Grade 2 Lesson at a Glance: Unit 1, Lesson 3

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Some People I Know

Lesson at a Glance
Unit 1, Lesson 3: The Banana Bunch (pp. 20-27)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Interdependence Bananas from Honduras are grown, harvested, and transported by different people until the bananas reach stores in our neighborhoods.

Ask a volunteer to retell the story of how peanut butter is made, from the time the peanut is planted until a person opens a jar of peanut butter. Then hold up a bunch of bananas. Explain that bananas are grown in hot, wet countries such as Honduras. Have children find Honduras on the map on page 24. Ask them what they know about how bananas are grown and transported to grocery stores. Write their responses on the chalkboard and add to them as they read the lesson.

Check for Understanding

Have children make puppets out of construction paper and craft sticks. Draw a mouth on the banana and have them make the banana "talk," telling its experience of how it got from a banana tree to this classroom, naming the workers or jobs people do.
Ask children to draw pictures of the six steps of what happens to a banana from the time it is grown on a plantation to the time it is taken home to be eaten. Have them draw on six pieces of construction paper or large index cards. Mix up the cards and have children reorder them in the correct sequence. You may want to write a label for each worker.

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