Pop-Up Communities

From teachers to farmers, many people and things together comprise a community. In this social studies lesson, students will identify and illustrate their dream community by making a pop-up card.

Grade:

Second Grade

Subjects:

Social Studies

Community and Culture

Community Helpers

View aligned standards

No standards associated with this content.

Learning Objectives

Students will learn to think about all that it takes to make a community function and apply it to building their own community.

Introduction

(10 minutes)

Gather your students into a group. Start a class discussion about communities. First as: What is a community?
After some discussion, define community as a group of people living in the same place or having a specific characteristic in common.
Follow that up with a question like: What does a community need to survive?
Write your students' answers on the board.
Ask guiding questions to help them think of answers they might not have included, such as: What about someone or something to protect them? What about food and water? * Repeat this until you have all of the pieces of a community that you've discussed.
Ask students for real-life examples for each term. Ask them to give examples for each term. For example: Protectors: military, police officers, and fire fighters. Food: apples, cheese, steak.
Explain that these are the things that allow communities to work and survive. Your students will be using these examples for inspiration when creating their own communities.
Display your example pop-up community. Your sample should include a leader, protector, sustenance, citizens, and shelters. Walk your class through examples of each, defining words if necessary. For example: Explain that sustenance refers to food and drink used to nourish people, and citizens are the people who live in a community.
Encourage your class to use their imaginations when brainstorming elements for their communities. Tell your class that they can make any kind of community that they want, as long as it has what it needs to survive, a leader, protector, shelter, citizens, and sustenance.*
Instruct your students to name their communities.