Students are in Week 4 of Unit 1 — approximately Week 10 of the school year. For three weeks they have explored their own identities, their families, and the communities that shape them. This week the inquiry zooms out: from celebrating community to asking what communities need, and whether everyone has what they need.
Monday builds the foundational concept — wants versus needs — through a read-aloud and sorting work. Tuesday plants the equity seed through Maddi's Fridge before students move into investigation centers. Wednesday deepens through creative and expressive centers. By the end of Wednesday, every student has investigated all four aspects of the driving question.
Tuesday–Wednesday: Students will compare the needs of different living things and evaluate whether the people in their community have access to what they need to thrive.
Teacher explanation: "Identify means to find something and name it. Describe means to tell someone about something."
Read-aloud: Wants vs. Needs vs. Robots by Michael Rex. Building toward: Tuesday's read-aloud is Maddi's Fridge by Lois Brandt — plants the equity seed before centers.
Open with food and family — something every student can access immediately. Establish the day's inquiry purpose and read the kid-friendly objective.
Brief pause. "Turn and tell your partner — what food are you thinking about?" 45 seconds partner talk. 2–3 students share.
Teacher reads kid-friendly objective. Brief explanation of identify and describe.
Students may share food names in their home language. Celebrate: "How do you say that in English? Let's add both words to our word wall." Opening with food and family activates cultural wealth before academic vocabulary is introduced.
Read-aloud of Wants vs. Needs vs. Robots. Two think-aloud pauses. Teacher builds a wants/needs chart from student responses after the read.
Teacher introduces Wants vs. Needs vs. Robots — warm, expressive. Two deliberate think-aloud pauses:
Pause 1 — when a robot trades a need for a want:
Pause 2 — when the robot realizes its mistake:
After the read-aloud, teacher builds a two-column chart (Need / Want) with 3–4 student responses per column. Records in student language exactly.
One more turn and tell: "Is a pet a need or a want? How do you know?" 30 seconds. 2–3 students share. Celebrate the debate — the debatable ones are the most interesting.
The picture book provides a visual narrative context that supports comprehension across proficiency levels. Students at WIDA Levels 1–2 can participate in the think-aloud pauses through gesture, expression, and pointing before producing English. The two-column chart gives a persistent visual anchor for the rest of the lesson.
Review the chart together. Surface the tricky part — wanting something very much doesn't make it a need. Students prepare to sort independently.
Teacher reviews the chart together — pointing to student responses in each column.
2–3 responses. Teacher listens for: survival, body, living things.
Students sort picture cards into needs and wants independently. Natural conversation with partners encouraged. Recording sheet follows sorting. Teacher circulates with conferring questions.
Students move to tables — sorting mats, picture cards, recording sheets, and sentence frame cards already set up. Teacher models with one card:
Students sort independently — natural conversation with partners encouraged. Teacher circulates:
When students finish sorting (~10 minutes): complete recording sheet — draw one need and one want. Label or dictate.
Early finishers: flip sorting mat over and draw one more need and one more want from their own life — not in the card set.
Levels 1–2: Sorting by placing cards is a complete response. Teacher scribes dictated sentence.
Levels 3–4: Sentence frames throughout. Oral justification accepted in home language.
Level 5: Write own justification sentence independently.
Multilingual extension: Celebrate home language words for any picture cards. "How do you say water in your language? Let's add that."
Students share sorting decisions. Lesson bridges from personal needs to community needs. The week's driving question is named. Wonders go on the wonder wall.
Students return to the rug with sorting mats and recording sheets. Turn and tell: "Tell your partner — one thing you put in your need column and why. Then one thing in your want column and why." 60 seconds. 3–4 pairs share.
1–2 wonders added to the wonder wall. Teacher previews: "Tomorrow we're going to read a story about two best friends — and then we're going to be investigators."
Recording sheets reviewed — who understands the distinction, who is debating the debatable cards (friends, books, pets). Notes inform Tuesday's Maddi's Fridge discussion and center facilitation.
