The Our Community theme builds upon the community theme through a series of five activities. This series leads students through a discovery of what is a community, business which operate within the community, how the government works to support services for the well-being of its citizens must take responsibility for the economic well-being of their community.
Activity One: How Does a Community Work?
Students study a poster illustrating a community to identify typical jobs. They develop an awareness of how people live and work together in a community.
Objectives: The students will identify a variety of jobs in the community, recognize how people live and work together in a community, become aware of a wide range of job opportunities
Concepts:community, interdependence, job, wants and needs
Skills:decision making, following directions, making observations, matching
Activity Two: Sweet “O” Donuts
Students, individually and in teams, use different production strategies to simulate producing donuts.
Objectives: The students will define production, compare unit and assembly line production methods, explain that different strategies are used to produce different types of products
Concepts:defect, production/ productivity, quality, specialization and division of labor
Skills:following directions, interpreting data, making observations, making predictions, role playing, teamwork
Activity Three: The Role of Government
Students learn about the economic role of government in a community by identifying services that government provides to its citizens. The students also recognize that government must collect taxes from everyone to pay for these services.
Objectives: The students will recognize government jobs in the community, understand why taxation is necessary
Concepts:government, taxes, goods, services, benefits
Skills:critical thinking, following directions, making observations, matching, role playing
Activity Four: A New Business
Students determine the best use for the empty store on the How Does a Community Work poster. The step-by-step decision-making process helps students understand how group decisions are made.
Objectives: The students will define choices, use a decision-making model, recognize the need to make informed decisions, take personal responsibility for decisions
Concepts:business, choices, resources, trade-offs, vote, ballot
Skills:decision making, identifying choices, developing ideas, listening responsively, problem solving, teamworks
Activity Five: Money Moves
Students learn about an economy’s circular flow of money.
Objectives: The students will identify circumstances of money being exchanged for goods or services, recognize how money flows through a community’s economy
Concepts:bank, economic institutions, circular flow of money, goods, money, services, skills
Skills:listening responsively, developing ideas, role playing, making observations, following directions
