Communities Around Us

Overview

In this first lesson of the unit “Exploring Our Community”, students begin to understand what a community is and identify people and places that help one another. They will discuss why different people are important to our everyday lives.

Learning intentions

• Students will understand that a community is a group of people who live, work, or play together.
• Students will recognise that communities include people and places.
• Students will describe roles people have in the community and how they help others.
• Students will share ideas and listen to others respectfully during class discussions.

Success criteria

• I can say what a community is in my own words.
• I can name people (and places) in my community.
• I can explain how at least one person helps others.
• I can listen to others and take turns when sharing.

Curriculum links

• Civics and citizenship: identifying groups people belong to and ways people help and cooperate.
• People, places and environments: recognising that people live in places and that places support community life.
• Historical/community inquiry (intro): asking simple questions and sharing observations from everyday experiences.

Lesson structure (30 minutes)

1. 2 min – Welcome and warm-up

• Teacher greets students and establishes a calm discussion routine (turn-taking, listening).
• Quick prompt: “Who helps you every day?” Students give one short answer.

2. 6 min – Read-aloud and guided talk

• Teacher reads a picture book/short story about a local community (or uses illustrated slides with local community images).
• Pause for guided questions: “Who is in this community?” “What are they doing?” “How do they help?”

3. 7 min – Build a class definition

• On chart paper, teacher writes a student-friendly definition: “A community is a group of people who help each other.”
• Students help add examples by pointing to image cards: family, neighbours, teacher, shopkeeper, doctor, firefighter, school, park.
• Teacher emphasises: “People belong to our community in different ways.”

4. 7 min – Community role sorting (hands-on)

• Provide a simple set of picture cards showing people and what they do (e.g., nurse helping, teacher teaching, firefighter responding, shop assistant serving).
• In a group discussion format, students choose one card and complete a sentence stem: “This person is in our community because they…”
• Teacher models language and helps students match “person” to “help”.

5. 6 min – “My community” drawing and sharing

• Students draw one person or place that is part of their community (e.g., home, school, park, doctor).
• Students add one label or sticky note with a word/short phrase: “They help by…”
• Pair-share (or teacher-led for a single student) and practise turn-taking.

6. 2 min – Exit check

• Teacher asks a quick two-part oral check: “What is a community?” and “Who helps you in your community?”
• Collect drawings to use as baseline evidence for Lessons 2–5.

Resources

• Picture book or teacher-prepared slides with community images (school, home, park, shops)
• Large chart paper and marker for class definition
• Picture card set: community people + simple actions (helping/serving/teaching/safety/health)
• Sentence stems on cards: “A community is…”, “This person is in my community because…”
• Drawing paper, crayons/coloured pencils
• Sticky notes or label strips for one-word/short-phrase writing
• Seating and discussion routine cues (e.g., visual turn-taking reminder)

Assessment

• Ongoing teacher observation during guided discussion and card sorting (evidence of understanding of “community” and “helping”).
• Oral checks at the end: student response to “What is a community?” and “Who helps you?”
• Drawing and one label: identifies a person/place and a simple “helps by…” explanation.

Differentiation

• Support: use visual sentence stems, repeat key phrases (“people who help each other”), and offer a choice of two image cards to reduce language load.
• Support: provide a communication aid (teacher can scribe the student’s spoken sentence onto the drawing label).
• Extension: ask deeper questions such as “How would our day be different without this person?” or “What other community place could help?”
• EAL/SEN: allow responses with gestures, pointing, single words, or sentence starters; focus on recognising examples first, then adding the “because they help…” idea.