Curriculum Tie:

• Kindergarten
  Content
  Standard 2
  Objective 2

Summary:
This lesson plan provides many ideas for students' investigation of items, people and places in around the school.

Main Curriculum Tie:
Social Studies - Kindergarten
Standard 2 Objective 2
Identify and demonstrate safe practices in the home and classroom.

Materials:

• school map
• chart paper
• clipboards
• balance scale
• paper
• high frequency book I See...
• pointers
• special glasses or spectacles
• items to weigh: crayon, chalk eraser, pencil, rubber eraser, scissors, single hole punch, rubber stamp, tape, paintbrush, staple remover

Additional Resources

Who’s at School
Safety on the School Bus
Schools Help us Learn

Attachments

• school_bus.pdf
  School Bus Worksheet

Background For Teachers:
The school can be a wonderful place to do a project approach study. Everyone has access to their school and it is a personal and meaningful place to the children. Various places not normally studied can be investigated, such as the kitchen, mail boxes, the custodian’s closet, or the school in general. The important thing is to have real investigation with real items, places, or people in a school. Data can be gathered with children carrying clipboards and displaying them for others to interpret.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

Intended Learning Outcomes
1. Demonstrate a positive learning attitude.

Process Skills
Description, investigation

Instructional Procedures:

Invitation to Learn
Complete a KWL chart about the school to determine what to investigate in the school.

Instructional Procedures
Ideas for investigating:

1. Count the number of classrooms, closets, doors, windows, etc. Display data on a chart with symbols created by the children.
2. Brainstorm and then investigate sets of 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s in the school. (e.g. 4 legs on a chair, 3 hinges on a door, etc.)
3. Go on a shape hunt. Have children draw pictures of items that are squares, circles, rectangles, or triangles in the school.
4. Compare the weight of various school objects on a balance scale. Display the results.
5. . List people that work in the school. Draw a picture or take a photo of them working.
6. List the kinds of rooms in a school (e.g., classrooms, offices, kitchen, gym, etc.)
7. Measure various places in the school using the children’s feet, bodies (laying down head to foot), or other nonstandard tools. (e.g., the gym is 12 children long, the classroom is ten children long, the desk is eight hands long)
8. Create a high frequency word book about school following the pattern “I see a ____.” (I see a chair, I see a desk, etc.)
9. “Read the school:” With clipboards in hand, find words that have a certain letter in them. Write them down on the clipboard. Using pointers or special spectacles, read the signs and words printed around the school.
10. Identify the use of numerals throughout the school.

Culminating Activity
You could invite parents or other classes in to view children’s investigations. Have children prepare to talk about what they learned. The class can sing the song “Everything I Learned, I Learned in Kindergarten” or other songs that describe the school community.

Attachments

• shape_hunt.pdf
  Shape Hunt Worksheet
• comparing_weights.pdf
  Comparing Weights of School Objects
• learned_song.pdf
  Everything I learned, I learned in Kindergarten Song

Extensions:

Possible Extensions/Adaptations
Adapt the book Mary Had a Little Lamb with the child’s own version (e.g., “Amy had a little cat”).

Family Connections:

1. Families can be invited in for the culminating activity to share what the children have learned through field work.
2. Parent/Child homework: compare differences between parent’s school and child’s school.
3. Children can ask their grandparents or another relative what school was like for them.

Assessment Plan:

Analysis of the children’s data and projects will reveal what they have learned. Ask the children questions about the graphs to see if they can interpret them (e.g., “What do we have more of, windows or doors?”).

The comparing weight activity will let you know if children have a concept of more than and less than.

The shape hunt will tell you if they can identify shapes in the environment.

Author:
Utah LessonPlans

Created Date :
Aug 06 2003 13:58 PM