Social Studies - Kindergarten
Standard 2 Objective 2
Large Groups
Activities help students learn to keep a journal.
Invitation to Learn
Instructional Procedures
Curriculum Extensions/Adaptations/ Integration
Articles
The Mailbox, the Education Center, Inc.; ISBN 1-56234-161-8
Back-To-School Book, Preschool/Kindergarten, the Education Center, In. ISBN 1-56234-161-8
Students take turns taking home a suitcase (or a container with a handle) that includes a teddy bear, a letter to the parents, a plain piece of paper, crayons, and a journal to complete as a family. The students then return the bag the following day and share their entries with the class. After every student has taken the suitcase home, the journal is bound into a book for the classroom library. The goal to get parents involved with their child's school and to help the children learn how to keep a journal.
1. Develop; social skills and ethical responsibility.
2. Demonstrate responsible emotional and cognitive behaviors.
3. Communicate clearly in oral, artistic, written, and nonverbal form.
Invitation to Learn
Read aloud If You Take a Mouse to School, by Laura Numeroff. Then show students a small stuffed animal. I choose a teddy bear because it is our school mascot. You could use your school mascot or have your class choose an animal. Ask them to imagine what it would be like if the teddy bear was taken to different parts of the school. Who might they meet?
In advance, the teddy bear will have visited each school worker with whom the students need to become familiar with - such as the principal, secretary, librarian, etc. Pictures were taken with the bear and the school worker. These pictures will be shown to the class. As each one is shown, the worker is introduced to the class (or is reviewed, depending on the time of the year the activity starts), telling the class the name of the worker and what he or she does for the school. Put the pictures on the dry erase board with magnets. Pass out pictures of equipment or the actual tools these school workers would use in their work. The students will take turns coming up and putting the correct picture by the correct school worker. Examples of school workers and equipment: Custodian-broom, Cook--mixing spoon, Librarian--book, secretary--telephone, Principal-large chair, Computer specialist--Computers.
The students will proudly share information about their school when they sing a song about important school workers, "I Know About My school".
Later, mount each photograph on a separate sheet of paper and add a student-generated caption. Then bind the papers between two covers to make a class book, labeling it, If you take a Bear to Sunrise Elementary . . . .? (Using the name of your school).
Teach your students this song replacing the bold face word in the first verse with your school name. During the second verse, hold up a picture and name the school worker and her title in place of the bold face words. Repeat the second verse for each picture, filling in the corresponding information.
SONG: "I KNOW ABOUT MY SCHOOL"
(Sung to the tune "Skip To My Lou")
I go to class at Sunrise School.
I go to class at Sunrise School.
I go to class at Sunrise School.
I know about my new school!
Mrs. Toolson is the principal at my school.
Mrs. Toolson is the principal at my school.
Mrs. Toolson is the principal at my school.
I know about my new school!
Instructional Procedures
Curriculum Extensions/Adaptations/ Integration
Family Connections
Research Basis
Carr, M., (1999) Homework, Educational Consultant, for the LDAT Conference, November, 1999, p. 1 of 4.
Teachers play a vital role in the selection, assignment, and use of homework. Research indicates that where homework assignments are meaningful and relevant, student achievement increases. Teachers will maximize the effectiveness of homework if they will assign activities which are relevant to the child outside of the classroom. Assign homework that enriches, reinforces, or supplements classroom instruction.
New, R. S., (2005). An Integrated Early Childhood Curriculum, KITS (Kansas inservice training system) Summer Institute Presenter, Fall 2005, Volume 14, Issue 4 Newsletter.
When children's learning in school is linked to their lives outside the classroom, their interests are multiplied and they often seek additional opportunities to pursue related activities. Curriculum must thus embrace the classroom environment as a place in which children can find traces of their past experiences as well as their current interests, plans, and activities, emphasizing the need for connections and continuity among the children, their activities, and their multiple (home and school) contexts of their learning and development.
Providing high-quality inclusive and heterogeneous classrooms provides the opportunity for children to learn form one another. Children have an opportunity to learn from and with others. They learn to accept and support one another, recognizing that everyone has something to give and receive preferred value in a democratic society.