Picture a Business

Social Studies/Language Arts

What You Need

• Newspapers and advertising supplements
• Drawing and writing paper
• Crayons

What to Do

1. Discuss with students the different types of businesses in their community. To stimulate children's thinking, have them look at newspapers and advertising supplements for local establishments.
2. Make a list of children's contributions on the chalkboard. Help them list a variety of business establishments, medical centers, supermarkets, shoe stores, or restaurants.
3. Choose one of the businesses children name. Ask children to close their eyes and "picture in their minds" that place of business. Encourage children to visualize by asking such questions as:
   • What does the front of the building look like? Is there a window display? Is there a sign? What does it tell you about what it is like inside?
   • What does it look like inside? Are there desks? Counters? Special Equipment? Things for sale? Special gadgets, like computers, cash registers, copy machines?
   • Who is inside? What work are they doing? Do they wear special uniforms?
   • Are there people inside who do not work there? What are they doing?

4. List children's answers on the chalkboard. Repeat the exercise with two or three other businesses.

5. Divide the class into small groups, and assign one business to each group. Tell children that they are going to make a book about each business. Assign one child to make the cover of the book by drawing and labeling an outside view of the business. Other children can draw one of the scenes in the list.

6. Have children write one or two simple sentences to describe each scene they drew. Bind the pictures and sentences together to make a book about that business.

7. Pair the groups and have them exchange their books, reading aloud their descriptive sentences. Encourage them to explore what is alike and different about the two businesses.

Teaching Options

• Before you discuss it in class, make this a homework assignment that children first research with their parents.
• Review initial consonant clusters or digraphs by having children think of something they have seen in one of the businesses. For example, you might hold up a book for a department store and ask students what they could find inside that begins with a certain cluster or digraph. A child might respond, for str- : "I went into the store and bought string. Or, for th- : "I went into the store and got a thimble."
• Children might enjoy testing their knowledge in a cumulative memory game, using information from the books they made: Child 1 says, "I went into Howe's Department Store and bought sneakers." Child 2 repeats that, and adds to it: "I went into Howe's Department Store and I bought sneakers and books. Child 3 adds: "I went into Howe's Department Store and bought sneakers, books, and tape." When the list becomes too long to remember, start again with another store.