Needs and Wants
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Question 1: How do people meet their needs and wants? |
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Needs and Wants Slide Show Go through the first three slides of the presentation below as a class. Then work with your partner to read the rest of it. Can you and your partner brainstorm more categories of workers, businesses and organizations that meet communities' needs and wants? Take out your Research Journal and write about the ones you think are the most important. |
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Community Articles Now you and your partner are each going to read one of the articles below. Tell each other what your articles are about. Do these articles make you think of your community in a different way? Write in your research journal about how the articles have changed your thinking about communities. See if you can use the idea of "two heads are better than one!" |
Article 1
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Community Helpers |
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Steven Yang grew up in a quiet suburb in the state of Minnesota. The beige-colored house he shared with his parents, his uncle and six brothers and sisters is much like others in his neighborhood: simple and solid.
There is one difference that you might miss if you’re not looking for it. Written on the wall of Yang’s garage are dozens of signatures of community volunteers who helped build Yang’s family house.
When Yang came across these names as a child, he began to understand how his family’s home was built through the acts of kindness of his whole community. “I have a vivid memory of the moment when I was playing around in the garage and saw what I thought were drawings,” said Yang. When he learned that they were the names of the people who had built the house for his family, it was very meaningful. When Yang arrived in this country as a refugee from Southeast Asia, he and his family needed help starting their new life. To Yang, each name on the garage wall stands for the caring and collaboration it took to turn blueprints and lumber into the home that sheltered and welcomed him.
--Adapted from the Habitat for Humanity website by Jane del Villar and Jennifer Rowell
Article 2
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Oranges from Tree to You |
Oranges are round, juicy fruits that grow on trees in places with warm weather. How does an orange get from the tree to your refrigerator?
People who work as fruit pickers move through groves filled with orange trees. When an orange is ripe, the picker clips it off the tree. All picked oranges are then carefully moved to a packing plant.
In the plant, oranges are placed on a machine with moving rollers. Special brushes wash the fruit as it rolls along. Next, each orange is dried.
Another machine lines up the oranges in boxes. A computer checks each box. Any oranges with spots or damage are removed. Orange growers want to produce good fruit that people will buy.
Finally, each orange is given a sticker and placed in a box. Full boxes are shipped in cool trucks to stores.
Each storeowner places the oranges on shelves. Then someone from your family comes to the store. Your family member chooses a few oranges, buys them, brings them home, and puts them in your refrigerator.
Then, one day, you open your refrigerator—and there those oranges are, ready for you to eat!
© by Susan LaBella 2014 ReadWorks®, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.readworks.org/passages/oranges-tree-you.