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Kindergarten
Science Units:
Social Studies Units
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READING READINESS ACTIVITIES
- VISUAL OBSERVATION AND RECORD KEEPING:
Observe the growth of tadpoles.
Make a large chart to record the daily changes.
Students use words and illustrations to record the changes.
- Before you start the unit, teacher and students set up a habit for Tadpoles and frogs. Keep in mind tadpoles need de-chlorinated water.
You can make de-chlorinated water by putting water in a container and letting it sit out for a couple of days or you can add drops purchased from a pet store to the container of water.
The tadpoles can be kept in any large container and fed lettuce, algae, and flaked gold fish food. It is important to keep the water clean, so feed them what can be eaten before it contaminates the water.
A large rock (with algae if possible) or pond grass should be provided as a hiding and resting place for the tadpoles. As the tadpoles develop their lungs, they will need to cling to something above water. This could be a large rock or stick, or floating pond grass.
As the tadpoles develop legs, they will need to climb out of the water to breathe.
Frogs only eat LIVE food. They must see the food move to realize it is something to eat. Small frogs can be fed meal worms, flies, aphids, etc.
*PHONETIC SOUNDS:
Numerous methods are used to teach and reinforce letter recognition and phonetic sounds. The methods are varied day to day depending on the children's progress through out the year. The method is not important. The fact that the children do some writing using phonics every day is important.
The following are examples of just a few methods for teaching letter recognition and phonetic sounds.
*Students use beginning letters or use phonetic spelling to write facts they have learned about amphibians.
Example: Students recall any fact they have learned about amphibians.
Children draw a picture that illustrates that fact.
Students write the fact about their picture.
They may choose either to write only the beginning letter of each word or phonetically spell the words (does not have to be the actual spelling).
Students "read" their fact to the class.
Thus, the students learn the purpose for learning letters and sounds and at the same time students are recalling and reinforcing facts they have learned about amphibians.
*CLASS BOOK:
After practicing rhyming words and making silly rhymes, students illustrate a rhyme for a class book entitled, Did You Ever See?
Each student tell a rhyme similar to those above to the class. These rhymes do not have to be only about amphibians.
Teacher approve the rhyme as one that no other student has chosen to illustrate.
With the teacher's help, students write their rhymes on their page.
Combine the pages as a book that can be read over and over.
Example: Did you ever see a cat sitting in a hat?
Did you ever see a mouse in a house?
Did you ever see a snake in a cake?*WORD BOOK:
Fold several pages in half and staple together.
Each day as you learn about amphibians, write one word on a page and draw a picture. Add a few words and pictures each day.
Examples for words to illustrate in book about amphibians are: eggs in water, tadpoles, grow legs, eat, algae, worms, bugs, frogs are smooth, toad are bumpy, etc.
Teacher guide the students to suggest words that relate to the facts learned about amphibians.
Example: A student suggests the word toad.
Teacher guides the students to spell each sound in the word. Teacher asks for the first sound heard when you say toad. Students give the sound. The teacher then asks the students what letter makes that sound. As the students say the letter for the sound, the teacher writes the letter on the chalkboard and the students write the letter in their word book until the word is spelled. Students then draw a picture to correspond to the word.
This practice develops letter and sound recognition.
USING THE COMPUTER TO PROMOTE READING READINESS SKILLS:
Students use a drawing program such as Kid Pix or Paint to draw and label pictures that illustrates a fact learned about amphibians.
Teacher put students' pictures into a slide show using Kid Pix or Power Point.Students learn to read the words as the slideshow is played over and over.
As the students learn more facts about amphibians, have them tell another interesting fact about their amphibian as the slideshow is presented.*RHYMING WORDS:
Children practice telling rhyming words that relate to amphibians.
Teacher write the words on a chart or chalkboard.
*RHYMING WORDS:
Make silly rhymes with the above rhyming words using the question, Did you ever see? Example: Did you ever see a frog walking a dog?
Did you ever see a toad in the road?
Did you ever see a newt playing a flute?
MATH READINESS ACTIVITIES
- ALIKE AND DIFFERENT:
*Observe a real frog and a real toad if possible to learn how they are alike and how they are different. (If you can't use real amphibians, use pictures of real frogs and toads.)
Keep your real frog or toad in a large tub or cage with damp soil and live plants that can be misted. Amphibians must keep their skin moist. The frog also needs a source of water to sit in. You could use a flower pot sauce or a small bowl with rocks in the bottom of it. Sink the bowl into the soil to allow the frog easy entrance into the water.
House ivy or wild violets are usually a good choice of live plants.Have live insects available to feed your amphibians. Earth worms and crickets are probably the easiest to obtain and keep. These can be found in the backyard or purchased from a fishing bait store.
*This year our aquarium was full of tadpoles and water plants so we had to use a big wash tub to hold the four toads different students brought into class. This turned out to be biggest attraction in the class. Small groups of children would kneel around the tub while I would drop in a handful of crickets. Much to the students' excitement the toads would come out of hiding from under the moist soil to enthusiastically chase the crickets. We would feed the toads about 15 crickets a day. Fat toads!Raising crickets is very easy. Helpful information can be found at Raising Crickets.
* Use a picture of a frog to make a poster saying, Frogs have smooth skin.
Use a picture of a toad to make a poster saying, Toads have bumpy skin.- COUNTING:
Use little plastic frogs and toads or pictures.
Count the frogs, count the toads, etc.
*Count how many bugs can the frog catch?
Students make a paper plate frog.
Make little paper insects or use stickers.
Act it out.
How many bugs did your frog catch?*Count and label the number of bumps on the toads.
Students draw, color and cut out a picture of a toad.
Students add colorful bumps to their toad.
Display the toads and numbers on the bulletin board.- GRAPHING:
Graph the students favorite pets.
How many would like a pet frog; pet toad; etc.
Using the Internet:
There are numerous methods for using the internet to gather information that will be useful in a kindergarten classroom.
The internet provides unlimited resources to a teacher preparing lessons and gathering visual information to present to kindergarten students.
However, this will take time and effort on the teacher's part.
Not all of the information found is necessary for kindergarten students. Bits and pieces of essential information are found as the teacher searches site after site.
One suggestion for organizing useful information and pictures would be to save it on a disk. (Check copyrights.)
Start a collection of disk for each unit you teach. Add disk as you find new information. Therefore, when you are ready to show pictures of the various types of amphibians, you slip the prepared disk into your computer and have all of the pictures in one location.
Better yet, use the pictures to make a slideshow using Story Weaver, Kid Pix or PowerPoint.
If you don't know how to save pictures from the internet to a disk, or how to make a slideshow, just ask the computer teacher at your school.
INTERNET SITES / AMPHIBIANS
Use these links as a starting point.- Raising Tadpoles Know how to care for tadpoles before you collect them.
- Avocado Elementary School Tadpole Website Here's a neat one: a website put together about an elementary classroom's activities surrounding tadpoles! Great idea pool for teachers!
- Frogs: Grow Your Own Lesson idea; recommends Grow-A-Frog kits-you can order online
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