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Home Sweet Home: Promoting My Neighborhood

Source: National Institute of Health (www.nih.gov)

  Introduction

This lesson encourages students to design a brochure that highlights the assets of their neighborhood. It can be done in collaboration with the art teacher. Students are asked to assume the role of a travel agent, a real estate agent or landowner who wants to attract people to visit or buy land or houses or buildings in the neighborhood. They are to be creative in their ideas and the use of materials, images. The end result can be a classroom display superimposed on a map of the community. Provide samples of brochures from Visitor Centers, Chambers of Commerce etc. as models and materials they can copy or cut out. Stress that each student will value different features and it will be a personal view of their neighborhood.

The purpose of this lesson is to encourage a sense of place by recognizing positive aspects of the neighborhood.  In this lesson, students will:

• assemble facts and images to persuade others of neighborhood assets;

• use creative arts and writing skills to produce an attractive and compelling advertisement brochure.

This lesson is geared toward students in grades 3 - 5.

Frameworks Addressed:

History and Social Science:

• 3.8. Cities and Towns of Massachusetts

• On a map of Massachusetts, locate the class's home town or city and its local geographic features and landmarks. (G)

• 3.9. Identify historic buildings, monuments, or sites in the area and explain their purpose and significance. (H, C)

Language Arts:

• Grades 3-4: 1.2. Follow agreed-upon rules for class discussion and carry out assigned roles in self-run small group discussions.

• Grades 3-4: 2.2. Contribute knowledge to class discussion in order to develop ideas for a class project and generate interview questions to be used as part of the project.

• Grades 3-4: 13.6. Identify and use knowledge of common textual features (paragraphs, topic sentences, concluding sentences, glossary).

• Grades 3-4: 19.11. For informational/expository writing: Write brief summaries of information gathered through research.

• Grades 7-8: 20.4. Select and use appropriate rhetorical techniques for a variety of purposes, such as to convince or entertain the reader.

• Grades 9-10: 21.8. Revise writing by attending to topic/idea development, organization, level of detail, language/style, sentence structure, grammar and usage, and mechanics.

• Grades 11-12: Students will organize ideas in writing in a way that makes sense for their purpose.

1. The teacher hands out sample brochures advertising travel destinations.  These may be easily obtained from a travel agency, or downloaded from websites like Explain that students will prepare their own brochures advertising their neighborhood.

2. Students must first come up with a list of possible features and benefits from living in their neighborhood: Near park or playground? Walk to community center? (or bus service to center)? Good schools? Open spaces? Stores nearby? Attractive landscape? Safe for children? Telephone, cable, water, other services available?

3. Students receive a sketch page and a sheet of construction paper folded vertically in thirds.

1. Decide as a class what should be included on the six panels of the brochure.  Possibilities include:

• Cover: Name of the neighborhood and image

• Natural features of this neighborhood (hills, streams, beach, trails, parks…)

• Benefits of living in this neighborhood (neighbors, shops, amenities…)

• Where to find this neighborhood (written description and/or map)

• Good local resources (library, YMCA, Historical Society…)

• Back: contact information (Town Hall, Chamber of Commerce…)

2. Students can illustrate these neighborhood assets by cutting out or copying pictures from a collection of magazines and newspapers or they can draw their own.

3. Written text should be brief but cover the main assets featured. Students are reminded that they are trying to attract newcomers to their neighborhood. 

4. Each completed brochure is tacked up on the map of the community in its approximate location as a classroom or hall display.

*Note: Most students feel a sense of pride and connection with some aspects of their neighborhood.  If, however, a student has only negative responses to their neighborhood, let him or her advertise an ideal neighborhood they would like to live in.

• Construction paper folded in thirds.

• Sketch paper for notes and drafts

• Newspapers, magazine for pictures to cut out or copy

• Art supplies

• Sample brochures from Visitors Center, Chamber of Commerce

• Map of community for display of brochures

• MSP "Buildings and Neighborhoods" Resource online

Rubric Worksheet - printable version

Younger: The school is a kind of neighborhood that includes students’ home room, library, assembly, cafeteria etc. as well as the school grounds. In the classroom students discuss what makes their school special. They go outside for a short walk on the school grounds for a review of their play areas. Back in the classroom each K student describes one thing they especially like about their school “place” inside and one outside. 

Grades 1-2 can write up a descriptive paragraph of their special places in the school building and grounds.

Grades 6-12: Older students can be creative and technically skillful by working on brochures in image enhancing software like Photoshop or Microsoft Word. (this may take more than one computer session.) Finished products can be displayed in the school or sent to the community visitor’s center or chamber of commerce, etc.

This lesson was designed by Barbara D. Robinson.
Questions? Contact: k12.msp@umb.edu

The Mass. Studies Project	These curricular modules were developed with support from the John H. and H. Naomi Tomfohrde Foundation. The "Our Town, Our City" Curricular Resources Project is an initiative of the Massachusetts Studies Project, Institute for Learning and Teaching, University of Massachusetts, Boston The lesson plan formatting is based on The WebQuest template.