Kindergarten Planning
Learning Center
Through the "Marketplace of Good Ideas" assignment, I explored the Reggio Emilia approach to the environment as a third teacher. While preparing and executing this activity center with my group, we became mindful and more aware of the importance that the classroom environment has on shaping children's learning experiences.
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Our group designed a spring-themed fine motor center encouraging students to develop global developmental skills through fun, hands-on play. The engaging and thoughtfully arranged environment allowed children to explore, create, and learn in a meaningful way!
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I have included this assignment as it demonstrates my creativity and growing understanding of how purposeful environments need to be to support early learning. Planning, executing, and collaborating to create these activity centers sparked my creativity and imagination for the possibilities that can arise in my future classroom. Overall, this experience deepened my appreciation for the Reggio Emilia approach and its opportunities for students to flourish socially, cognitively, and emotionally through enjoyable activities!
UBD Template
When tasked with creating a "Universal Backward Design" appropriate for K4 and/or K5 students, my group decided to focus on bees, as it is a flexible, enjoyable, and interdisciplinary topic that was engaging and accessible to all students while holding importance in our everyday lives and environmental future.
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This assignment demonstrates my ability to design a developmentally appropriate, engaging, and creative unit plan that encompasses all the preschool competencies and various subject areas. This assignment allowed me to apply all my pedagogical practices and knowledge to a real teaching experience that had to fulfill intentional outcomes and expectations. This UBD template demonstrates my readiness and thoughtfulness to plan an array of educational and enjoyable units, as well as the skills I have acquired in planning and fulfilling student-centred and inclusive teaching practices!
Activity Plan
Upon completing the UBD, I created an activity plan around language and literacy. The link below will provide a completed activity plan template that focuses on engaging Kindergarten students in upper and lower case letters, and the relationship between bees and flowers.
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This activity highlights my understanding on how to create hands-on and engaging materials and games that students can revisit as the unit progresses or can be reviewed throughout the school year. This activtiy shows how I can build activities that promote growth, practice, and success, while emphasizing the importance of literacy as a basis to future learning.
Lesson Plan
Upon completing the UBD, I created a full lesson plan around one of the subject areas I wanted to focus on: bee anatomy. The link below will provide a completed lesson plan template that focuses on engaging Kindergarten students on different parts of a bee's body and how they may be similar or different to their own. They learn key vocabulary (i.e. wings, antennae, thorax, etc.) and make a new friend during the process too!
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I included this lesson as it demonstrates my capacity to take a subject that may seem too advanced for Kindergarten students and turn it into an engaging and hands-on learning experience. By repeating after the teacher and holding a plush bee alongside diagrams, students experience a cross-curricular (ELA, science, math, and art) )-based lesson. Overall, this lesson plan reflects my commitment and approach to curriculum planning while taking complex ideas and turning them into inclusive and interactive lessons!
