Stephanie's Lesson #7
Date of Lesson: Second Tuesday
Teacher: Stephanie Voight
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Subject Area: Social Studies
Time Needed: All day
Topic: A Day in the Life of an Early Kindergartner
What School of Education standard/s did you try to address in this lesson?
Standard #11 – Demonstrates Pedagogical Knowledge in Specific Domains
By spending a day completely immersed in history I am demonstrating my competence in social studies.
NCSS Standards:
· help learners apply key concepts such as time, chronology, causality, change, conflict, and complexity to explain, analyze, and show connections among patterns of historical change and continuity
· enable learners to identify, describe, and examine both current and historical examples of the interaction and interdependence of science, technology, and society in a variety of cultural settings
MMSD Standards:
· compare and contrast people of long ago and now
· identify similarities and differences in peoples (i.e., actions, feelings, appearance, abilities)
Materials Needed:
· Chalkboards, chalk
· Vegetables, fruit
· Letter home to parents
Objectives:
· SWBAT take on the role of an early kindergartner
· SWBAT reflect on their experiences by sharing with their parents and through class debriefing.
Lesson Context:
This lesson will encompass the entire day and is not so much of a lesson but more of an experience. Students will have been prepared for this day in the previous lesson which had overviewed historical kindergartens. The parents will also have been prepared in a letter sent home. The parents in this classroom are incredibly supportive and willing to help out in their child's learning.
Lesson Opening:
If at all possible, students should arrive to school on foot or bicycle.
Procedures:
Morning meeting
o For the day, the tables will be arranged in rows. (If possible, I would get my hands on desks instead.) Instruction will take place at tables instead of at the carpet.
o We will sing songs that we already know and learn the first verse of a new song: "I've Been Working on the Railroad" which was first published in 1894 (about forty years after the first kindergarten was opened in Wisconsin). We will not have individual copies or a large copy of the lyrics.
Literacy
o Students will do The Daily 5 using historical picture books (http://oldchildrensbooks.com/booklists.php#Early) that I will have collected from the Madison Public Library System. (All of these are available for check-out, according to the online system.)
§ Blackboard Bear by Martha Alexander (1920)
§ Peter in Blueberry Land by Elsa Beskow (1901)
§ Johnny Crow's Party by Leslie Brooke (1907)
§ Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (1929)
§ Seven Simeons; a Russian tale by Boris Artzybasheff (1937)
§ Etc
o We will then practice spelling. I will ask the students to write a word with the letter "A", then "B', etc on individual chalkboards. We will erase our boards with old pieces of clothing (as opposed to paper towel). We will discuss why we cannot use paper towel and paper to do literacy.Snack
o We will eat fresh fruit and vegetables and discuss why we cannot eat things like fruit snacks if we are having an authentic historical day. We will wash our hands with bars of soap instead of hand-sanitizer, and we will use real plates (from my home) instead of napkins and paper plates.
Physical education
o I will have prepared the physical educator for our historical day of kindergarten. The students will play games outside like tag that do not require equipment.Lunch
o We will eat lunch outside (so that we are not distracted by the other students).
o We will talk about how the day is going so far.
§ Why did our parents pack what they packed for our lunch?
§ What feels the same today?
§ What feels different today?
§ Why are the girls wearing dresses?
o After lunch, the students will have recess. I will ask them to avoid playing on the playground equipment and to see if they can entertain themselves like they did during physical education.
QRRT (Quiet Reading and Relaxation Time)
o Students can journal with chalkboards, relax, or read historical children's books.
Science
o We will talk about what "science" means. We have discussed this through other units already such as our animal unit. I will tell the students that today we are going to study nature.
o We will go into the "Franklin forest" and inspect the wild life that surrounds our school. We will talk about the bugs that we find, the different colors of green that pepper the lawn, and the interactions between humans and the Earth.
Choice Time
o Before choice time, we will talk about which toys are off-limits. Students will only be allowed to use chalkboards if they want to participate in art activities. They can use the wooden blocks and dolls, but not Legos and things of that nature. We will have already talked about historical toys and entertainment in a previous lesson.
Snack
o We will eat fresh fruit and vegetables and discuss why we cannot eat things like fruit snacks if we are having an authentic historical day. We will wash our hands with bars of soap instead of hand-sanitizer, and we will use real plates (from my home) instead of napkins and paper plates.
Recess
o During recess, I will ask the students to avoid playing on the playground equipment and to see if they can entertain themselves like they did during physical education and the first recess. When the students are leaving for the day, I will remind them to tell their parents about their day.
Closure:
We will talk about the experience the next morning at morning meeting. We will talk about the parts that we liked and the parts that were more difficult. I will ask them if any of the students talked to their parents about their day and if any of their parents shared stories about their kindergarten experience. I will then ask them if they think they would have learned as much if they had read about it in a book or watched a movie about it.
Special Considerations:
Weather plays an important role in this lesson. If the weather is bad, we will have to eat our lunch indoors. We can explore plants inside the building (which, obviously, is far less authentic) instead of in the Franklin forest.
I doubt that parental support will be a problem but, if it is, I will bring additional foods for lunch.
Assessment:
To assess this lesson, I am going to determine how serious the students are taking their learning and if they are able to remain committed to the day's activities. During the debriefing discussion, I am interested to hear what students learned and if they found it difficult to live the life of an early kindergartner. In addition, the discussion with the parents could reveal insight.
What personal goal (teaching strategy) are you working on in this lesson?
I am attempting to see how effective and plausible "experiential learning" can be.
Sample Letter to Parents
Dear Parents,
As you know, we have been studying "kindergarten" in our kindergarten class. We have been asking what it means to be a kindergartner.
On Wednesday, we will be having our "day in the life of an early kindergartner". In order to make this more authentic for the children, I am asking the following:
· Please dress your daughters in a dress.
· If possible, walk or bike to and from school instead of taking the bus or a vehicle.
· If possible, pack a lunch instead of opting for hot lunch. Again, if possible, include in the cold lunch foods that are not prepackaged and preprocessed (things with wrappers).
The students and I are very excited about this day of learning, and I am very appreciative of your support. I am sure your child will have tons to tell you once the day is over!
Sincerely,
Miss Stephanie
