Social Justice (SES, Social Structure, Power Dynamics)

Quick Links to Individual Lessons:

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Creating a Safe and Inclusive Playground (Any Grade)

Math

-Geometry (quadrilaterals)

Art

-Produce 2D-3D works to communicate ideas

Language Arts

-Personal Expression, Literacy

Social Justice Issue(s): Child Safety, Bullying

Lesson Description:

Students are first introduced to the relevant UN declaration on Children's rights: "All children have a right to relax and play, and join in a wide range of activities." They then brainstorm what makes a good playground and use their shapes to create that playground. Students will present their parks and describe what makes them safe.

Download: LM - Creating a safe and inclusive playground.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan

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Poverty and Malnutrition (Grade 2)

Math

-Number sense and numeration,

Health

-Identify a balanced diet

Social Justice Issue(s): Poverty, Malnutrition

Lesson Description:

Students are put into groups of about 3 and given money to buy food with. Each family is given a different amount of money (which they didn't know at first). Each group plans which foods they want to but and goto the pretend store to make their purchases. Students explain how it felt to have less money, the difficulty of obtaining healthy food, and brainstorm ideas to help those who have less money.

Download: 2 HM - Poverty and Malnutrition - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan

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Healthy Eating (Grade 2-3)

Health

-Identify healthy eating habits and a balanced diet

Social Justice Issue(s): Healthy Eathing, World Hunger

Lesson Description:

Students will start out being read a book caleld Something Good by Robert Munsch. They are then introduced to Canada's food guide and discuss whether the many foods they saw in the book are healthy or not. Students will then cut out foods from magazines and place them into the four food groups. Students will then create a healthy food in their groups and present to everyone why their made their choice.

Download: 2 3 H - Creating Healthy Meals - Plan.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan

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Global Village and Food Equity (Grade 3)

Math

-Data Management, collect and organize data, read, interpret, and draw conclusions from secondary data

Social Justice Issue(s): Wealth distribution, Equity

Lesson Description:

Students read "If the World Were A Villiage" and generate some ideas around helping those who have less money. Students review the basics of buidling graphs and then design one as a group.

Download: 3 M - Global Village and Food Equity - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan for Math and Social Studies

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Food Distribution Around the world (grade 3)

Math

-Data collection, Graphing

Social Studies

-Compare communities

Language Arts

-Extend understanding by connecting content to self

Social Justice Issue(s): World Hunger, Fairness, Injustice, Power (global scale)

Lesson Description:

Students receive a small introduction to food distribution and the word "distribution". The class is divided into 3 groups/countries (rich, medium and poor). Children will transfer tally chart data to bar graphs and create a pictograph using food to represent food distribution between these 3 groups.

Download: 3 mls - food distribution around the world.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Advance Organizer Questions, Student Questions

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Violence in Media (Grade 3-6)

Math

-Collect Data using a survey, draw conclusions from data

Social Justice Issue(s): Violence in Media

Lesson Description:

Students survey themselves on how many hours of T.V, movies, and games they watch or play over the course of a week. Students then reflect on their findings and visually represent their tallied data.

Download: 3 5 6 M - Violence in Media - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan

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Allocation of Ontario Government Spending (Grade 5)

Math

-Read, represent, compare and order whole numbers, Interpret Patterns, Find patterns

Social Justice Issue(s): Budgeting, Government Spending, Social Change

Lesson Description:

Explain budgeting and compare it to household income and spending. Students will be taught how to record their data and be guided through the creation of a pictogram. Educate students on who they would send their graphs and letters to in their area to prompt change. A follow-up lesson of going through the process of sending these letters is suggested.

Download: 5 M - Allocation of Ontario Budget - Plan.doc

Download: 5 M - Allocation of Ontario Budget - Reflection.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Teacher's Reflection on the lesson

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Daily Water Consumption (Grade 5)

Math

-Display primary data, read, interpret, and draw conclusions from data

Social Justice Issue(s): Water Consumption, Equity, Poverty, Global Allocation of Resources

Lesson Description:

Students will use blue blocks and graph paper to show how they think the world's water supply is distributed among 4 different countries. Students will compare their initial thoughts with the actual data. Students will be answer questions on Canada's water consumption compared to other countries. Students will then brainstorm ways we can use less water.

Download: 5 M - Daily Water Consumption - All.doc

Includes: Lesson plan, Water Consumption data, Student worksheet

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World resources (Grade 5)

Math

-Data Management, collect and organize data, read, interpret, and draw conclusions from secondary data

Social Justice Issue(s): Wealth distribution, Equity, Fairness, World Aid

Lesson Description:

Read pages 16-22 of "If the world were a Village" with students. The class will represent the number of people in the entire world and the teacher will distribute the world's wealth between the students. This distribution of wealth by country will first be done by students estimates, and later candies will be handed out to represent the actual distribution of wealth. Students will attempt to negotiate with other countries to donate their wealth/candies. At the end students will debrief their feelings and emotions of fairness with the data from the wealth chart.

