Second grade students in Michigan continue their integrative approach to social studies by focusing in on the local community. Students are introduced to a social environment larger than their immediate surroundings.

After learning about how a community functions and looking at how our local community works on a day to day basis.  Students work together to create an imaginative community including all the elements that make a community run smooth.  Students will use Google Draw to learn how to "draw" a house on a chromebook for the mural as well as using Kahoot! to take a survey about the naming the community, what materials to use, and what would students want to include to take the community complete.

In this lesson students will have the opportunity to write their own myths or legends and share them with their parents in their own class. This lesson was developed by Carolina Vargas-Escobar as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will research the Adopt a Highway program available in the United States. Students will communicate their ideas of road clean up by writing letters to the principal of their school to convince him/her to be a part of the Adopt a Highway program. This lesson was developed by Amy Smereka as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will hear a story about the effects of trash in Africa and how it is making people and animals sick. This lesson was developed by Amy Smereka as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will investigate trash collection in the United States and how it is different from poorer countries such as countries in Africa. This lesson was developed by Amy Smereka as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will hear inspirational stories about youth who made a big difference in his/her community or village. Their creative ideas and courage helped many people and saved poor villages from famine. This lesson was developed by Amy Smereka as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, students will take action in their community by cleaning up the trash around their school and writing a reflection about how they feel after helping their school/community. This lesson was developed by Amy Smereka as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

After the teacher has led a discussion about how we depend on the physical environment and natural resources to meet basic needs and how challenging/impossible it would be to live without all of the resources our environment provides us with, she will lead a discussion with students about how people affect the environment (positively and negatively). Then higher-level students will be asked to write creative skits to inform the audience of ways that people affect the environment and the consequences that humans and animals may face due to the negative effects that we have caused in the environment.  After the higher-level students have written the skits, all students in the class will participate in acting out the skits.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

After the teacher has led a discussion about how we depend on the physical environment and natural resources to meet basic needs, students will begin to help her make a list on the board of natural resources that we depend on and need for our survival.  Students may list things such as:  trees for lumber to build houses and furniture, water from springs and rivers, plants to eat and use for medicinal purposes, animals for food and food products, etc.  Then higher-level students will research the Pilgrims and create a poster to show all the ways they had to depend on natural resources and the environment for survival.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.