Lesson Title:
César E. Chávez and His Family

Grade Level:
Kindergarten, Lesson 2

Unit of Study:
Reaching Out to Times Past

History-Social Science Standard:
K. 6   Students understand that history relates to events, people, and places of other times. 

K. 6. 3   Understand how people lived in earlier times and how their lives would be different today. (Examples: water from a well, growing food, making clothing, having fun, forming organizations, living by rules and laws). 

Correlation to K-8 California Adopted Textbooks:
(Harcourt Brace): My World and Me. Unit 3: I Know Who Takes Care of Me. Lesson 6, Lesson 7. 

McGraw-Hill: Here I am. Unit 2: Meeting Families. 

Setting the Context:
As a child, César E. Chávez toiled diligently in the fields alongside his family, working under grim conditions. He learned at an early age that farm workers faced many injustices. Through his own bitter experience and lessons he learned from his family and friends, César set out to improve the lives of farm workers, the poor, and the disenfranchised. 

When César was a young boy, his father was unable to make payments on a bank loan and the family was forced to sell their store and move into César’s grandparents’ old adobe home. He always remembered the time on his grandmother’s farm as a secure and happy time. Surrounded by a large, loving family, César’s personal values, morals, and beliefs were molded. His grandmother, mother, and father each impacted his personality and character. Later, when the family was forced to join the thousands of other men, women, and children who traveled throughout California looking for farm work, he experienced injustices first hand. The personal qualities that César E. Chávez had developed while growing up would lead him to fight for social and economic justice. 

Focus Question: 
What influence did César’s family have on his personal beliefs?

Expected Learning Outcomes: 
Students will be able to state what César E. Chávez learned from his mother, father, and grandmother. 

Assessment:
State what César E. Chávez learned from his mother, father, and grandmother. 
Through observation while making class chart, students compare what they learn from their own families with what César E. Chávez learned from his. 

Key Concepts:
interdependence
learning

Essential Vocabulary: 
advice
proverb

Primary Sources: 
photographs, quotes

Visuals: 
photographs, graphic organizer

Procedure

Motivation:
Show students photograph (click for photo) of César as a young boy. Remind students that even before children start school, they learn from their families. Parents and family members are a child’s most important teachers. César E. Chávez learned many important ideas from his family. The ideas he learned made him the kind of person that would grow up to help others. 

Making Connections:
Ask students to think about what they have learned from their families. Encourage students to think about behavior they have learned. Share ideas that you may have learned from your parents. List the class responses on a chart entitled “Lessons We Have Learned at Home. ”  In the next lesson, students will learn about César E. Chávez’ family and about the important lessons he learned at home. 

Vocabulary Activities:
Conduct a role-play with students by telling them that you have a problem. For example, tell the students that you have trouble finding your keys. You spend lots of time looking for them and this sometimes makes you feel nervous and even makes you late for important events. Ask students if they have advice for you. Can they give you ideas to help you solve the problem? Listen to responses and answer, “Thank you for that advice” each time a child responds. At the end of the role-play, introduce the term advice and define it for the children. 

Introduce the word proverb to the students. Tell the students that a proverb is a common saying that gives advice. Put a few proverbs on sentence strips with illustrations and discuss their meanings with the class: 1) Don’t judge a book by its cover, 2) Don’t cry over spilled milk, 3) Birds of a feather flock together, 4) A stitch in time, saves nine, 5) A penny saved is a penny earned. 

Guided Instruction:
Show students a photograph of Mama Tella’s adobe farmhouse. Provide the following input to students:  When César was a little boy, his family had some trouble paying bills so they went to live on his grandmother’s farm. He called his grandmother ‘Mama Tella. ’  He always remembered the time on his grandmother’s farm as a happy time. He had a big family. He learned many things from his family. The most important people in his life were his mother, his father, and his grandmother. They taught him many things. 

Faith and Prayer
His grandmother taught him about religion. César prayed with her every night and listened to her tell stories from the Bible. 

Hard work and Fight for Justice 
His father taught him to work hard. As a young boy, César had work to do on the family farm. He had to collect eggs for meals and he had to help feed the animals. César’s father taught him the importance of fighting for justice. The Chávez family was always one of the first families to walk out of the fields when they felt they were being treated unfairly by the field bosses or the growers. 

Nonviolence, Compassion, and Charity
César’s mother could not read or write, but she always told stories to her four children. The stories always taught lessons. She also taught César certain sayings and proverbs (consejos and dichos). Her lessons taught him about nonviolence. She taught him:  ”What you do to others, others will do to you,” César’s mother did not want any of her children to strike back at anyone who teased him or her. “It’s best to turn the other check,” she would say. “God gave you senses, like your eyes and mind and tongue, so that you can get out of anything.” César said her favorite was “It takes two to fight and one can’t do it alone.” Many of her stories were about obedience and honesty. 

She also taught César to help others. César and his sister Rita would take people to the hospital to see a doctor. César and his younger brother Richard were told by his mother to go out and find homeless migrants and bring them to the family tent to so she could cook them a hot meal. César’s mother made the children share everything they had with each other. 

1)	Discuss the importance of family and the lessons they teach us. Ask students to share one thing that have learned from their family or from a person they respect. Make a list on the board and have students discuss how they might demonstrate what they have learned. 
2)	Paraphrase the proverbs from César’s mother and add them to the proverbs already discussed. 

Integrating Language:
Review the main lessons learned from César’s grandmother, father, and mother by having students orally repeat each idea. As students repeat each sentence, teach them a motion to go with it. 

“Mama Tella taught César about religion. She read from the Bible” (hold hands open like a book). 

“César’s father taught him to work hard (wipe forehead) and to help others” (extend open hands out to neighbor). 

“César’s mother taught him about nonviolence” (hands on hips)

Enrichment:
Conduct a project that includes the family. Ask students to learn a family saying, story, or proverb that teaches a lesson. Chart responses and display with a family photo.