Lesson plan Kindergarten Social Studies & Civics
Why the Town of Tin Cup Grew Beside the Creek
A 35-minute kindergarten lesson where children sort near-water and far-from-water places on a map page, count each group, and tell why towns grow by creeks.
Objectives
- Students will tell one reason people build homes near running water.
- Students will sort places on a map page into a near-the-creek group and a dry-hill group.
- Students will count each group and say which group has more.
Vocabulary
Key words: creek, map, near, far, hill
Teacher overview
Towns are built where they are for reasons, and access to running water is one of the oldest of those reasons. This lesson uses the town of Tin Cup, a made-up place with a creek down the middle, so that kindergartners can see the pattern for themselves instead of being told it: the houses, the mill, the garden, and the horse trough all crowd along the blue line, while the dry hill stays mostly empty. The counting step makes the crowding along the creek countable rather than only visible.
Lay the blue strip down the middle of the rug before the class arrives. The map page can be a photocopy of a quick sketch you draw yourself; neat drafting is not the point, and children read a row of six square houses more easily than a detailed map.
Procedure
Opening question (5 min): Sit the class along both sides of the blue strip on the rug. Say that the strip is a creek in the town of Tin Cup and that long ago the first families came with wagons and had to choose where to stop. Ask: "You have one wagon, one horse, and a baby. Do you stop by the creek or up on the dry hill?" Take four or five answers and repeat each one back so the class hears the reasons, not only the choices.
Building the town on the rug (10 min): Hand out paper squares. Children take turns placing a square where they would build, saying one word for what it is, such as house, barn, or store. Almost every square will land near the blue strip. Point that out plainly and ask why. Guide the class to four reasons and write them on chart paper: water to drink, water for animals, water for plants, and a way to wash. Then ask what a family up on the dry hill would have to do every single day, which brings back the idea of carrying water a long way.
Map page sort and count (10 min): Give each child the Tin Cup map page. Model the sort with the page held up: circle the houses next to the creek in blue, circle the houses on the dry hill in brown. Children then work the numbered items on the page with a partner while you circulate. Counters can sit on each house so no child loses count.
Talk it over (7 min): Bring the class back together and take answers to each numbered item in order, showing the count on your own page. End on the last item and ask a follow-up: "Tin Cup grew big by the creek. What would make people move up the hill later?" Expect answers about crowding and about pipes, and confirm that pipes are what finally let towns spread away from the water.
Closing check (3 min): Ask every child to show with their fingers how many houses sat next to the creek. Look for six fingers across the room. Anyone showing a different number gets a quick recount with you at the table before recess.
Student Handout
Making the map page. Draw a wide blue creek down the middle of a page. Along the left bank, draw a row of six small square houses. Up in the top right corner, on a brown hill, draw two more square houses. Between the creek and the left row, draw three work spots and label them with a simple picture: a mill wheel, a garden, and a horse trough. Read each item below aloud to the class.
- Count the houses next to the creek. How many are there?
- Count the houses up on the dry hill. How many are there?
- Which group has more houses, the creek group or the hill group?
- Count the work spots next to the creek. How many are there?
- Count all the houses on the whole page. How many in all?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: 6 houses. The row along the left bank of the creek holds six squares.
- Answer: 2 houses. Only two squares sit on the brown hill in the top right corner.
- Answer: The creek group has more. Six is greater than two, which children can also show by matching one hill house to one creek house and finding four creek houses left over.
- Answer: 3 work spots. The mill wheel, the garden, and the horse trough all sit between the creek and the row of houses.
- Answer: 8 houses. Six houses by the creek and two houses on the hill make eight houses in all.
Differentiation
Support
Give these children a map page with the six creek houses already circled in blue so the first count is a matter of counting circles. Provide counters to place one per house, and let a partner recount aloud with them. During the rug step, hand them a paper square with a house already drawn on it so placement is the only decision.
Extension
Ask these children to add one new house to their map page, mark it with an X, and dictate a sentence saying where they put it and why. Then have them recount the total number of houses, which gives them a count of nine and a chance to explain how the total changed.
ELL supports
Pre-teach creek, hill, near, and far by walking the blue strip and standing near it and far from it while the class repeats each word. During the sort, allow a color-only answer: blue circle or brown circle. For item three, provide the sentence frame "The ____ group has more."
Extensions
Walk the class outside and look for the low place where rainwater runs on the playground, then ask where they would build a pretend town on that ground. Back inside, compare a satellite view of your own town with the Tin Cup page and count how many buildings sit near your nearest creek, river, or lake.