Lesson
6: What Goods And Services Can My Community Provide?
Overview:
As students learn
about needs and wants they will also learn to differentiate between
goods and services, and learn that goods and services are provided
in the community. They will identify workers that provide the goods
and services that people in most communities want to have.
Suggested time allowance:
2 class period(s)
Standards:
SS 4.1, 4.2
ELA 1, 2, 3, 4
Essential Unit
Questions:
How do people in a community
fulfill their needs and wants?
9x12 white construction
paper (enough for each student to have 2)
Markers for students (skinny
and fat)
Colored pencils for students
Books:
Kalman, Bobbie. Community
Helpers from A to Z. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company,
1997. An alphabet book introducing occupations oriented to the
community, including emergency workers, medical workers, the service
industry, and business.
Scarry, Richard. Busy,
Busy Town. Wisconsin: Golden Books, 2000. Welcome to Busytown
where everyone is on their way to work. The Busytown grocers stock
and sell fresh food; the bankers keep the money safe; the doctors
and nurses make sure everyone is healthy; the postal workers collect
and deliver letters; the sanitation workers collect trash and
recyclables; the lumber workers chop trees to make furniture and
houses; and the workers at the docks, railroads and airports help
transport people and freight. But it takes even more careers and
professions than that to keep this busy town running.
Scarry, Richard. Richard
Scarry's What Do People Do All Day. New York, NY: Random House
Books for Young Readers, 1968. Shows and tells what busy people
do every day to build houses, sail ships, fly planes, keep house,
and grow food.
Rice, Melanie. All About
Things People Do. New York, NY: Kingfisher Books Doubleday,
1992. Describes what people do in different jobs, such as pilots,
athletes, and hairdressers; what different places look like, from
factories, to schools, to theaters; and how things are made, including
cars, clay pots, and buildings
Web Connections:
Your Neighborhood. Ben’s
Guide to US Government for Kids. http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/neighborhood/index.html
July 28, 2006.
This web site permits students to click on a fire station, police
station, post office, hospital, library or school. For each of
these places, a community helper is displayed and an explanation
of his or her job is offered.
What’s My Job? Homes
and Communities US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
http://www.hud.gov/kids/job1.html
July 28, 2006.
Interactive site. Click on a picture to answer the question.
"Factory Work - How
Things Are Produced" . PBS Kids. http://pbskids.org/rogers/R_house/picpic.htm
Seeing the factory can help the students understand that most
things happen through a process— with a beginning, a middle,
and an end. (NOTE: you will need to have RealOne Player to view
the online movies provided on this site. It is a free download.)
This lesson can be introduced
through literature or with a technology component.
Steps for a Literature
based lesson:
Day 1
Before lesson:
1. Choose one of the books
in the resources to read during the lesson.
2. Make a T-chart using chart paper labeled “Helpers in
our Community.”
One column should be labeled “Community Helper,” the
other “Goods or Services.”
Lesson:
1. Read the book about all the different community helpers. After
reading the book, have the students turn and talk to each other
about the different community workers in the book. Then the teacher
and students will make a list of the helpers in the book and ones
who are in YOUR community on the pre-made chart.
2. The teacher will choose
1 of the helpers and model how to draw a helper on 12x9 white
construction paper.
3. Then let each child
choose at least one community helper to draw on white construction
paper using a pencil to sketch and either colored pencils, or
skinny and fat markers to fill in. Students should write the name
of the community helper (ie. Doctor) beneath the drawing. The
teacher should collect them when the students are finished.
Day 2
Before lesson:
1. Post the two column chart
from Day 1.
2. Have available the drawings of the helpers drawn from Day 1
Lesson:
1. Hold out your hand and
place some sort of food in it, a toy in it and then something
that can be worn in it. Then tell the class that all of these
items have something in common. They are all grown or made. Explain
that items that people can buy are called "goods" if
those items were grown or made. Explain further that the word
"goods" has nothing to do with being good. It is an
old English word meaning merchandise or things you can buy in
a store. Now tell the students that we sometimes buy things that
are not grown or made. For example, we get lessons for different
things we learn like swimming, piano, tennis, -- but we don't
go to a store and point to a lesson and put it on! Instead, a
lesson is something someone teaches us. In other words, it is
a service. Or we may get our teeth cleaned at the dentist -- but
we don't carry the cleaning home in a box. A teeth cleaning is
another example of a service--of something that someone does for
us. Similarly, when our electricity doesn’t work in our
house, we don't go and buy an electric fixer; we pay a person
to come to our house and fixes it for us. In this case, the service
we buy is electricity and an electrician comes and fixes our electricity.
