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• COMPUTER CENTER:
  Before you introduce the unit explore the multimedia encyclopedias for pictures and useful information.
  Before you start the unit search the internet for useful facts and graphics. 
  Store the graphics on a disk.  Check the copyrights. That way you can just pop the disk in the computer when you need the picture. 
  Start a collection of disk with graphics and facts for each unit you teach. 
  Use the  list below for useful kindergarten links.   INTERNET SITES

   READING READINESS ACTIVITIES

• PHONICS/LETTER RECOGNITION:
  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.
  
  *PHONETIC SOUNDS:
  Children draw the outline of the body.
  With the teacher's guided help the students label the Head, Body, Arms, Legs.

  Teacher draw the picture on the chalk board, overhead projector, or computer. Direct the students to draw on their page. Label the body parts . Ask the students the beginning sound for head.  Ask what letter makes the beginning sound for head.  Write the letter on the chalk board. Students write the letter on their page. Spell each sound until the word is written. The students are recalling phonetic sounds, recalling the name of the letters, writing letters from the left to the right, and learning that putting letters together make a word.

*BEGINNING SOUNDS:
Children draw pictures relating to the unit.
Label objects in the picture by writing the letter for the beginning sound or phonetically spell the word.
Children take turns showing their picture and telling about what they drew.
Student can ask the other children to give the beginning sound for something in their picture.

*CLASS BOOK:
After learning about the body and its' systems have each child draw a report.
Actually, the student draws a picture that will remind him of one fact about the body.
For example, the students wants to recall the fact "the heart makes the blood go to all parts of the body."
He draws a body with a heart shape and red lines going from the heart to the legs and arms.
As the student finishes his picture he brings it to the teacher.
Depending on the time of year and the skills the students have acquired, the students either write letters or phonetically spell words that tell about their picture or the teacher writes the report as dictated by the student. (We study about the body in September.)
Bind all students' pages to make a class book.
The students will request you read their book often, thus, recalling facts about the body.

*MATCHING CAPITAL AND LOWER CASE:
Trace two like shapes.
Write the capital letter for the  beginning sound  on one picture;
write the matching lower case letter on the other shape.

*RHYMING WORDS:
Children think of rhyming words that are related to the body.
Teacher write the words on chart. 
Example: bone, phone; blood, flood; brain, rain, train; rib, bib, etc.

*RHYMING WORDS: 
Children make silly rhymes with the above rhyming words.
I  hit my bone with the phone.

*USING THE COMPUTER FOR READING READINESS:

Students use a drawing program such as Kid Pix or Paint to draw a person. Students draw in the location of one body organ. Students label the organ they drew using labeled pictures from the writing center. Thus, students are learning to copy letters from one page onto another. Teacher use Kid Pix or Power Point to combine the students' pictures in a slideshow .
As the slideshow is played over and over, the students learn to recognize the names of the body organs and their location. Each student can tell one important fact about the body organ he drew as they learn more about the body.

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  MATH READINESS ACTIVITIES

• PERCENTAGE:
  Discuss how much of the body is water?
  Use a liter plastic bottle to show 100%.
  Mark the bottle at 100%, 50%, etc.  

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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 for 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 body parts, you slip the prepared disk into your computer and have all of the pictures in one location.
Label and print and laminate some pictures for the bulletin board and writing center.
Use pictures to make a slideshow using 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. 

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 INTERNET SITES/ BODY    Use these as a starting point.

• The Columbia Virtual Body - Excellent interactive 3-D presentation of human anatomy
• Human Anatomy On-line - interactive and educational views of the human body; see animated pictures of the lungs, digestive system, and heart.
• Human Anatomy from Enchanted learning
• Human Anatomy Label Me Printouts from Enchanted learning

Share your Body Unit suggestions. Share your comments.

kindergartenclas@aol.com

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