Stephanie's Lesson #1

Date of Lesson:  First Monday
Teachers:  Stephanie Voight
Grade Level:  Kindergarten
Subject Area:  Social Studies
Time Needed:  40 minutes
Topic:  Our Kindergarten


What School of Education standard/s did you try to address in this lesson?
Standard #4 - Demonstrates Pedagogical Knowledge in Specific Domains
My social studies lesson is a conversation instead of didactic teaching which demonstrates that I value this domain to include student input.

NCSS Standards:
·   help learners to understand the various forms institutions take, their functions, their relationships to one another and how they develop and change over time
·   guide learner analysis of the extent to which groups and institutions meet individual needs and promote the common good in contemporary and historical settings

MMSD Standards:
·   identify people who will help them at school
·   exhibit an awareness that children grow up in different parts of the world with similar and different experiences

Materials Needed:
·   Welcome to Kindergarten by Anne Rockwell
·   Blank paper
·   Pencils
·   Chart paper, marker

Objectives:
·   SWBAT reflect on their first day of kindergarten.
·   SWBAT brainstorm elements in their classroom.

Lesson Context:
This will be the introduction to our unit about kindergarten.

Lesson Opening:
I will read the story Welcome to Kindergarten.

Procedures:
->I will ask the students if they remember their first day of kindergarten.
      o       Were you scared?
      o       What did you do to prepare?
      o       Was it your first time in the school?
->I will take the students to a different room in the building (perhaps the gymnasium or a classroom not in use) and ask them to draw a picture of their classroom with blank paper and pencils.  I will ask them to include details that stand out to them, details that they will remember next year when they are in first grade.  This will take about ten minutes.
-> We will return to the classroom and sit on the carpet.
-> I will ask the students to share their drawings. This will be the basis for our answer to the question "What is kindergarten?"
-> I will tell the students that we are going to explore our classroom in comparison to classrooms in our school, in Madison, and in the world.
-> We will do a KWL chart (which should not be new at this point in the year).  I will write our ideas on a piece of chart paper.
     o       What do we know about kindergarten?
     §         What do we do all day?
     §         Who goes to kindergarten?
     §         How is it different from first grade?
     §         How is it different from preschool?

Closure:
As closure, we will brainstorm questions about what we want to know about kindergarten.  I will write these questions on a separate chart paper.  We will also discuss how we can obtain this information with the resources that we have.

Special Considerations:         
Some of the students like Jackson and Rachel might want more time to work on their drawing.  I will allow them to continue working while we begin our conversation about kindergarten.  In addition, a couple students like Addie and Rhiannon might not feel entirely comfortable sharing their drawings, so I will prompt them with questions as they share.

Assessment:
I will collect and investigate the drawings that my students share.  What types of things did they include?  For example, did they include people?  (This shows that, to them, kindergarten represents relationships.)  In addition, I will think about the experiences that they remember from their first day of kindergarten as these demonstrate the aspects that make kindergarten significant for them.

What personal goal (teaching strategy) are you working on in this lesson?
I hope to constructively use a KWL that will continue to guide us throughout our unit as a central conversation piece.