Kayta Brown

November 6th, 2014

Social - Week 1 Day 4

Subject: Social Studies
Grade: Four
Activity: String activity/Introduction
Total Time of Lesson: 60 minutes
Goals/Key questions:

Question: How can I get students to draw on their science knowledge in
social? How can I introduce Alberta and maps to the students along with
the geographical regions?

Goal: Have students draw on background knowledge of science and apply
it throughout social. I will introduce maps of Alberta and Canada to
students to help them understand where our province/city is located. I
will introduce the geographical regions to them. Hopefully students will
respond well and learn.
Objective (connected to PofS):
General Outcome:

4.3 - Students will demonstrate and understanding and appreciation of
how Alberta has grown and changed culturally, economically, and socially
since 1905.

4.1 - Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of
how elements of physical geography, climate, geology and paleontology
are integral to the landscapes and environment of Alberta.
Specific Outcome:

4.3.1 value and respect their relationships with the environment.

4.1.2 Where is Alberta located in relation to the other provinces and
territories of Canada?

4.1.2 What are the major geographical and natural vegetation regions,
landforms and bodies of water in Alberta?
Materials:
- Ball of string
- Smartboard

Kayta Brown
November 6th, 2014

Activity/Time

What are the teacher/students doing?

Drawing on
Background
Knowledge

Students will go down to the Creation Room and sit in

a circle. I will have a ball of string.

String Activity
35 minutes
5 minutes to get
downstairs and
settled
5 minutes
introduction
5 minute
explanation of the
activity and
answering any
questions
15-20 minutes to
go around the
circle

I will explain to the students that we will be learning

about the land and the geography of Alberta first. I will
ask:
Does anyone know what geography means? Do you
have a best guess?
After several guesses I will explain the geography
definition: the study of the physical features (such
as mountains, hills, forests, etc) of the earth, and
how human activity affects these physical features
and how these physical features affect our human
activity.
After we have gone over the geography definition a
little bit I will ask them to think about what they just
learned in their last unit of science. (Waste in Our
World). I will ask students to think for a moment about
what they learned. Then I will explain the string
activity:
Now that we have thought about some of the things
that we have learned in science, we are going to do
an activity. I am going to say my favourite thing to do
outside and then say how that might impact our land.
(For example: I like going snowboarding in the
mountains during the winter. This impacts the
environment because a lot of trees had to be cut down
to make a ski hill so that I can go snowboarding).
Once I say my favourite thing to do outside and how it
impacts our land, I will pass the ball of yarn across the
circle. However, when I pass the string, I have to hang
onto the end of the string. We should form a type of
web when we are all done. If you can not come up
with anything, or would simply not like to share, you
may pass, but still hang onto the end of the yarn and
pass the ball to someone else. Any questions?
I will say an example and then pass the ball across
the circle. We will go around the circle until everyone
has had a turn.

Kayta Brown
November 6th, 2014

Activity/Time

What are the teacher/students doing?

5-7 minute wrap

up and lead into
the next part of
the lesson

At the end, I will have the last student pass the yarn
back to me. I will say to students:

5 minutes to go
back upstairs and
get settled

Introduction to
land features in
Alberta
15 minutes

Alright, now I want you all to hold up your part of the

string. What do you guys think that we can conclude
from the web that we formed? Students will answer.
The way we impact our land is all connected. We all
impact our land in more than one way. However, we
all have our favourite activities to do outside so we
need to try to keep our world healthy and intact so that
we can keep enjoying it. I want you to think about this
activity as we start learning about the different
physical regions in Alberta. As we learn about the
regions, I want you to think about the types of land
features the regions might have, and ways that people
impact them.
I will have a map of Canada on the board for the
students. I will start by asking students:
Do you know what country this is? Canada, thats
right! Now, do you guys know where Alberta is in
Canada? How can we tell that is Alberta? What are all
of the other sections in Canada - what are they
called?
**Pull up map with provinces and territory names on
it**
Our country is made up of provinces and territories.
Lets count how many provinces and territories we
have altogether. *Count together, you should get 13.*
We have 10 provinces in Canada and 3 territories.
*Indicate which are provinces and which are
territories*.
As you learned yesterday though, we will be learning
about Alberta - the province that we live in. What can
you guys tell about Alberta from this picture? What
provinces are on either side of Alberta? What is below
Alberta? What is above Alberta? What does this tell
you about how Alberta may be different than
somewhere like British Columbia? Or Nunavut?
We are landlocked - which means that we have land
boarding all sides of our province. That means that we
do not have any seas or oceans boarding our
province. Keep that in mind for when we start looking
at the land features in Alberta.

Kayta Brown
November 6th, 2014

Activity/Time

What are the teacher/students doing?

Conclusion
2 minutes

Good job everyone. Next time we will be learning

about the region that we live in - the grassland region.
Now you guys can write one thing that you learned
about Social in your KWL charts.

Assessment:
I will also assess their previous knowledge of how we use our land in our circle. I will
assess if they are still thinking about this knowledge as we go
through the lessons.
I will assess students knowledge of Alberta and its location by asking them questions
throughout the lesson.
Modification:
We may add a brain break if students are getting antsy halfway through because they
are taking in a lot of information in a short amount of time.
If students are really lost and are not understanding, I will slow down and explain
things more and we may not have time to do the map.
Extra Activity: We may start coloring a map of Alberta and its natural regions today.

Kayta Brown
November 6th, 2014