Learning Humanity from a Nonfiction Text
Grade
Grade 1
UNIT
9
•
Humanity
Unit 9, Lesson 2, “Learning Humanity from a Nonfiction Text,” reinforces the vocabulary word humanity. Students will read a nonfiction text that shows how a real person demonstrated humanity. Additionally, students will practice their reading comprehension skills by reading independently and hearing a reading from the teacher. Finally, students will create their own sentences that demonstrate their reading comprehension.
.jpg)
SUGGESTED TIME:
20 minutes
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- Practice reading independently to develop reading comprehension skills
- Spell, define, and give an example of humanity
- Compose 3 sentences that demonstrate comprehension of the word humanity
- Demonstrate understanding of standard English sentence structure and grammar
- Practice reading and conversation skills by sharing sentences with classmates
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
- A small paper cup for each student
- Video: Celebrate 20 Years of Clean Water with Ryan’s Well Foundation by Ryan’s Well Foundation (~3 min)
- Prohuman Grade 1 Unit 9 Worksheet 2: Learning Humanity from a Nonfiction Text
VOCABULARY:
- Humanity: I see that every person is special. People are more alike than unalike. We all need to work together to make our lives better.
ELA COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET
CHARACTER AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL (CSED) NATIONAL STANDARDS MET
LESSON PROCEDURE
Today we will continue to learn about humanity.
- Write humanity on the board.
- Ask students to spell humanity on their worksheets.
- Ask students what we learned about humanity in the previous lessons.
- Activity: give each student a paper cup and tell them to go, one by one, to the class sink or drinking fountain and fill up their cups, then return to their seats.
- Ask the students if it was easy or hard for them to get water. Tell the students that not everyone in the world is able to get clean water so easily.
- Play the video: Celebrate 20 Years of Clean Water with Ryan’s Well Foundation by Ryan’s Well Foundation (~3 min)
- Have students read the nonfiction text on their worksheets independently, quietly to themselves. Circle the room to support the students.
- After giving the students 10 minutes to practice reading, then read the worksheet text aloud to the whole class.
- Ask students to complete their worksheets.
- Have students take turns sharing their sentences with a partner.
GRADE 1 UNIT 9 WORKSHEET 2: LEARNING HUMANITY FROM A NONFICTION TEXT
Humanity: I see that every person is special. People are more alike than unalike. We all need to work together to make our lives better.
Write the word humanity:
_________________________________________________________________________
NONFICTION TEXT: RYAN’S HUMANITY
In 1998, when Ryan Hreljac was 6 years old and in the first grade, he learned from his teacher that people were sick and some were even dying because they didn’t have clean water. His teacher said that some people walked for hours in Africa just to get dirty water.
Ryan went home and asked his mom and dad to help. After a few days, they told him he could do extra chores to earn the $70 he thought would build a well. He thought that’s all it would take to solve the world’s water problem. He worked for four months to earn his first $70. Then he learned that it was really going to cost $2,000 to build a well in a place like Uganda. He also learned that the problem was way bigger than he first thought.
Ryan started speaking to service clubs, school classes, and to anyone who would listen so that he could raise money for his first well at Angolo Primary School in Uganda. That’s how his first grade project became Ryan’s Well Foundation.
Now, more than 20 years later, Ryan’s Well Foundation has supported water projects in 17 countries. Right now, the foundation is working on making sure there is safe water in three countries: Malawi, Uganda, and Ghana. They help people of all ages to take action and effect positive change in the world.
Source: https://ryanswell.ca/about-us/our-story
ACTIVITY:
Write 1 sentence that explains how Ryan showed humanity.
Write 1 sentence that explains how Ryan’s humanity helped other people.
Write 1 sentence about how you can show humanity.
Prohuman K-12 Curriculum © 2025 by Prohuman Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/