Book Title: The
Author: Lauren Mills
Publisher and Date: Trumpet Club, Inc.,
Curriculum Developer: Kimberley
The Rag Coat is about a girl named
Minna who tells the story of how she learned that people need each
other. She comes from a poor family. Her father gets sick from
working in the coal mines and dies. The mother makes quilts to
support the family. Minna can not go to school, because she does
not have a coat to wear for the winter. Through the help of her
mother and other mothers, they make a coat for Minna. This coat is
made from all of the mothers' quilting scraps. At school, the
children make fun of her coat. Minna shares with the class the
story behind each patch. Each child has a tie to her coat, because
their mothers helped make the coat with scraps from their
Social Studies Relevance:
This book explains the need for family,
neighborhood, community, and school. It shows how history is a
part of each of our lives. History helps mold who we are through
teaching us values and an understanding of the past. This book
also shows a difference between wants and needs.
Grade Level Focus: 1st and 2nd
Relationship to Social Studies State
Standard 6010-02: The students
will understand that the family, school, and neighborhood provide
basic needs and learning experiences.
Objectives 6010-0201: Identify examples
of how individuals learn from the family, school, and
6010-0202: Show ways in which families provide
the basic needs of love, food, shelter, clothing, companionship,
and protection to their members.
6010-0203: Compare similarities and differences
among families, schools, and neighborhoods.
6010-0204: Show that every individual has
dignity and worth and is unique.
Standard 6010-05: The students will
understand that individuals have unlimited wants but limited
Objectives 6010-0502: Define and
identify wants and needs.
6010-0503: Identify resources that are used to
make the things we need or want.
Standard 6020-02: The students will
show how individuals are products of their culture and how
individual talents and traits are developed.
Objectives 6020-0201: Identify cultural
traits and values that are inherited and acquired; i.e., family,
religious, and cultural traditions, physical characteristics, etc.
6020-0202: Show ways in which individuals learn
behavior and values from groups in the community; i.e., honesty,
respect, responsibility, etc.
Title of Lesson: Wants and Needs
- Students will be able to decipher the
difference between wants and needs.
- Students will make a collage showing wants and
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills, 2
sheets of chart paper, magazines, glue, scissors, and construction
- Think-Pair-Share Strategy. Individually the
students will think of things they want. This may only take about
3 minutes. Then pair the students up and have them talk about
their wants with the other student. Give them about 3-5 minutes to
share with the partner. During this time the teacher will put up a
piece of chart paper titled wants. After the time is up, the
teacher will have groups share a couple of things they see as
wants. Repeat this process again for needs. Ask the students to
individually think of things that they need rather than want.
While the students share with a partner, hang up another piece of
chart paper titled needs. Again have the groups share ideas of
needs that they came up with.
- Ask the students to look for wants and needs
in the book The Rag Coat, as you read it to the
- Guided Discussion. Discuss the words written
on the charts and the examples they found, in the book, of wants
and needs. What are wants and needs? How do they differ? What are
wants and needs that we have today? How are they different to the
time of Minna? How are they similar to the time of
- Collage. Have the students go through
magazines and make a collage of wants and needs. The college must
be divided into two parts, so the wants and needs are
- Examine the collages to see if each student
understood the difference between wants and needs.
Title of Lesson: Coming Together to Help Others
- Students will contribute ideas, through a
brainstorming activity, for helping others at home, school, and in
their neighborhood, and community.
4 sheets of chart paper, and 4 different
- Carousel Brainstorming. Have a chart in each
corner of the room. Each chart will have a different title on it.
The titles will be family, school, neighborhood, and community.
Break the students up into groups of four. Each group will start
at a different chart. Before the students are asked to go to a
chart, explain the directions. Tell the students the different
titles of each chart. They will be asked to come up with ways they
could help with needs in each of those areas. Remind them of the
differences between wants and needs. An example of a need in the
community may be collecting coats for the homeless. Wants are not
listed on the chart, but give the students an example to help them
remember the difference. A want, in school, maybe to have a big
screen T.V. in every classroom. Next, give each group a different
colored marker. Each group will be asked to list ideas until the
time is up. Then they will rotate to the next corner and list
things at that chart. They will continue until they have been at
each corner. The teacher should watch the groups each time. See
how long it takes before each group has two or three things
written down, then rotate them. It may take the first group a
shorter time to come up with two or three things, so continue to
watch to see how long it takes before they should be rotated. When
the four rotations are done, have each group choose a
spokesperson. This person will give a summary of the things on the
last chart they were at. Have the rest of the class sit in their
desks while the spokes people report.
- Evaluate the group's ideas written on the
chart paper. Check to see if they understood how they could help
with their families, school, neighborhood, and community.
Title of Lesson: Helping the Community
- Together the class will identify a service
project they can do for their community or neighborhood.
- The class will also organize themselves into
committees and identify each committee's job for the
A chalkboard to record the committees and
- Service Inquiry. Discuss with the class the
different ways that they can help with needs in their home,
school, neighborhood, and community. Ask the students how the
community or neighborhood helped reach the needs of Minna in the
book The Rag Coat. Ask the class to think of a project that
they could do to help in one of those areas. Let's say that they
choose to collect coats for their community. Ask the students to
give ideas on how they could organize this service project. What
do they need to do? Whom do we need to call? Whom do we give the
coats to? How do we collect the coats? Ask the students to come up
with different committees they will need to make the service
project work? Have the students sign up for the different
committees. They may need committees to: make notes to send home
to parents in the school, make posters for the school, and a group
in charge of collecting the coats and finding out where to take
them to give to the needy. These committees may change depending
on the project your class decides on.
- Make sure that the service project is possible
and needed in your community or neighborhood.
- Make sure that every student has signed up for
a committee and that the committee has a valuable job
Title of Lesson: Guest Speaker
- Students will each form a question for the
speaker and will write down one thing that they learned from the
A guest speaker from the service place
that your class is helping.
Before the speaker comes
- Ask the students to write down one to two
questions that they have about the place where the speaker works.
To monitor the quality and appropriateness of the questions have
them turned in the day before the speaker comes in. If they are
not appropriate, take to the student before the speaker
- Explain to the students how to act when a
guest is in the classroom. They will need to have manners.
- Ask the speaker to tell some background
information about their work.
- Have the students ask their questions by
raising their hands.
After the speaker
- Have the students write down the answer to
their question and one extra thing that they learned about the
- Collect the student's questions and answers.