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The following information is for teachers. It is an attempt to offer some guidance and suggestions on how to take advantage of the opportunities that a small class (18 or fewer students) affords. The other reason for this information is as a tool to aid teachers in large classes (18 or more students) in getting their classes to operate as efficiently as a small class.
The main advantage of small classes is that lessons can be more in depth and creative due to the decrease in distractions. The following are some examples of in depth and creative lessons that can be used and modified for small, primary grade classes.
A Simulated Community
Primary Subject - Social Studies
Grade Level - 3
After studying what makes up a community, students will build a simulated community using boxes. These may be built at home to get the whole family involved. Students will be assigned what kind of building to design. Anything from houses, office buildings, fire stations, churches, restaurants, post office, hospitals, etc. When the student has his/her building complete the class will discuss where each will be placed in the community. Along with the building structures, streets need to be built. An easy way to do this is to use black bulletin board paper as the base to which all buildings will be placed. After placing the buildings on the paper students may cut yellow lines for the streets and place them appropriately on the paper. When complete this is an impressive display for the media center in your school.
This activity is very creative and would take up quite a bit of time in a large class. The smaller class allows the extra time necessary to complete this project. Students work together on this project and this creates a community or team atmosphere in any classroom.
Community Brochures
Primary Subject - Social /Community Studies
Grade Level - 2/3
Discuss with the class what they think a community is. Talk about the different communities the children are a part of. These could be school, family, city, neighborhoods etc. Write the different communities the children think of on large paper or the chalkboard. Show the children the posters, pictures and brochures of example communities. Tell them that they are going to make a brochure for a community they are a part of. They should be told again what a community is. Point out significant parts of the posters, pictures and brochures that you brought in to show as examples. They can use the construction paper to fold it into thirds to make a brochure. Tell the students that they can pick a community they are a part of and create a brochure for that community. For example, if they want to create a 'family community'
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