Name: Sarah Gilliam
Grade: Kindergarten
Topic/Concept: Similarities and Differences Between People
Materials/Resources: 
- Book (All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufman)
- All About Me worksheet
- Markers, Colored Pencils, Crayons
Teaching Behavior Focus:
- I will focus on promoting positive behaviors instead of retroactively punishing negative behaviors. I will use growth mindset teaching and people first language to encourage all students to participate by assuring them that their contributions are valuable and they are capable of success through hard work. To accomplish this task, I can encourage students to behave appropriately and participate by praising students who remain on task and contribute their ideas. Specifically, I can say things like, “I like how you are listening so well” or “that is a great idea! Thank you for sharing.” Instead of making students feel embarrassed or defensive of misbehaviors, I can redirect focus to positive behaviors by asking students what they can do to behave appropriately.
Learning Objectives (measurable):
- Provide examples of similarities and differences between people
- Describe a strategy or plan for making other students feel welcome in the classroom.
Standards:
- C.1.1 Explain similarities in self and others.
- The student will understand: People have common traits, but each person has characteristics that make the individual, and similarities between individuals often help to create unity among people.
Assessment Plan (How will you know that your students met the objective?):
- Every student will write/draw an idea for how to make other students feel welcome in the classroom community.
- Students will compare their All About Me poster to a classmate’s and share one similarity and one difference between them.
New Vocabulary:
- Welcome: Accepted and treated kindly; welcome people by showing you are happy to see them
- Community: A group of people in the same place or with a particular characteristic in common
- Diversity: Recognizing differences and seeing that every person is unique
- Different: Not the same as something else
- Similar: Having things in common without being exactly the same
- Same: Identical; exactly like something else
- Unique: Being one of a kind; unlike anything else
Lesson Development (hook/engage/launch, step by step in real time, include questions you will ask in real time, closure/revisiting learning objectives):
Launch: (5 minutes):
- Good morning, kindergarteners! Today we are going to read a book by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanna Kaufman called All Are Welcome. Does anyone know what the word “welcome” means? (Call on students to share their ideas). Good thinking! Welcome means feeling accepted and being treated kindly. To make someone feel welcome, I smile to show them I am happy to see them. Does anyone have another idea for how you could make someone feel welcome? (Call on students to share their thinking).
- The story we will be reading is about students like you who feel welcome in their school. The book says these students are part of a community. Does anyone know what the word community means? (Call on students to share their thinking?) Good thinking! A community is a group of people in the same place or with something in common. In this classroom, we are a kindergarten community.
- The book also says that the classroom community is strong because of its diversity. Does anyone know what the word diversity means? (Call on students to share their ideas). Great ideas! Diversity is recognizing differences and seeing that we are not all the same. Although we have similarities or some things in common, every person is unique or one of a kind. Our classroom is a welcoming community where everyone should feel accepted and proud of their unique identities.
I Do (10 minutes)
- Ask students to move to the reading carpet.
- After the launch, the teacher will read All Are Welcome. Before reading, tell students, “As I read this book, your job is to look for all of the places the students in the story feel welcome.
- 4: What are these students pointing at? That’s right, they are pointing at a map. It looks like these students come from all over the world. Turn and tell your partner where you and your family come from.
- 7-10: What do these students do together? (Draw, make music, share stories; ask students to answer)
- 11-12: It looks like these students eat a lot of different foods for lunch! Turn and tell your partner your favorite food to eat for lunch.
- 16: There is the word community. Does anyone remember what community means? (Ask students to share ideas). I also see the word diversity. Does anyone remember what diversity means? (Ask students to share ideas). Here is a new word: adversity. Does anyone know what adversity is? Adversity is challenges or difficulties. When we experience adversity, the strength of our classroom community can support us.
- Students will return to their desks for the next part of the lesson
We Do (10 minutes)
- After reading the story, the teacher will provide the following writing prompt/sentence stem for table groups to discuss and then write in their ELA journals. The teacher should first write the sentence clearly on the board and read it aloud to students. The teacher can also direct students’ attention to the vocabulary words “community” and “welcome”
- In my community, I can welcome people by….
- Students should copy down and complete the sentence after discussing their answers with their table groups. Students should also draw a picture to go along with their sentence and further convey their ideas. The teacher should walk around the room and offer guidance/support as students complete this task.
- Finally, the teacher should call on each group of students to share one way they plan to make someone feel welcome. Students should use the sentence stem to answer in a complete sentence.
You Do (10 minutes)
- The teacher should tell students that, in order to make everyone feel welcome, it is important to recognize how we are the same and celebrate how we are different.
- Tell students that, to learn more about our classroom community, everyone will create an All About Me poster
- The teacher should pass out a printed paper for every student and go over what should go in each section. The text and images should support students in deciding what to write/draw in each section. The teacher should walk around and guide students as they complete the poster
- The teacher should use the information on these posters to personalize instruction and bring student interests into the classroom throughout the remainder of the school year.
Closure (10 minutes)
- Ask students to work in pairs and use their All About Me posters to find one similarity and one difference between them
- Ask each pair to share their similarity and difference with the class
- Have every student add their All About Me poster to a classroom bulletin board labeled “Our Classroom Community.”