Government workers provide some services. Usually the government
does not provide plumbers, car washers, or barbers (although in
some special cases it does), but government does provide us with
many other community helpers. Tell students that some services
that we need are provided by businesses (like getting our teeth
cleaned), but sometimes communities need to provide services for
the people that live in them. Who collects your trash? Who delivers
your mail? Who protects us from crime? These are all services
provided by our local communities.
2. Use the vocabulary cards
(included) to discuss goods, services and community.
goods- things that are
grown or made
services – a job
a person does to help others
community – the
place where people live and work together
3. Now have the children turn and talk to each other to discuss
what goods or services the community helpers they made yesterday
provide to people in their community. Then have them share a few,
and the teacher will write the names of the helpers and the good/service
in the correct column.
4. Then model how to make
the good or service for the helper you made yesterday using the
white construction paper.
5. Then the students will
draw the goods or service that their helper provides to the community
on white construction paper.
6. Create a bulletin board
using the helpers and their service or goods.
3. Set up the digital projector,
screen and computer.
4. Make a T-chart using
chart paper labeled “Helpers in our Community.”
One column should be labeled “Community Helper,” the
other “Goods or Services.”
Lesson:
1. View the interactive
websites and talk about different workers in the community.
2. After viewing the websites,
make a list of the helpers from the site and others who were not
but are in YOUR community on the pre-made chart.
3. The teacher should choose
1 of the helpers from the chart and model how to draw a helper
on 12x9 white construction paper.
4. Then let each child choose
at least one community helper to draw on white construction using
a pencil to sketch and either colored pencils, skinny and fat
markers to fill in. The teacher should collect them when they
are finished.
Day 2
Before lesson:
1. Choose one of websites
to use during the lesson.
2. Set up the digital projector,
screen and computer
3. Look through the different
websites to pick and choose the ones to begin the lesson.
4. Post the chart begun
on Day 1.
5. Have available the workers
made from Day 1.
Lesson:
1. Hold out your hand and
place some sort of food in it, a toy in it and then something
that can be worn in it. Then tell them that all of these items
have something in common. They are all grown or made. Explain
that items that people can buy are called "goods" if
those items were grown or made. Explain further that the word
"goods" has nothing to do with being good. It is an
old English word meaning merchandise or things you can buy in
a store. Now tell the students that we sometimes buy things that
are not grown or made. For example, we get lessons for different
things we learn like swimming, piano, tennis, -- but we don't
go to a store and point to a lesson and put it on! Instead, a
lesson is something someone does for us. In other words, it is
a service. Or we may get our teeth cleaned at the dentist -- but
we don't carry it home in a box. A teeth cleaning is another example
of a service--of something that someone does for us. Similarly,
when our electricity doesn’t work in our house, we don't
go and buy an electric fixer; we pay a person to come to our house
and do something for us. In this case, the service we buy is electricity:
an electrician comes and fixes our electricity. Government workers
provide some services. To introduce this point, click http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/government/index.html.
Use the information there to explain that services are provided
by people who are in charge of the country, all 50 states, and
all the cities in all 50 states Usually the government does not
provide plumbers, car washers, or barbers (although in some special
cases it does), but government does provide us with many other
community helpers. Tell students that some services that we need
are provided by businesses (like getting our teeth cleaned), but
sometimes communities need to provide services for the people
that live in them. Who collects your trash? Who delivers your
mail? Who protects us from crime? These are all services provided
by our local communities. To find out about the people who supply
services in our communities, click on: http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/neighborhood/index.html
6. Use the vocabulary
cards to discuss goods, services and community
Goods- Things that are
grown or made
Services – A job
a person does to help others
Community – The
place where people live and work together.
7. Now have the children
turn and talk to each other to discuss what goods or services
the community helpers they made yesterday provide to people. Then
have them share a few as the teacher adds them in the correct
column to the chart the class began on Day 1.
8. Model how to make the good or service for the helper you made
yesterday using white construction paper.
9. Have students make the goods or service that their helper provides
to the community.
10. Create a bulletin board using the helpers and their service
or goods.
Have students review the
Community Helpers providing services by trying these
activities on community helpers and the goods
and services they provide.
Have them put the title,
"Community Helper" at the top of a sheet of paper. Instruct
them to write the title of a service provider and draw the community
helper providing a service to the community.
You may also have them
write a sentence starting with "I am thankful for the [insert
title of a community helper] because..."
Students can check their
understanding by sorting people into categories (good, service,
or both).
