education

  Brainstorming Ideas for Activities and Experiences This organizer represents ideas for activities that will support the concepts map and indicates where they will take place. Table 6.4: Week-at-a-Glance Plans for Insect Unit Sunflower Week-at-a-Glance Planner Week April 30 to May 4 May 8 to May 11 May 14 to May 18 Study topic Butterflies/Insects […]

Planning for a balance of individual, small-group, and large-group activities As the teachers created week-to-week plans (Table 6.4), they made decisions about how activities and discussions would be best implemented as whole group, small group, or individual format. They also thought carefully about how to provide for a balance of child-directed exploratory play and teacher-directed

Insects Concept Map A concept map is different from a plan for activities. It focuses on the goals or objectives of the unit. Specific activities are derived from the ideas represented. As she continued to research resources for the topic, Phyllis was delighted to discover that she could order butterfly and ladybug larvae online. She

Creating and scheduling plans for lessons and activities In this step of the planning process, the teachers took their ideas for activities and experiences and blocked out a week-at-a-glance schedule for three weeks, using the daily schedule as a framework: Week one: Insects (focus on lifecycle) Week two: Ladybugs Week three: Butterflies Place Your Order

Brainstorming ideas for activities that support and connect different areas of the curriculum As Stephanie and Phyllis began to plan the thematic unit, they brainstormed ideas and concepts that would support the standards they are working on and what they have observed about the children lately. They used the five categories of the standards listed

Selection of a topic or theme that provides opportunities to meet objectives Phyllis continued, We just finished planting tomato and strawberry plants, bean seeds, and an amaryllis bulb. We learned about pollination and talked briefly about “good” insects. I noticed that a lot of the children were curious about the insects they might see in

Identifying important considerations about childrens developmental and cultural characteristics, interests, and needs Phyllis explained what she had observed and learned from evaluating and reflecting about recent activities with the children: iStockphoto / Thinkstock Children are often fascinated by magnifying glasses; one of their favorite pastimes is looking for insects. This group of children gets along

Identifying goals: Learning standards and objectives to be addressed This unit was implemented by teachers of two groups of children between 3 (twelve children) and 4 years (fifteen children) of age at the time of the study. For this unit, one of the teachers (Phyllis) explained, At this time of the year [late spring] I

Approaches to Planning You probably already know what kind of planning style might suit you best. Think about how you might approach planning a road-trip vacation. Your goal is to see places you have not visited before and your objectives are what you want to accomplish each day of the trip; there is more than

Worksheets Worksheets are most often used in elementary school classrooms, but they can be seen in preschools or child-care programs as well. They are not considered to be developmentally appropriate. While the goal of pacing guides is to ensure that all children are experiencing the same curriculum, their use in the primary grades is widely