Julia Giordano

November 18, 2014

Emerson Elementary School

Title: How are Communities Different? 2nd Grade

Essential Questions: What are the characteristics of urban, rural, and suburban communities? What are
the differences? How are these communities placed around each other?
Standard
7.2.2.B. Identify the basic physical processes that affect the physical characteristics regions.

Learning Objectives and Assessments

Objectives
Students will be able to identify characteristics of
urban, suburban, and rural communities.

Assessments
Students will be given a word or characteristic that
fits into one type of community. They will have to
determine which community their word belongs in.

Students will be able to find the differences

between urban, suburban, and rural communities.

Students will complete a workbook page.

Materials
24 cards with a characteristic or word written on them
Student workbooks
Pre-lesson assignments and/or Prior Knowledge
Students have learned of the three types of communities urban, suburban, and rural. They have
investigated each community and identified characteristics of each.
Lesson Beginning
Review the three types of communities by showing pictures on the board. Students will respond to which
type of the community the picture belongs in.
Instructional Plan
1. After reviewing urban, suburban, and rural communities, tell the class that today, we will be
learning about the differences of communities.
2. Explain that each student will be getting a card with a picture and a word on it. Tell the students
that they will have to figure out which type of community their card belongs in. If their card
belongs in a rural community, they will go to a corner of the classroom. Point out where students
should stand. If their card belongs in a suburban community, they will stand outside of the square

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that is taped on the ground. If their card belongs in an urban community, they will stand inside of
the square that is taped on the ground.
Tell students that when they get their card, they will only look at it first. When they are told, they
can walk to the spot their card belongs in.
Hand out cards to students. Differentiate by pre-planning the cards recipients. Tell students to
take a minute to look at their cards. After a minute, instruct them to begin walking to their spot.
Walk around and make sure students are in the correct place. (This is also a good time to assess
the students on whether or not they know where their characteristic should be placed.)
When students are in correct places, ask students in the rural community to tell the class what was
on their card. As the students tell the class what was on their card, project that word/picture from
the PowerPoint.
Continue with the suburban group and the urban group. When all words/pictures are projected,
ask students to look around the room and on the board. Ask what they notice about the amount of
people in each group. Students should recognize that there are the most people in the urban
community in the middle. There are the least in the rural community on the outside.
Tell the rural community to hand in their cards and sit in their seats. Continue with the other two
groups.
When all students are sitting, ask the class why they think the communities are organized this
way. Tell students that because cities are so crowded, people wanted to live in a less crowded
place, so suburban communities were created. This way, people could work in the city but live in
the suburbs. The rural communities are on the outside of the suburban areas because they have
the most land and space. The least amount of people live in the rural areas. Rural needs space for
farms.
Show a picture from a birds-eye view with all three communities shown. Ask a student to come
up and circle the urban community. Ask two others to come up to the board to circle the
suburban and urban communities.
Call students by table to get their notebooks. They will open to the next page to circle what they
would find in each community. If they are finished early, they may color their communities book
they have been working on.
Go over the answers to the workbook page.
Tell students to pass their workbooks to the captains and collect the workbooks. Tell students to
put away their community books.

Differentiation
Pre-assign cards that will be given to students. The cards will have words as well as pictures on them
to help the struggling readers.
Questions
What do you notice about the amount of people in each community? How are communities different?
How are the communities placed around each other?
Closure
Project the cards students were given in the beginning. Students will respond urban, suburban, or rural to
each card to reinforce the characteristics of each community.