Tuesday read-aloud: Maddi's Fridge by Lois Brandt. Two-day center structure: Tuesday — Centers 1 & 2 only · Wednesday — Centers 3 & 4 only. Each day: Connect 10 min → Centers 40 min (two centers running, groups switch at 20 min) → Reflect 10 min.
| Center | Focus | Standards | Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Living Things Needs Web — Sort picture cards and build needs webs for a person, plant, and animal. Compare what different living things need. | LS.K.1.1 | Tuesday |
| 2 | Helping Our Community Fridge — Fill a community fridge with what a family needs. Wonder sticker activity plants the equity seed: does every family have enough? | K.E.1.1 | Tuesday |
| 3 | My Community Drawing & Labeling — Draw own community: what it has and what it needs. Individual product. First contribution toward the community portrait action project. | W.K.2 | Wednesday |
| 4 | Build Your Community — Build the community you want to live in using loose parts. Photo + audio recording captures individual builds. | PS.K.1.2 | Wednesday |
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Center 2 (or 4) · 20 min
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Center 1 (or 3) · 20 min
Teacher circulates between both centers. Priority on Tuesday: Center 1 (science concepts may need support) then Center 2 (equity conversation needs gentle facilitation). Priority on Wednesday: Center 3 (writing/dictation support) and Center 4 (audio recordings).
Maddi's Fridge read-aloud plants the equity seed before centers. One think-aloud pause. Brief center tour before groups disperse.
Teacher reads kid-friendly objective. Maddi's Fridge read-aloud — unhurried, expressive. One think-aloud pause when Sofia discovers Maddi's empty fridge:
After read-aloud: "Maddi's family didn't have enough food. Food is a need. What do you think every family's fridge should have?" 2–3 responses.
Teacher walks class to Center 1 — shows materials, demonstrates one step, points to anchor chart. 2 minutes. Repeats for Center 2. Groups assigned and posted visibly with name cards.
Maddi's Fridge surfaces food insecurity directly. It may connect to real experiences in the room. Read with care and warmth — not as a teaching moment about poverty, but as a story about friendship, trust, and what it means to help. The wonder wall receives any questions that arise. Nothing is resolved. Wondering is the goal.
Two groups rotate through Centers 1 and 2. Switch at 20 minutes. Teacher circulates — science support at Center 1, equity facilitation at Center 2.
Students share one discovery. Thread back to Maddi's Fridge. Wonders added to wonder wall. Preview Wednesday.
Turn and tell: "Tell your partner — one thing you discovered at your centers today." 60 seconds. 3–4 students share. Teacher records on chart paper in student language.
2–3 wonders added to wonder wall. Preview: "Tomorrow you'll investigate two more questions — what does YOUR community have and need, and what would your ideal community look like?"
Recall Tuesday's discoveries. Center tour for Centers 3 and 4. Same groups, centers switched.
Center tour — 4 minutes · 2 minutes per center. Groups assigned — same groups as Tuesday, new centers.
Two groups rotate through Centers 3 and 4. Switch at 20 minutes. Teacher prioritizes writing/dictation support at Center 3 and audio recording facilitation at Center 4.
Richest reflect of the week. Structured share across all four centers. Equity wonder held gently. Discovery chart built alongside the wonder wall. Preview Thursday.
One discovery from each center represented:
Teacher builds a class discovery chart alongside the wonder wall — student language, student ideas. Both charts stay up for the rest of the unit.
No right answer given. No resolution offered. Wondering is the goal. Any responses go on the wonder wall. Students who need to sit with it quietly are doing the work too.
1–2 student questions written down visibly. They will be used Thursday.
All center products reviewed after Wednesday — needs webs, fridge recordings, community drawings, audio recordings. Teacher notes: who is making the connection between living things' needs and human community needs, whose equity wondering is deepening, whose cultural community knowledge is surfacing in drawings and builds. Notes inform Thursday's community partner conversation.
Purpose: Students investigate what different living things need to thrive — comparing needs of a person, plant, and animal of their choice. Plants the science seed for the equity wonder: if all living things have needs, do all people have what they need?
