November is a great month to talk turkey in the classroom. I love connecting turkeys to student learning because it brings back childhood memories of growing up on a farm, which included thousands of turkeys.
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My favorite season is here! It’s Fall again! Time for pumpkin spice, sweaters, hot apple cider, scarecrows, and spooky spiders! My students always love learning about fascinating creepy crawlies, and learning about academic skills through fun spider themed games.
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I picked a few apples in my garden this afternoon. Not only did I get a delicious bite, but I got that excited feeling that goes with thematic teaching. An Apple Thematic Unit is always fun, engaging, and rewarding!
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One of my favorite parts of teaching kindergarten is how easy it is to incorporate STEM into the curriculum. Kindergartners have a natural curiosity about the world around them and a love of the natural world. My Science Center is one of the easiest areas in my classroom to prep and one of my student’s favorite places to be during the day!
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A farm theme is a great example of how starting with a general idea can mushroom into many smaller themes. Actually every facet of a farm could lend itself to thematic instruction. After I present the broad theme of the farm, I let my student’s interests guide the way to the facets that most interest them.
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I love to celebrate Earth Day when Spring is awakening the beauties of the earth. Whether you celebrate our planet for a week or a day, take note of this special day.
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I love bringing fairy and folk tales into my classroom, I could focus on these tales all year long and still not run out of fun, rigorous, and purposeful material for my students!
These great tales are a fabulous way to study positive and negative character traits, other cultures, learn effective decision making, how to handle conflict, and natural consequences. It’s no wonder that these tales have been told for centuries!
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Look no further for some great Christmas and Winter Thematic units for your kindergarten, preschool, Pre-k, T-K or 1st grade classroom. All of these units are cross-curricular, strategically linked to the common core standards, and scripted for easy use.
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The only thing more important to a child beside themselves and their families are the communities in which they reside. This week we have been studying our community as part of our Social Studies curriculum.
To begin the unit, I introduced my students to Google Earth. It is fabulous! I
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Water can be studied at almost any time of the year. Water lessons easily fit into ocean, winter, weather, and spring units. Learning about evaporation, the states of matter, water tension, water flow, sink or float, etc. gives students opportunities to experiment and use scientific process skills.
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