The following consists of TWO SAMPLE LESSON PLANS, taken directly from Step 2 courses, in this case, Step 2 History 1, and Step 2 Science 1. Step 2 is for students ages 7-8, and for students of any age who are developing literacy. Each lesson plan should take the student ROUGHLY an hour to do. It's okay if it takes a little shorter or longer, even up to 90 minutes per lesson. If these lesson plans seem very easy for the student, we recommend trying the Step 3 Reading Test to see if the student may be ready for that level. If the student really does not read at all yet, we recommend considering Step 1 studies. We ask that you allow your student to read aloud to you during Step 2 lesson plans.
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A Lesson Plan from Step 2, History 1, WHAT HISTORY IS
1. UNDERSTAND THE WORDS:
History – Everything that ever happened.
Past – Time that has already happened.
2. READ ALOUD TO YOUR TEACHER:
You are about to study history. One of the first things you should want to know about any subject you will study is “what IS that subject? What is it about?” So what IS history?
History is everything that has ever already happened. History is the past, all of the past. History is the story of everybody and everything that has ever been.
Now, if you had to learn about everything that ever had been, including how many drops of rain fell in the year 1017, and how many times your great great grandmother sneezed…well, you would never be able to learn that many facts, even if you could find them somewhere. You can’t, so don’t waste your time.
So when you study History, you will not be studying everything that ever happened, even though everything that ever happened IS history. This would be too much to study for anyone, and would be a silly waste of time.
What you do study when you study history are only the things that have happened that we think are important for people to know and understand.
3. DO:
Right now, in 2015, there are over six BILLION people on Earth. You may know as many as a few hundred of them, though probably not that many. Get a piece of paper, and start writing down everything that is happening that you can see. Include what you are doing, what all the people around you are doing, and all the animals or objects (like clocks). Do this for about 30 minutes. When you’re done, look at everything you’ve written. Did you include when everyone breathed and every word spoken?
Is it possible to know everything that happens in your house or classroom? Is it possible to know what over six billion people just did a minute ago? Should anyone care about all that? If so, why should they care? Write down your answer. Title it “History Lesson #1, 4” and place it into your history folder.
4. DO:
What kind of things have happened in the past that YOU think would be important to know? Here is a list of things that have happened in the past. Tell your Teacher which of these you think it would be good to know about and study. Tell the Teacher which of these would be boring and stupid to study. Explain why.
-What everyone in the world ate for breakfast eight days ago.
-The reasons a great and terrible war started.
-How your country started.
-How many bananas went rotten in June of 1933.
-What Bob said to Betty when they went to a movie, sixteen years ago.
-What ideas were used to start your country, and who had those ideas.
-How a terrible war was ended.
-What King or Ruler helped make your country strong.
-How many dogs or cats that King or Ruler had when he or she was 7 years old.
-The ideas which that King or Ruler had, and the things they did, that made your country strong.
-How many words that King or Ruler used to explain the ideas they had to their mothers.
-What happened to your country because a King or Ruler had good ideas.
-What happened to the snail in the King’s garden because the King had a good idea.
-What happened to all the living things, even pets and plants, because of a terrible war.
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A Lesson Plan from Step 2, Science 1 - MEASUREMENTS & TOOLS
(You’ll need a simple scale of some kind to measure the weight of small objects.)
1. UNDERSTAND THE WORDS:
Physical – Anything that can be seen, touched, smelled, or proven to exist in a way that can be measured.
Physical Universe – Everything physical that exists anywhere, no matter how large or small.
Science – The study of the Physical Universe.
Scientist – A person who studies the Physical Universe.
Temperature – How hot or cold a thing is.
Measure – To find out about a physical object’s weight, size, temperature, and other facts.
2. READ ALOUD TO THE TEACHER:
You are now going to start your study of science for 7 and 8 year-olds. The first thing you may want to know is what IS science. A lot of people who study science never really find out.
Science is the study of the Physical Universe. Science is man’s attempt to understand the Universe we live in.
So what is the universe? The Universe is everything that physically is. Anything that has a shape, a size, weight, temperature, anything that can be seen or heard or found to exist in a physical form.
Some things in the universe are so small, we can’t see them with our eyes. This does not mean they don’t exist. You may not be able to see something that you can smell, but you sure know something is there! Germs that live inside your body are too small to see with your eyes, but you can see them with certain tools which science has invented.
Some things are so far away that no matter how large they are, we can’t see them with our eyes. But that does not mean they don’t exist. Just because you have friends or family in another city that you can’t see does not mean that they do not exist! There are planets and suns so far away we can’t see them. But again, there are tools made by scientists that can see such planets and suns.
Scientists study only what they can measure. They believe that, for something to be real, it must be able to be measured in some way. It might not weigh much, but it will weigh something. A star very far away may not put out enough light for us to see with our eyes, but there are tools a scientist can use to measure their light, so scientists believe that these stars exist.
3. DO:
Look around the room. What can you see using only your eyes? Write down a list of five things you can see existing in the room. (Don’t forget that people exist if they can be seen, too!)
4. DO:
Close your eyes. Can you smell anything? Write down a description of anything you can smell.
5. DO:
Close your eyes again. Is the room hot? Cold? In the middle? Write down a description of the temperature of the room.
6. DO:
Chose five objects in the room that are small enough to pick up easily, but not so small that you can’t easily weigh them. (Pencils, erasers and paper clips may be too small.) On the scale the teacher lends you, weigh each object. Let the teacher help you learn to read the scale if you need help. Write down how much each object weighs.
7. DO:
Though you can’t see it right now, name one thing that you know exists in another room, because you saw it either today or yesterday. Write down what it is, and how you know it exists. (If you need help, ask yourself “What did I see in my bedroom this morning?”)
8. DO:
Though you can’t smell it right now, name one thing you really know you have smelled before, maybe in the last day or so. Write down what it was, and how you knew it was real. (If you need help, ask yourself “What did I eat for breakfast today? “What did I eat for dinner yesterday?”)
9. DO:
Explain to the teacher one way you know for sure that something is or was real.
10. DO:
Multiple Students: Pair up with another student. Select one object per pair of students. Each student finds one way to convince the other student that the object really exists. When you have convinced the other student that the object exists, stop and let him convince you. (Let the teacher decide who should go first.)
Single Student: The Teacher pairs up with the student. They select an object. Each person finds one way to convince the other student that the object really exists. When you have convinced the other person that the object exists, stop and let him convince you. (Let the teacher decide who should go first.)