3FN9 – Social Studies – Kinds of Communities

How do FreeNode lessons work?

FreeNodes are instructor-led schooling lessons with a unique approach, granting you the freedom to independently teach using a personalized lesson plan. This autonomy enables you to tailor your lessons to suit students’ individual needs, learning styles, and interests.

To use a FreeNode, read the provided class outline & follow the formatting provided for each class. Make sure to touch on the Theocratic Connection in each class. Follow the outline closely so it is aligned with our main at-home curriculum.

How Do I Use the FreeNode?

Read this lesson plan before class to familiarize yourself with the ideas and concepts you’ll be teaching the students. You may print this page out if you need to use it as a reference point during live classes.

This lesson is a guide, but feel free to expand on the content or decrease/increase what you teach depending on the learning levels of the students in your class or the amount of time you have to cover the material.

Can I show videos in FN classes?

Yes, feel free to include additional material to supplement the class lesson material. Videos, Physical Objects, Games, Activities, etc. are okay to share in live classes.

Videos should have no advertisements or logos and should be viewed by you before showing them to the students to ensure no offensive or questionable content is included.

The video should make up only 1-3 minutes of the live class and should not take the place of instructor-led instruction. Videos should be supplementary only.

How do bookmarks work?

Bookmarks help you keep track of lessons you’re going to teach in future live classes. The bookmarks you see are for all your bookmarked lessons across all grades.

You can bookmark a lesson by visiting the lesson you want to bookmark and clicking the “bookmark” button in the bookmark section.

You can remove a single bookmark by visiting a lesson you’ve bookmarked and clicking the “bookmark” button again to unbookmark it.

You can clear all of your bookmarks by clicking the “clear all bookmarks” button. Be careful, this will erase all of your bookmarks.

Class Lesson Plan

Objectives:

Students learn about the characteristics of urban, suburban, and rural communities.
Students understand how communities are organized and how people live and work in them.
Students reflect on the type of community they live in and explore others.

Materials:

Whiteboard
Visual aids (pictures of urban, suburban, and rural communities)
A simple map showing a city, suburb, and rural area
Interactive online resources such as videos and games (optional)

Introduction (2 minutes):

Begin by asking students what kind of community they live in (e.g., city, suburb, or rural area). Explain that there are three main types of communities: urban (city), suburban, and rural. Introduce the idea that each type of community is unique and has different features.

Theocratic Connections:

Discuss how Jesus lived in a community while on Earth, helping his family and neighbors in Nazareth. Emphasize how Jesus’ actions showed care for his community and how he worked as a carpenter to help meet people’s needs. Reference Matthew 13:55, which mentions Jesus’ role in his community.

Activity 1 – Urban Communities (10 minutes):

Explain what a city (urban community) is:

A large population living close together.
Skyscrapers, busy streets, and lots of traffic.
Many stores, jobs, and entertainment options like theaters and zoos.

Show pictures of cities and highlight features like neighborhoods, libraries, parks, and public transportation. Explain how cities are often located near oceans or rivers.

Optional: Ask students to share examples of cities they’ve visited or heard about.

Activity 2 – Suburban Communities (10 minutes):

Introduce suburbs as communities near cities:

Smaller population and less traffic than cities.
People commute to the city for work.
Suburbs have schools, malls, parks, and houses.

Show pictures of suburbs and compare them to cities, noting the differences in population, building size, and traffic.

Optional: Discuss how neighborhoods in suburbs are often quieter than in cities and encourage students to describe any suburbs they’ve visited.

Activity 3 – Rural Communities(5 minutes):

Explain rural communities as far away from cities:

Small population with wide open spaces.
Farms and ranches are common.
Fewer businesses, often only one grocery store or no post office.

Show pictures of rural areas and discuss how people in rural communities work (e.g., farming, ranching, or commuting). Highlight how rural areas are great for outdoor activities like horseback riding and picnics.

Optional: Ask students if they’ve been to a rural area and what they noticed about it.

Conclusion (3 minutes):

Recap the three types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. Ask students what type of community they live in and if they would like to live in a different type. Encourage them to think about how each type of community meets people’s needs differently.

Assessment:

Evaluate students through class discussions and their ability to identify features of urban, suburban, and rural communities. Assess their participation in comparing and contrasting the types of communities.