Social Studies IMB lesson plan

Grade Level/Subject: 4th grade Central Focus: Human activity/natural resources

social studies
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:
Date submitted:
4.G.1.2 Explain the impact that human activity has on the
Date taught:
availability of natural resources in North Carolina.
Daily Lesson Objective: Students will understand and explain the impact (positive and negative)
that humans have on natural resources and independently create a mini poster on their resource
and earn at least 4 out of 5 points.

21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand (Language Function and

Vocabulary):
Social responsibility and ethics
Understand, Explain, Natural resources, Availability,
Oral and written communication
pollution
skills
Global and cultural awareness
Prior Knowledge: Students should know what a natural resource is. Students should know that we
live in North Carolina.

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

During inquiry today were going to be talking about natural
resources and our impact on the availability of them. Lets
3
1. Focus and Review review what natural resource means. Can anyone tell me
minutes
what they know about natural resources? Can someone give
me an example of a natural resource?
2. Statement of Today you guys will learn how human activity impacts the
Objective availability of natural resources in North Carolina.
for Student
3. Teacher Input A natural resource is anything from the environment that we 5-10
can use to meet our needs. As you guys told me earlier, some minutes
examples of natural resources are light, air, water, plants,
animals, and soil. These are natural gifts to us, theyre
something we cant make on our own. And as we use them,
and live and build cities on and around them, we impact the
availability of natural resources greatly. This can be a positive
or negative thing. For example, If there is a forest full of trees,
and it is torn down to build houses, this negatively impacts
 the environment because less carbon dioxide is absorbed
from the area and animals lose a place to live. But people can
positively impact the availability of natural resources too. For
example, conserving water helps the environment and the
people in the environment because water is an essential part
of life and we should not waste it.
Read Aloud The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden. Followed
by a class discussion- By drawing names randomly to answer
questions.
1. When people were throwing trash out the window in the
story, what were they doing to the environment?
2. What part of the environment was being affected?
(What natural resources?) (soil, water, plants, animals) 25
4. Guided Practice 3. What do you think happens to the litter outside if no minutes
one picks it up? (most litter ends up going into sewage
drains and dumping out in creeks and lakes)
4. What is one thing you learned from this story?
5. Weve talked about themes this week in reading, can
someone tell me what a theme of this book is?
6. What would you say to someone if you saw them
littering in our environment?
I have written different types of natural resources on strips of
paper, youre going to pick a strip of paper as I walk around
and that will be your topic for our independent work. Im going
to give you a piece of paper to create a small poster of your
5. Independent resource. I want you to be creative with it, write the name of 10-15
Practice your resource, draw a picture to represent your resource, and minutes
anywhere on the page answer these questions: Where in
North Carolina do you think your resource can be found? What
do humans use it for? How does human activity negatively
impact it? And how can human activity positively impact it?
I will use the independent practice as a summative assessment.
6. Assessment Students will need to earn at least 4 out of 5 points. One point will be
Methods of earned for correctly answering each of the four questions of the
assignment, and one point will be earned for writing and drawing the
all resource assigned. I will check understanding through asking questions
objectives/skills: throughout the focus and review and guided practice as my formative
assessment.
One minute left to finish up what youre working on and then
you can turn it in to me 2
7. Closure
Today we talked a lot about natural resources and our minutes
environment, does anyone have any questions?
8. Assessment 12 out of 19 students met the objective
Results of
7 out of 19 students did not meet the objective.
all
objectives/skills:
Targeted Students Student/Small Group
Modifications/Accommodations: Modifications/Accommodations:
For a student who has ADHD I would allow If I were to pull small groups during the
them to bounce on a yoga ball at their desk independent work time, I would take the lowest
during the guided reading, or let them sit in group and provide them continual feedback and
the bean bag area as an attempt to get answer any questions as they come up to enable
them to focus and stay stimulated. them to keep working and revise their work if
need be.
For a student with hearing impairment, I
would provide them a copy of the book I am For the higher group I would provide slightly more
reading so that they can read it in their head challenging resources that we didnt discuss in
while I am reading to the class. class such as coal and gas. That way they had to
do some research on their own and felt
challenged.
Materials/Technology:
The book The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden, Strips of paper labeled with resources such as
Trees, Fruits, Corn, Fish, Grass, Shrimp, Bees, Cotton, Soil, and Water. Popsicle sticks with
students names on them. List of questions I want to ask for the class discussion

References: Dr. Good suggested the book. I used the unpacking standards as a reference for my
teacher input.
Reflection on lesson: While looking at the assessment results, It seemed as if the students did
not have enough time to finish their lessons because 7 were half complete or barley even
started. I gave the students 30 minutes to complete these assignments before they had to pack
up for the end of the day. I also had an example on the board of exactly what they were
expected to do. While I did circulate the room during the assignment, I must not have noticed
the kids that were sitting there doing nothing, because I should have helped them get started.
They might have just been confused about what to do for their specific resource. Other than this
issue, I felt that my lesson went smoothly. It was the least chaotic lesson Ive taught so far in
fourth grade. I gave specific directions and expectations throughout the lesson for what the
students should do and how they should transition. I felt confident during the read aloud and I
felt as though a lot of students were attentive and wanting to answer my questions about the
book and our environment.