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Celebrating the Community
Lesson 5:
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Lesson
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Academic Standards
Philanthropy Framework

Purpose:

To create awareness and generate funding to address a local community need.

Duration:

Three or Four Forty-Five Minute Class Periods

Objectives:

The learner will:

  • describe how a community could be improved.

Service Experience:

Although this lesson contains a service project example, decisions about service plans and implementation should be made by students, as age appropriate.
Learn more about the stages of service-learning.

Students will sponsor an informational community celebration.

Materials:

  • Materials for creating invitations and flyers posters and banners
  • School space to host the community celebration.

Instructional Procedure(s):

Anticipatory Set:
Ask students to discuss the importance of the models they have made in the previous lesson and decide whether the models should be shared with the community.

 

  • As a class, brainstorm ideas about who to invite to represent each of the four sectors at the community celebration. The attachments from Lesson One can be used as resources. At least four representatives should be selected from each of the three sectors. The household sector can be family members of students in the class. Government representatives could be the mayor, planning commission or zoning officials, police or fire representatives. For-profit representatives could be from local industry, business or stores. Non-profit representatives may be invited from local foundations or non-profit organizations, i.e., Hospice, the Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club.

  • Divide the class into four teams, one for each sector. Each team will be responsible for completing these tasks in this order:
    • Write a letter of invitation to the representatives that were selected by the class. The letter should be in correct business form, including the date, greeting, body, salutation and signature of a group member. The body of the letter should include a paragraph explaining the study unit about the four sectors. A second paragraph should include information about the community celebration to highlight for the school and invited guests the importance of the four sectors in the community and the representatives' special contribution to the community. A third paragraph invites them to be a part of the celebration with specifics of date, time and expectations for sharing their contribution to the community.
    • Create invitations/flyers for other classes in the school, as well as their own parents, to attend the community celebration.
    • Create a banner with the name of the sector, and a poster or backdrop for their sector that explains the importance of the sector to the community and gives examples of how the sector is represented in the community. These activities may take two to three class periods.

  • At the celebration each team will be responsible for setting up a display with their banner and poster, and explaining their own community maps/models.

  • After the celebration ask the students to complete a journal entry about doing the project and which sectors they see themselves joining in the future and why.

Assessment:

A successful celebration, the invitation letter to representatives, journal entries.

School/Home Connection:

Parents will be invited to attend the celebration.

Cross-Curriculum Extensions:

Have students create thank you notes to local businesses and a general announcement for the local paper thanking all those who participated in the community celebration.

Lesson Developed By:

Cheryl Larkin
Pontiac School District
Madison Middle School
Pontiac, MI 48340

Handouts:

Philanthropy Framework:

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