First Grade Civics SOL 1.12 Instructional Resources

• Creating Citizens: Building Community in a First Grade Classroom -  This unit gives you ideas on ways to encourage first grade students to proactively become responsible citizens within their classroom communities. Building community is the theme of this unit because for first graders this knowledge will encourage them to make sense of what it means to be a citizen. The unit is taught through a combination of mini-lessons, read-alouds, and Social Studies lessons. It is written for a self contained first grade classroom, however, the material can be adapted for other elementary grades. Reading and Social Studies Standards will be enumerated in the Appendix.
• It's Okay to Be Different: Teaching Diversity With Todd Parr - It is important to teach students about diversity to help them develop empathy for others. This lesson, for first and second graders, uses Todd Parr’s picture book It’s Okay to Be Different to help students understand what diversity means and how it applies to them. After a shared reading of the text, students work in small groups to discuss and write down what makes them diverse. They then visit Todd Parr’s website and create pages for their own books about diversity. Students share their completed books with another class.
• Create a Volunteer Spirit - This lesson emphasizes that volunteering is the responsibility of citizens. Those contributions made by volunteers represent positive social action for the good of the community. While written for a Catholic Elementary School, this lesson may be easily adapted for public school use.
• Title: Local Government Role Played Parade - This lesson has 3 parts. 1. Students are introduced to the four types of local government by watching a parade slide show. 2. Students research the services, roles, and duties of the four types of local government creating a local government guide. 3. Students celebrate local government by role playing government officials or employees in a parade around school.