Welcome to TechKNOW Associates' FOCUS on My Neighborhood page. This project was developed through a partnership between TechKNOW Associates and FOCUS Learning. Please go to the Terms of Use page for information on using the projects. You may download a full copy of the project by following the links below.

TechKNOW Associates Corporation can provide expert, onsite staff development to insure that teachers and children fully implement this and other projects at a reasonable cost. We will train teachers in the classroom with their students, model lessons, and help them integrate technology into their curriculum through a project-based approach.

Links sometimes change. If you come across a bad link, please email our web master at webmaster@techknowassociates.com

New projects are being developed and added to our site on a regular basis. Visit often.

FOCUS on My Neighborhood

Community is a central theme in primary grade curriculum. In FOCUS on My Neighborhood, your first, second, and third grade students will build on and expand their knowledge of their own communities as they explore various places in their neighborhood and the roles of people who live and work there.

FOCUS on My Neighborhood is an interdisciplinary project designed to develop a strong foundation of language and literacy skills through real-world applications. The project takes advantage of the inherently curious nature of young learners by engaging them in authentic research about the people and places in their community through the use of technology and other media. 

FOCUS on My Neighborhood provides students with language and literacy experiences while addressing performance standards in English Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, and the Arts.

FOCUS on My Neighborhood encourages students to direct their own learning through inquiry-based methodologies, performance-based activities, and interactive software that features speech recognition and a 3D animated teacher. The project is structured to include an introduction, two distinct yet interrelated learning phases, and a culminating event in which students demonstrate their learning:

• Phase One: The Places in My Neighborhood – Students will develop and expand their vocabulary, language, and technology skills, as they explore the places in their neighborhood. Students will work cooperatively to create maps, dioramas, and books to showcase the different places they discover.

• Phase Two: The People in My Neighborhood – Students will work cooperatively to explore the roles of people who live and work in the different places they discovered in the first phase. Students will work cooperatively to create posters, poems, and multimedia (talking) books to demonstrate what they have learned.

The culminating event, Welcome to My Neighborhood, is an opportunity for students to celebrate their achievements. The class will write a skit that integrates all the aspects of this project. Students will present their skit and display their related projects to an audience of their peers and other invited guests.

This project is appropriate for new language learners and learners with speech/language delays in grades 2-5. See the Appendix for more information about using this project to meet specific student needs.

Please go to the Terms of Use page for information on using the projects. To get a copy of the full project, click here.