Week 9: Social studies lesson Wants and Needs

  By: Jamia Royal 

3/28/2021

    This week I taught my social studies lesson on wants and needs with the book Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts. Before starting my lesson I asked students to think about something they want and to share with the class, then I asked students to think about something they need and to share with the class. I told students a want is something they would like to have just because and a need is something they need to survive like air, water, food, shelter etc.  At first students had a hard time saying what they needed once I explained something I needed their responses changed. One student said they needed a new jacket for the spring time because their old one was too small. After discussing our wants and needs we went over a google slide that defined wants and needs and we did a sorting and identifying activity. Students labeled pictures with the want or need label and dragged different words to the appropriate side on a wants and needs T chart. 

    After introducing the topic and learning about their prior knowledge I introduced the book Those Shoes, a book about wants and needs. I read the story asking questions along the way because it was a rather long book. The book was about a boy Jeremy who wanted some new shoes, but his grandma told him there was no room for wants, only needs and he what he needed was new winter boots. Everyone in school had those shoes he wanted, black high tops with two white stripes. Jeremy wind up getting those shoes from the thrift store but they were too small but he insisted on still wearing them even though they made his feet sore. He noticed a kid Antonio Parker who shoes had duct tape and holes in them. He contemplated on giving him those shoes and eventually he decided to give them to him. This made him happy and sad at the time because he was able to make someone else happy but he still did not have those shoes, but by the end of the story the children were wearing boots and Jeremy had new winter boots he needed and no one else had!  

    After the story the students completed an activity sheet that went along with the book that I did with them. Students had boom cards in their google classroom for students to practice more about wants and needs. I think this lesson went pretty well and my lessons are improving.