Teach Students How to Make a Group Presentation
Social Studies Lesson Plan for a Primary Candy Theme Unit
Oct 29, 2008
After a holiday involving candy, such as Halloween or Valentine's Day, or to celebrate National Candy Day (popularly observed on November 4) or National Candy Month in June, have children create group presentations about the invention, history, and/or manufacture of one kind of candy.
Objectives
- Students will demonstrate through the creation and presentation of an oral report an understanding of the invention, history, and/or manufacture of a type of candy.
- Older students will use simple graphic aids such as charts, graphs, and maps.
Introduce the Activity
Explain that each group will be researching a kind of candy and sharing what it learns in a presentation to the class. Each member should present some information about the group's topic. Have older students use graphic aids such as photographs, illustrations, charts, graphs, or maps to tell more about their topics.
Have each group pick a type of candy to research and fill in the first two columns of a KWL chart to focus their research. Once they are done researching, have them fill in the third column.
NOTE: Adjust the amount of information students are to research depending on the age and ability level of students. For example, for younger students, ask each child in a group to present one interesting fact about the group's assigned candy. For older students, have them gather related facts about the invention, history, and/or manufacture of the candy and include at least one graphic aid as part of their presentation, such as a time line of events involving the candy or a map showing the areas from which its ingredients originate.
Providing Resources
Older students will be able to use Internet and library resources to locate information. Younger students will need resources provided to them. In addition to using Internet search engines to find information about the history of candy companies such as Hershey and Mars Candies, students will find resources such as the following helpful:
Information About Different Types of Candy:
- How Sweet It Is (and Was) by Ruth Freeman Swain [Holiday House, 2003]
- Sweet! The Delicious Story of Candy by Ann Love & Jane Drake [Tundra Books, 2007]
- All About Candy! from the National Confectioners Association
- The history of M&M's®
Information About Chocolate (up to age 5):
- Chocolate (Starters) by Saviour Pirotta [Hodder Children's Books, 2003]
- Beans to Chocolate (Welcome Books: How Things Are Made) by Inez Snyder [Children's Press, 2003]
Information About Chocolate (ages 4–8):
- Smart About Chocolate: A Sweet History by Sandra Markle [Grosset & Dunlap, 2005]
- From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate (Start to Finish) by Robin Nelson [Lerner Publishing Group, 2003]
- The Official M&M's® History of Chocolate by Karen E. Pellaton [Charlesbridge, 2001]
- Chocolate by Jacqueline Dineen [Carolrhoda, 1991]
Information About Chocolate (ages 9–12):
- The Story of Chocolate (DK READERS) by C.J. Polin [DK Publishing, Inc., 2005]
- Chocolate: Riches from the Rainforest by Robert Burleigh [Harry N. Abrams, 2002]
Information About Manufacturing Candy:
- How It Happens at the Candy Company by Jenna Anderson [Clara House Books, 2002]
- Made in the U.S.A.: Chocolate: From Start to Finish by Samuel G. Woods [Blackbirch Press, 1999]
- Made in the U.S.A: Jelly Beans: From Start to Finish by Claire Kreger [Blackbirch Press, 2002]
Using Graphic Aids
Point out graphic aids found in the resource materials to provide older students with practice reading these supplemental features and models for creating their own graphic aids. For example:
- Sweet! contains detailed illustrations, a map, a time line, and a bar graph.
- How Sweet It Is (and Was) contains detailed illustrations and a time line.
- The Official M&M's® History of Chocolate contains detailed illustrations, a map, time lines, and a bar graph.
Students will be more motivated to research and create a presentation when it is on an interesting subject such as candy. For further learning, try some candy-themed math lessons.
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