3.12 OVERVIEW

The student will recognize that Americans are a people of diverse ethnic origins, customs, and traditions, who are united by the basic principles of a republican form of government and respect for individual rights and freedoms.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Explain how the Founders of the United States believed that people had certain natural rights. Natural rights include the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or property. All persons have natural rights just because they are human beings. Everyone is born with these rights. No one can take these rights away. These natural rights are also called basic principles held by American citizens.
• Explain the importance of these basic principles to American citizens.
  -Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are privileges that people are born with and that cannot be taken away.
  -Life is the right to live without fear of being injured or killed by others.
  -Liberty is the right to be free. Some examples of liberties are the rights to believe what you wish, to speak freely, and to travel wherever you wish to go.
  -Pursuit of happiness is the right to own things such as books, a house, land, or a business.
  -Another basic principle held by American citizens is equality under the law. This means that all people are treated fairly.
• Read teacher-selected books that review some basic principles held by American citizens that include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and equality under the law.
• Recognize that American people come from diverse ethnic and national origins and are united as Americans by basic American principles.
• Point out that being an American is defined by the shared basic principles of the republican form of government.
• Review the following term: Republican form of government: A representative democracy
• Guide the students to understand that the American people come from different ethnic origins and different countries, but are united as Americans by the basic principles of a republican form of government, including individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and equality under the law.
• Recognize the following benefits of diversity:
  -Food
  -Clothing
  -Music
  
• Read a teacher-selected book about immigrants coming to America. Divide the class into groups and have each group make a chart listing the various ethnic groups, where they arrived in the United States, and the reason they came to America.
• Show a picture of the Statue of Liberty. Discuss its symbolism of freedom as immigrants arrived in America many years ago.
• Have the groups share their researched information about the ethnic origins, where they live in America and the reasons they came to America based on the book the teacher read aloud.
• Place your students into small groups. Ask two of the students to read a student-selected book about a child from another country? Ask the other two students in the group to read a book about another child from a different country.
• After reading the books and discussing it in a small group, have the student complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the children from the two different countries.
• Ask students if they have ever seen a patchwork quilt. Discuss how many different smaller pieces add to the uniqueness of the larger quilt.
• Explain that they will create a paper quilt from squares, which represent the individuality of each student. These squares, when pieced together, will reflect the uniqueness of the class as a whole.
• Give each student a quilt square, a 6" x 6" piece of colored construction paper. Include squares cut from wallpaper sample books or stiffened fabric for added variety.
• Instruct them to write their name on the square and decorate it to illustrate qualities, talents and experiences they respect in themselves. Drawings, pictures clipped from magazines, words and photographs can be incorporated. Art supplies, including tissue paper, foils (gold and silver), glitter, sequins, markers and fabric, can add dimension and variety to the project.
• Glue these pieces together on poster board or a long stretch of white craft paper. Create a wide border for the quilt and write: basic principles of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and equality under the law on the border. Also, include that the traditions of pledging allegiance to the flag and celebrating Independence Day (Fourth of July).
• Post the quilt for all students to see.

WEB SITES

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr008.shtml
These activities help students understand honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage.

http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/family/lilly/kids.html
This unit is about classroom rules.

http://www.civiced.org
The Center for Civic Education has useful resources.

http://www.civnet.org
Click on the resources section of the Civnet Web site for Citizen’s Rights and Responsibilities to find lesson plans and ideas.

http://library.thinkquest.org/4410
This ThinkQuest site is about democracy.

http://bensguide.gpo.gov/k-2/index.html
The U.S. Government K-8 Web site has many resources about citizenship.

http://www.proteacher.com/090035.shtml
ProTeacher has a number of lesson plans about citizenship, elections and voting, and government in America.

http://memory.loc.gov
American Memory from the Library of Congress has primary resource materials relating to the history and culture of the United States.

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer
Here is a collection of graphic organizers that may be used in the unit.

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/actbank/torganiz.htm
Here are more graphic organizers.

http://chumby.dlib.vt.edu/melissa/posters/posterset.html
Social studies curriculum resources poster sets can be printed off at this site.

LITERATURE LINKS

Recognize that Americans are a people of diverse ethnic origins, customs and traditions united by the basic principles of a republican form of government and respect for individual rights and freedoms

Waters, Jennifer.
All Kinds of People: What Makes Us Different. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2002.
This book explores the diversity among people in the USA and around the world.