Materials: Picture cards (sun · water · food · shelter · soil · air · sleep · exercise · love/care · space to grow) · Three web templates per pair — Person / Plant / Animal · Crayons · Glue sticks · Sentence frame card · Anchor chart
What students do:
- Look through picture cards and name each one — 5 min
- Build all three webs — decide which cards belong on each living thing's web, draw or glue cards, write/dictate sentence frames — 12 min
- Compare all three webs side by side — 3 min
Key discussion prompts: "Does a plant need food the same way a person does?" · "Does a person need soil? What about sunshine?" · "What do all three living things need?"
Levels 1–2: Pointing and drawing are valid responses. Multilingual extension: "We have two words for water — that's powerful. Let's add both to the word wall."
Purpose: Students fill a community fridge with what a family needs — connected to Maddi's Fridge. A wonder sticker activity plants the equity seed: does every family have enough?
Materials: Large paper fridge template or pocket chart · Picture cards: needs (milk · eggs · bread · fruit · vegetables · rice · beans · water) and wants/non-essential (candy · cupcakes · soda · toys · fancy items) · Recording sheet · Wonder stickers (question marks) · Crayons · Anchor chart
What students do:
- Sort picture cards — does this help a hungry family? Place helpful food cards in the fridge — 10 min
- Wonder sticker activity — for each need card, does everyone in our community have this? Place a question mark sticker if they wonder — 7 min
- Each partner completes: "I wonder if every family has ___ because ___." — 3 min
The wonder sticker activity may surface real experiences. Honor personal responses with care: "Thank you for sharing that. That's important." No fixing. No explaining. Just honoring. The question mark sticker is the right tool here — it holds the wondering without demanding resolution.
Placing physical stickers is a complete, low-language action that communicates understanding. The wonder sticker requires only that students notice a possible gap — not that they explain it in English.
Purpose: Students represent their own community through drawing and labeling — capturing what their community has and what it needs. Individual product. First contribution toward the Unit 1 community portrait action project.
Materials: My Community page per student — top half: "My community has ___." / bottom half: "My community needs ___." with drawing space and label lines · Crayons and pencils · Unit vocabulary bank card · Sentence frame card · Teacher sticky notes for dictation support · Anchor chart
What students do:
- Turn and talk with partner — picture your neighborhood, what do you see? — 3 min
- Draw their actual community and label — 14 min
- Share with partner using "I drew ___ because ___." — 3 min
Key teacher prompts: "What do you see when you walk outside your door?" · "What does your family do in your community?" · "What do you wish your community had more of?"
Home language labels celebrated alongside English. "You drew [the masjid / the tobacco barn / the mercado]. Tell me about that. Can we add that word to our word wall?" Portfolio note: Pages kept and revisited in Week 5.
Purpose: Students build the community they want to live in using loose parts — one that has everything living things need. Individual builds side by side with natural partner conversation. NC Science standard PS.K.1.2 addressed through material choice reasoning.
Materials: Loose parts (wooden blocks · fabric scraps · natural materials · small figures · cardboard · cotton balls · craft sticks) · Large base sheet per pair divided down the middle · Community needs reference card · Sentence frame card · Tablet or phone for photo and audio recording · Anchor chart
What students do:
- Plan — look at needs reference card, talk with partner: "What does our community need to have?" — 3 min
- Build individual community on own half of base sheet — 12 min
- Teacher or student takes photo. Each partner records audio description using sentence frames — 5 min
Science connection PS.K.1.2: Teacher focuses circulation on material choice reasoning: "Why did you choose that material for the shelter? Is fabric a good material for a road?"
Closing comparison: "One thing our communities both have is ___." · "One thing that's different is ___."
Building is a complete response. Students name parts in home language during audio recording. Cultural note: Students may build structures reflecting their cultural community — mosque, mercado, tobacco barn. Celebrate explicitly. The audio recording captures student voice and thinking in whatever language it comes in.
The texts, picture cards, and community examples in this lesson sequence are illustrative choices drawn from one community context. Teachers should select or supplement with texts and materials that reflect the specific families, languages, and community structures present in their classroom.
Essential to the framework: the three-day arc from personal wants/needs to community needs to equity wondering, the five-phase lesson structure, the WIDA-differentiated language support, and the connection to the unit's driving question and action project.
Intended for localization: the specific read-alouds, the picture card sets, and the community examples used in each center — all of which should reflect the community the students actually live in.