Communities

We've been in school for about 3 weeks now.  

Hard to believe!!

AND the theme in our classroom has been Communities.

I've been stressing the importance of the learning community in our

classroom, and how we treat each other and work together.

Then, we just finished up our Hour of the Olympics literature study in which 

my class was able to learn a bit about the ancient Greek community. 

They loved this ,and it was the perfect opportunity to throw in some Greek mythology and 

Greek plays to go along with this unit.

My goal this year is to work hard on ways to implement our third grade curriculum so that it flows into one coherent theme that 

not only incorporates what we are doing in reading, writing, and social studies and science as well, while meeting the Common Core Standards. Whew!

I'm so jealous of all of you that already have your curriculum set up in just this way. 

Kudos to you!

So I created a Community Unit in social studies that also tied in with our Hour of the Olympics Literature Study, and a story from our basal reader,  " Officer Buckle and Gloria".

AND it will be a perfect bridge into an election unit I want to do with my kiddos later in October.

This "All About Communities" Unit includes 5 powerpoint lessons  and stations and activities to go with each lesson.  I also created a study guide and test go go with this unit of study.

Here's a peek at some of the stations in action:

This little station is the "What type of community is this?"

Students have cards to read that give descriptions of a community.  They must decide which community the description matches and place it on either the rural, urban, or suburban mat.  Then they are to record this information on the work mat that you see on the clipboards.

This is the "What makes up a community?" station.

In this station students had two  mats, "community" and "not a community".  Their job was to read the cards that went with this station and decide if the item was something that helped make up a community.  Then each student recorded their findings on their work mat.

This is a snapshot of the "Community Workers memory game".  Students were given cards that had a picture of a community worker or a job description of a particular community worker.  Students had to match the picture of the community worker to his/her job description but the rules were that of the "Memory Game".

Yesterday we had a mock city council meeting.  This was another activity from the "All About Communities" Unit.  My students were divided into 4 teams.  Each team has a specific area of the community that they were responsible for creating rules for the community members to follow. These areas included the outdoor swimming pool, city parks, roadways, and school buildings.  

If you are interested in finding out more information on this packet click

on the pictures below to be taken to my TPT store. 

It includes 27 powerpoint slides and a 40 page unit of stations and activities.

I am in the process of adding nonfiction books to my library that go with the community theme.  I would love to hear your suggestions for some great nonfiction books!!

Have a fabulous weekend!  I'll leave you with this fitting quote I found on Pinterest.

So True!!