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My last unit is next week!!! Then Summer time

Making lessons about Social Studies

There are many ways to cross over the span of several different subjects at one time. In class, we explored and investigated the materials at four science centers. Crossing the pendulum science center into social studies could be done through the discovery of medieval times and the weapons that they used to fight. The catapolts are a very well-known weapon of that time and the way that a catapolt is filled and let go, makes the upwards swinging motion of a catapolt. In the ball center, one could easily talk about the history of different cultures and how they play sports. You could show the students the various types of balls used in the experiment and make connections to the sports that they know and relate it to how various cultures may use something of the same kind for a very different kind of sport and use. For the float and sink center, a teacher could introduce the vikings, romans and greeks and the development of the boats that they used. Then expanding into how naval history has adapted to make things float and how they went from wooden boats to steel boats would really tie in the experiments. Determining how much water it displaces to determine if it will float was something that really took a lot of time for people to figure out! And lastly, in the ballon and straw investigation center, one could introduce the idea of rockets and the space program and how there are different forces needed to get a rocket off the ground. You could also tie in missles used in war and even the ideas of aviation - what kind of force it takes to keep a plane flying. Or the zeplins used by the Germans - blimps - who developed the blimp or hot air ballons could easily be explored in a classroom. As I said before, there are many different ways to use these investigation centers to cross over into Social Studies and "kill two birds with one stone!"

last unit plan

Today was the first day of my last unit I have to do for this semester. The unit is about dinosaurs and all of that fun stuff for kindergartners to learn. Even though this is a science unit if you think Social Studies you can relate the two together. Today we mainly discussed the history of dinosaurs and where the dinosaurs lived and what time period. Kind of interesting and amazing how much little ones know about dinosaurs.

Integrating Lessons

Well the introduction that we began was history. One activity that we did was which ball bounced the most. You could integrate this activity into an economics lesson talking about goods and services. You could also talk about the different types of resources used to make the balls. For the pendulum activity it could be tied into history and where the pendulum came from and how it was used. Then the balloon activity could be integrated with a geography lesson on how people get around in different places and on different types of transportation that is used and which one is the quickest. You could also integrate the balloon activity w/ math also, by having the students calculate the distance from one point to the other and then how long it would take them to get there using different types of transportation.

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Does anyone have any ideas what i can put in my port folio for standard 5 and how many things do we need to add this semester?

Wrapping up the Semester

I have finished teaching my math lesson and am getting my social studies lesson ready to teach. Our unit is economics and I have a really fun activity planned for the students. My partner and I are going to have them making their own good and they have to tell what services they will need and to come up with ad for their good. I am very excited about the lesson and to see what the students come up with. As the semester is coming to an end, we are now feeling very comfortable in the our class and with the students as are they. I was worried about this semester at the beginning and until about two weeks ago, but it has turned out to be a pretty good semester in our practicum.

Second Unit - Science

I just finished teaching my science unit on food chains/webs and the energy pyramid. This was definitely my favorite unit to teach. I found this wonderful activity where students make their own food chains and then as a class we linked the food chains together to create a food web. A great visual for the students and they loved creating their own unique food chain. My next unit is Math...YUCK! I personally struggle with Math alot and have a hard time explaining Math to other people. My biggest challenge for myself is to learn new startegies to help me better explain Math concepts to my students (which isn't really happening in Fiske's class). We aren't sure if we will be teaching our 2nd graders or 3rd graders for Math since we are in a split class. I have heard mixed reviews about teaching using "Everday Math". Do any of you think it is a good program?

I can't wait to see everyone's Math Centers, Lindsey and I are doing 3-D geometry, I think we have a really fun and engaging center for 5th graders. Does anyone know what school we are doing the Math Centers at? Just curious.

We have a student who is moving to Europe in two weeks, she is going to live in Slovakia. I can't imagine making such a huge move (across the Atlantic Ocean) at age 8. I would of been nervous and scared, but she is excited about it. She had Lindsey and I sign a shirt last week, she had everyone in her class sign it to remember them by. She is a bright young girl, she will do really well over there. We also just had a student who spent her sping break skiing in Vale, Colorado and winning medals. She is in 2nd grade also. Another student was just diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes. To say the least it has been an interesting past week or two. I hope everyone else has exciting students like we do.

Good Luck to anyone teaching this week!