach his or her hand to the list near that job. Set a time for the classroom jobs to be done.