Jennifer's+Lesson+Plan

Title: American Symbols

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Unit: Social Studies

Content Standards: SSKH2 The student will identify important American symbols and explain their meaning.

a. The national and state flags (United States and Georgia flags)

b. The bald eagle

c. The Statue of Liberty

d. Lincoln Memorial

e. Washington Monument

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f. White House

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g. Pledge of Allegiance

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h. Star Spangled Banner

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Instructional Objectives:


 * Students will be given a rubric to follow to give information on their state.
 * ======Students will identify American symbols.

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 * ======Students will research American symbols using technology.

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 * ======<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students will identify the state for each American symbol.

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 * ======<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students will present their researched information to the class.

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 * ======<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students will demonstrate their understanding of these symbols by creating a book based on the information they learned from their

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">classmates.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Introduction: Teacher will display pictures of the American symbols and call on students to name the symbols. The teacher will discuss the word symbol and its’ meaning. The students will be broken into groups of 2. Each group will be given an American symbol.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each group will be assigned an American symbol and a rubric to follow. The symbol will be researched using the internet. The teacher will provide the students with a choice of 2 child-friendly websites where the students are able to view pictures and basic information about the symbol such as the state that it is located, what the symbol means, and what the symbol looks like. Each group will write 3 sentences about the symbol in their journals. The students will draw a picture of the symbol on the Activboard and present their information to the class. With teacher guidance, the children will be responsible for taking notes and drawing a picture of the symbol. After each group has presented their symbol the class will create an American Symbol Book that will contain 3 facts about each symbol and a picture.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials/Resources: Computers, Internet, Activboard, American symbol pictures, journals, pencils, construction paper, and crayons.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Evaluation: The students will be evaluated based on their group participation as well as their American symbol presentation. A rubric will be used to grade the American Symbol Book.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Comment by Jeanne: I teach third grade and have recently heard that teaching American symbols is one of our benchmarks. Your lesson on having students research the symbol and create a book is great. In the past I have created books but this is an idea I will have to consider.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Comment by Kim: I love teaching American Symbols. Can I ask, what will be the problem that the students will need to solve for your lesson? I am amazed that your students will be able to do research online. My students are able to navigate games, but not sure they would be able to do research. I need to get on the ball. :)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To Kim from Jennifer: I struggle in creating PBL for my kindergarteners, especially at the beginning of the school year. I will provide the students with a rubric that states guidelines for their research. I will guide them with questions to solve such as: which state does the symbol represent, when was the symbol established, etc. I would not be able to do this assignment at any other schools that I have taught at. My kindergarteners are basically first graders. They all come in reading and writing. It is a very "intense" community.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online Collaboration Lesson =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Title: American Symbols

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grade Level: Kindergarten

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unit: Social Studies

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Content Standards:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SSKH1 The student will identify the purpose of national holidays and describe the people or events celebrated

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Instructional Objectives:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The students will understand that the culture of a society is the product of the religion, beliefs, customs, traditions, and government of that society.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The student will understand that culture is how people think, act, celebrate, and make rules, and that it what makes a group of people special.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Introduction:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher will begin the lesson with a review of the American Symbols. The students will share their American Symbols book and discuss.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The class will play a game using the Activboard. Using the website [], The students will be asked to match the correct holiday/tradition to the correct month of the year.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher will explain that we will be discussing Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Flag Day. Using our Social Studies big book, teacher will show pictures and describe the purpose of each holiday. The students will go back to their seat to draw a picture of how they celebrate each holiday with their family.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After finishing their picture, the students will return to the carpet and share their pictures. Teacher will display the class website on the Activboard. The students will be directed to the class blog link on our website. The students will be placed into their groups from the previous day. The students will look up when the holiday is celebrated, why the holiday is celebrated, and how the holiday is celebrated. The students will be asked to research American symbols relating to the holiday. After the questions are researched, the students will complete a “comparing holidays” chart and post to our class blog.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials/Resources:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Computers, Internet for research, Activboard, American symbol pictures, and American Symbols books.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Evaluation:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Observation, blog posts

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Christine's Response to Jennifer:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I think that this is a very engaging lesson plan! I like your use of technology with using the Activboard and having the students particiapte in this. I also like that you are having the students take this lesson and relate it to their own lives by drawing pictures of holidays within their homes. With the blog posts that students will be participating in, this will also give some some good experiences with this for their future classes. Great lesson! <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Response from Kim <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Love the website you found...I will need to "borrow" that. Your students are going to love this lesson. They can even play the game from home if you share the website in a newsletter. Nice work.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Digital StoryTelling Lesson =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Title: American Symbols

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grade Level: Kindergarten

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Unit: Social Studies

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Content Standards:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SSKH2 The student will identify important American symbols and explain their meaning.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a. The national and state flags (United States and Georgia flags)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Instructional Objectives:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· The students will name the number of stars, the number of red and white stripes, and name what each represents.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Students will learn that a symbol is something that stands for, or represents, something else.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Introduction:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher will begin lesson by reviewing pictures of the American symbols. Call on students to name the symbol and tell what they have learned about it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teacher will display a picture of the American flag. Call on students to tell what 3 colors they see on the flag. Explain to the students that the stars and the stripes on the flag have meaning. Teach the students that the 50 stars represent the 50 states and the 13 stripes represent the 13 original colonies. Explain to the students that they will be researching when the flag was made and who made the flag. Provide students with the website to find the information. Students will go to their computer and find the information. We will record the information as a class on our class website to show parents what we have been learning.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We will come back to carpet and choose a virtual field trip from[|My America Field Trip,]and discuss. Students will brainstorm what the American Flag means to them. The students will draw a picture of the American flag and write 3 sentences about what the American Flag means to them. As a class, we will turn the pictures into a digital story and link to our class website for parents to see. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Materials/Resources: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Computers, internet, ActivBoard, paper, pencils, crayons <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Evaluation: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The students will be evaluated based on their class participation. I will also evaluate the students based on their contribution to the digital story.