LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

Kelsey Mercadante
Mrs. Lowery, Paul Munro Elementary School, 1st Grade
Date: September 11th, 2015. Time: 2:05-2:30

A. TITLE OF LESSON: Communities Focus on School Community Lesson 2

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
During this lesson, students will apply what they have learned about their school community
at Paul Munro. Since students have learned about the people who make up the community,
they will choose an important person who is a part of our community and thank him or her
for all that they do to help our school.
C. UNWRAPPING THE VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING
1. Grade Level and Content Area:
First Grade: Social Studies & English
2. Standard and Indicators:
S.S: SOL 1.12 - The student will recognize that communities in
Virginia
c) include people who have diverse ethnic origins,
customs, and traditions, who make contributions to
their communities, and who are united as
Americans by common principles.

English:SOL1.12The student will print legibly.

a) Form letters accurately.
b) Space words within sentences.
c) Use the alphabetic code to write unknown words
phonetically.

Blooms Taxonomy
Levels:
Understand
Apply
D. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand

Know

Do

U1: People make valuable

K1: A community is a place

D1: Describe a school

contributions to their
communities and are united by
common principles.

where people live, work, and

play.
K2: Communities share a set
of rules or common principles.

community.
D2: Indicate the important
people who make up our
school community and how
they make Paul Munro a better
place.
D3: Write a thank you note to
a school community helper.

E. ASSESSING LEARNING
I will assess students through observation and their completion of their thank you note to a
school community helper.
Students will write a thank you note to someone in our school community (librarian, janitor,
cafeteria workers, secretary, principal, art teacher, etc.)
F. MATERIALS NEEDED
1. School Community Thinking Web from yesterdays lesson (will help them write thank
you note)
2. Smart Board
3. Guided thank you notes
4. Pencils
5. Markers, Crayons, or Colored Pencils (if time to draw a picture)
G. PROCEDURE
Prep:
Prepare guided thank you note for students (17 copies)
Collect and pass out the students thinking maps that will help them write their thank you
notes
Engage:
Tell the class that today we are going to write a thank you note to one of the members of
our school community that we talked about yesterday
Ask, Who remembers an important person from our school community that we learned
about yesterday? Classroom teachers, students, Janitors, Cafeteria workers, music
teacher, PE teacher, art teacher, secretary, librarian, principal, parents (PTO/PTA)
o Allow students to come up with answers
o Build on students answers
Implementation:
Pass out the guided thank you notes that students will write/fill out
Model a thank you note on the smart board so students know what to do
Tell students they are going to pick one person from our school to write a thank you note
to.

Have students work on writing/filling out the guided thank you notes.
Walk around the room and circulate. Make sure students stay on task and are writing kind
thank you notes that make sense.

Closure:
Students can draw a picture on their thank you note, after they finished writing, if time
allows
If time, have students share their completed thank you notes with the rest of the class.
H. DIFFERENTIATION

Content

Process

Product

Interest

Readiness

Students have a
choice of who to
write their thank
you note to.

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?

Students may not know the names of some of the people in our school
o Tell them to look at their thinking web to help them. Remind students of the persons
name they are writing a note to.
Students may not know what to put in their thank you note.
o Modeling a thank you note at the beginning of class should guide students before
they begin their note. If they still need help, I will be walking around the room and
helping students in need. Tell students to raise their hand if they have any questions.
A students handwriting could be too messy/difficult for a school community helper to read.
o I could have a writing conference with each student. I could have a student translate
their thank you note to me. I could edit it and then have them fix it the next morning
to write it legibly. This will allow the school community helper to understand the
childs handwriting.