Students will appreciate having their input valued in creating rules for their classroom commons.
The story does a great job of introducing the concepts of private property and common spaces in a way that young students can understand.
Prerequisites
The story describes the characters picking up objects in the park and then washing their hands. To ensure students' safety, teachers may want to urge them to wear gloves and never pick up anything that looks sharp.
This story builds on students' understanding that nature takes care of natural materials, which is introduced in this lesson.
Differentiation & Implementation
This lesson may be useful at the beginning of the year to introduce the concept of taking care of their commons as a norm for how students will behave in school.
Teachers can easily make connections to citizenship and being a good citizen by explaining that good citizens take care of their community.
To make connections to ecology and the environment, teachers can pause while reading the story to point out that leaving things like cans and plastic out in nature can harm the environment. Teachers can also use this video, which uses straws as an example of single-use plastic pollution.
As an extension, students can explore their school playground as a commons and interview other students and teachers about potential goals and rules for taking care of this commons.
Scientist Notes
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Related Teaching Resources
All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.