Download: 5 M - World Resources - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Accommodations, World Population wealth table and graph, marking rubrics

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Poverty and Resource Consumption (Grade 5)

Math

-Data Management, collect and organize data, read, interpret, and draw conclusions from secondary data

Social Justice Issue(s): Poverty, Sustainable Resources

Lesson Description:

Students will be introduced to some math facts and photos about poverty and consumption. In groups students will then graph the consumption of different resources (Oil, water, paper, and electricity). Students then share their findings for their resource with the rest of the class. Students will summarize their findings and emotions surrounding the consumption in different countries and brainstorm some ways to reduce their consumption of these resources.

Download: 5 M - Poverty and Resource Consumption - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Consumption Data, Marking rubric for graphing, Follow up Lesson Plan, Marking Rubric for Home Sustainability Rubric, Teachers' Reflections on the lesson

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Global Trading Simulation (Grade 5-6)

Math

-Problem Solving, Number Sense, Data Management

Geography

-Economic Systems

Social Justice Issue(s): Equity, Currency Strength, Wealth Distribution, Privilege

Lesson Description:

Students will participate in "the Global Trading Game". Each group will represent a developed or less developed country. Each country type can produce different types of resources and there may be limits to how much they can make. Countries will have 1 trader who will try to sell their products to other countries and gain money. At the end of the game students sell all their unsold product domestically and convert their income to Canadian dollars to compare earnings. Students will engage in a discussion surrounding inequities in the system and the fairness of resource and wealth distribution.

Download: 5 6 GM - Global Trading Simulation - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Game Rules, Discussion Topics

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The Chain Game (Grade 7)

Math

-Problem Solving, Number Sense and Numeration, Estimation

Geography

-Natural Resources

Social Justice Issue(s): World Trade, Privalege, GDP, Global Allocation of Resources

Lesson Description:

In groups students will be given different resources (representing the resources of their nation) and given the same task of producing the longest possible paper chain. Throughout the activity students will be updated with the current selling price of newspaper chains and coloured chains. Staplers (expensive technology) will be added to simulate greater access to resources for some countries. After the activity students debrief about world trade, how it felt to have less resources, and the development of new technology.

Download: 7 GM - The Chain Game - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Breakdown of each group's materials, Discussion questions

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Changing World Perspectives - What's Up? SOUTH! (grade 7)

Math

-Geometry

Language Arts

-Literacy, Communication

Social Justice Issue(s): Perspective, Oppression, Power (global scale)

Lesson Description:

Students will use geometrical shapes to build continents and answer questions. In the "What's Up? South!" activity, students will view the "regular" world map, flip it upside down, and reflect on the social implications of being "on top."

Download: 7 ML global power - changing world perspectives - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Worksheet, Photos of Activity

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Consumerism and Government Spending(Grade 8)

Math

-Data Management, Collection and Organization of Data, Identify Trends, Read, interpret and draw conclusions from data

Social Justice Issue(s): Consumerism, Budgeting, Government Spending

Lesson Description:

Students will be asked what they would spend their money on if they were given $50, and will then tabulate data on the most popular activities. The students will complete their worksheet as the teacher progresses through the PowerPoint presentation. Students will make inferences based on the US military budget over the past few years and compare this spending to other areas.

Download: 8 M - Consumerism and Government Spending - Plan.doc

Download: 8 M - Consumerism and Government Spending - Data.xls

Download: 8 M - Consumerism and Government Spending - Presentation.ppt

Download: 8 M - Consumerism and Government Spending - Worksheet.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan (includes Teachers' Reflections), Excel File used to create graphs, PowerPoint Presentation to present to students, Student Worksheet

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Importance of Water (Grade 8)

Math

-Solve multistep problems, communicate with area, volume, capacity

Social Justice Issue(s): Water Consumption, Water Logging, Gloabl Infrastructure

Lesson Description:

Students are introduced to clean water facts, and asked to imagine what it would be like without pumped, piped, or treated water. Students then learn about the conversion of volume and capacity. Next students have to estimate their personal water needs in litres per day. Students then gain some experience walking with water jugs to simulate the difficulty of walking 6Km for clean water.

Download: 8 m - the importance of water.doc

Includes: Clean water facts, Lesson Plan, Teachers' reflection on lesson success

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Fair Trade (Grade 8)

Math

-Number Sense, Data management, Probability

Geography

-Economic Systems

Social Justice Issue(s): Fair Trade, Wealth Distribution, Wages Worldwide

Lesson Description:

Students will record on post it notes the countries where the clothes they are wearing were made and then place these on a map. Students will focus on the location where most of their clothes are made (probably Asia) and brainstorm reasons why this may be the case. Students will then be presented with data on employee wages in each country and explore the term "fair trade". Students will then find ways to represent frequency data and will answer some math questions.

Download: 8 GM - Fair Trade - All.doc

Includes: Lesson Plan, Discussion Questions

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