Programs - Elementary - Our Community

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Our Community explores the interdependent roles of workers in a community, the work they perform, and how communities work. Five required, volunteer-led activities.

Our Community examines responsibilities and economic opportunities available within a community. The key learning objectives listed beside each activity state the skills and knowledge students will gain.

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.

Key Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

identify a variety of jobs in the community.
recognize how people live and work in a community.
become aware of a wide range of job opportunities.

Activity Two: Sweet “O” Donuts

Students, individually and in groups, use different production strategies to simulate producing donuts for Sweet “O” Donuts.

Key Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

define production.
compare unit and assembly-line production methods.
explain that different strategies are used to produce different types of products.

Activity Three: The Role of Government

Students learn about the economic role of government in a community by identifying services that government provides to citizens. Students also recognize that government must collect taxes to pay for these services.

Key Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

recognize government jobs in the community.
understand why taxation is necessary.

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.

Key Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

define choices.
use a decision-making model.
recognize the need to make informed decisions.
take personal responsibility for decisions.

Activity Five: Money Moves

Students learn about an economy’s circular flow of money.

Key Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

identify circumstances of money being exchanged for goods or services.
recognize how money flows through a community’s economy.

Our Community enhances students’ learning of the following concepts and skills:

Concepts–Ballot, Banking, Benefits, Business, Choices, Circular flow of money, Community, Defect, Division of labor, Economic institutions, Goods, Government, Incentives, Interdependence, Jobs, Money, Needs, Productivity, Quality, Resources, Services, Skills, Specialization of labor, Taxes, Trade-offs, Vote, Wants

Skills–Comparing, Critical thinking, Constructing data, Decision-making, Developing ideas, Displaying data, Formulating questions, Identifying choices, Interpreting data, Listening responsively, Making observations, Matching, Predicting based on data, Problem-solving, Role-playing, Teamwork

Our Community is a series of five activities recommended for students in second grade. The average time for each activity is 30 minutes. Materials are packaged in a self-contained kit that includes detailed activity plans for the volunteer and materials for 30 students.

All JA programs are designed to support the skills and competencies identified by the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills. These programs also augment school-based, work-based, and connecting activities for communities with school-to-work initiatives.

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