Social Studies - 1st Grade
Standard 2 Objective 3
5 class periods of 30 minutes each
Large Groups
The students will learn to identify different world, national, state, and community symbols and distinguish between them.
Books:
Day 1 can be completed with little preparation on the part of the teacher. The other days will require more planning in order to be prepared.
Students will need to understand the difference between world, nation, state, and community
The students will be able to identify different symbols and landmarks and differentiate between community and school, state, national, and world symbols.
Day 1
Gather the class together. Tell the class that you are going to show them some different hand signs and see if they can guess what the signs mean.
(Show the signs for love, peace, listen, counting 1-5, yawning, etc.)
Now make some sounds the class can hear and have the class guess them. (Sounds may include clapping, sighing, animal noises etc.) Tell the class that these signs are symbols and that symbols are all around us.
Symbols can be pictures as well as hand signs or sounds. Ask the class to name some picture symbols they know. (These may include restaurant signs, street signs, food signs, etc.) Refer to the materials list for large black and white pictures of different community and school, state, national, and world symbols.
Send the students to their seats with a sheet of blank paper to draw as many symbols as they can think of. Then have them share their drawings with the class.
Day 2
Introduce community symbols to the class. For fun game ideas, refer to the web sites listed in the materials portion of the lesson. The web sites are "Do You Know Your Traffic Signs" and "Traffic Sign Bingo."
Day 3
Introduce state symbols to the class. A fun book to read is "A is for Arches: A Utah Alphabet" by: Becky Hall.
Day 4
Introduce national symbols and world symbols to the class. National symbols can be introduced through using the "Symbols" PowerPoint listed in the materials and by reading the books Americana Adventure, by Michael Garland and Uncle Sam and Old Glory: Symbols of America, by: Delno C. West.
Day 5
Give the class the "Symbols and Landmarks." assessment sheet found in the Materials section of this lesson plan.
Ask students who have traveled to other countries, or who are native to other countries, to share pictures, experiences, or memorabilia that they might have. Also, take the class on a visit to the school library to look at books about Utah, America, and different countries around the world. (You will want to let your librarian know about this visit ahead of time so that books can be gathered and ready for your class visit.)
Have students follow the directions at the top of the page (Symbols and Landmarks) to identify the different symbols.