Sense Of Place Assignment On Birds Mammals And Trees

For this course we received a hands-on opportunity to view science in an outdoors setting at Nixon County Park. I attended a training session to learn more about the practices and procedures of nature education and assisted two grade levels of children that visited the park. I helped first graders on a nature walk and fourth graders on an indoor lesson about animals. Both were unique experiences that helped me learn to become a better teacher of science.

Older students can dissect an owl pellet. We can take the lesson further and explore what animals stay in the winter and how they survive. Since this is a story of what a boy did with his father, perhaps the students can discuss or write about an activity they have done with a parent, grandparent, or friend. I remember writing a short story when I was seven, about snowmobiling with my grandfather. I drew a picture with the story; I think my mother laminated it.

According to Lazear (2000), children who are stronger in this type of intelligences in elementary can tell stories and are competent in reading and writing (p. 107). After viewing of the Plants and Animals of the Everglades (Everglades National Park, n.d.), students will utilize the Internet and research two animals as characters in a story of their Life in the Everglades to be compiled in a Booklet, along with drawings. A rubric of the contents of the story telling would include challenges they go through in their environment, which includes their interaction with plants and other animals in the Everglades. A sharing session provides an avenue for the reading of the animals’ adventures in the Everglades. Students will perform this task

When I visited Sweat-Winter, I observed the children deepy invested in their topic about birds. They were in meeting time and together they were discussing Maine birds and different ways we could attract them to the playground in the small community of Farmington. The kids learned how to make bird feeders and talked about the anatomy of a generic bird, the different noise and their diversity. They started with bird feeder and used specific materials to make them 3D. Posters and stuffed animals were all around the room to show different characteristics of the birds so the kids could experiment and observe birds every day.

My plan would be to use puppets and signs in helping children to express their needs to reinforce the rules at circle time or if it is someone else is leading a group. I would use the signs that would show the images of how to approach a classmate to express their concerns. Then using the puppet skit to enhance some role playing and were the children are able to voice their answer on how to solve the conflict to check their understanding.

Print out a certificate and paste on door: we are a class who is friendly with all he pigs, rats, cows, etc. (students list and each writes in/ draws an animal ;) who are members of our class.

Lesson’s Goal: The goal is to help my group of students learn or enhance their understanding of different habitats through the investigation, observation, experimentation of some of the animals in their local environment and develop an awareness of what they need to survive. Students will also learn, compare and contrast different types of habitats thru research, cooperative hands-on activities and games suitable for some of my tactile-kinesthetic and visual learners.

To begin the lesson, I would complete a diagnostic assessment to see the background knowledge of research writing. For the tiered activity, I would split students into three groups – the first having limited to no knowledge of research writing, the second having some knowledge of the topic, and the third having a solid understanding of the research writing process. Each student will receive a graphic organizer that they will use to assist with the note taking, outlining, and thesis of their paper – making this the constant among all groups. To differentiate, group 1—or the group with the most limited knowledge—will randomly pick from a pre-selected list of animals to research. This group will receive pre-printed

12) Describe a project you could engage in with your students to address an issue important in your community.

I envision the first and second week of school to be “All About Me.” In this topic I would send home a letter/activity for the student and parent/primary caregiver to describe the culture they closely relate too. In the letter I would inform parents how important culture inclusion is and that students will be exposed to the cultures of the other students in the class. Other ways I would incorporate culture into the classroom is through activities and experiences. In the housekeeping center I would have clothes from different cultures and visual aids. Also, if I could find empty boxes from foods of different cultures I would put them in the cabinets for students to play with. I would also label my classroom in English, Spanish and possibly another language like Mandurian or French. In my literacy center I would include books of different languages and books that introduce different cultures. Culture can be implemented in a preschool curriculum through many activities, discussions, books and play experiences. My hope is that multiple exposures to diverse languages and cultures can help all children grow up to understand the complexity of cultures and to value its role in shaping who they are—everywhere they

Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine's Young Naturalists series is designed to engage elementary and middle school students with a wide variety of nonfiction topics on natural science and outdoor life. Each Young Naturalists teachers guide includes ready-made classroom activities. Current and past Young Naturalists stories and guides can be downloaded

What are the strengths and weaknesses of your cultural development throughout the semester? What have you done to improve your cultural competence? How does one develop cultural competence?

We currently use a Parent-Teacher Partnerhip program. We create classroom study teams where parents and sudents get together to form study groups. This not only familiarizes families with one another, but also gets them involved in their childs learning in a fun way. We have school advisory groups where parents can go for advice or help where they feel at a loss or are just looking for guidance. Multicultural planning sessions have also bee a success. I have to say that one of the most effective and easiest to put into place and keep up with in our already crazy school day is the Parents as Resource Persons group. This group provides cultural items such as pictures, recipes and experiences to the classroom. The teacher then integrates learning from the derived materials creating reading lists, learning centers and even have gone as far as to create a cultural fair. A few other things that I found to be interesting and feel would be a great asset are a School-Family Curriculum. This group provides those in need with various items to stimulate conversation about their cultures. There are also Anti-Bias Alert programs which will alert parents when television programs are appropriate or inappropriate to view based on cultural diversity. Parent education support groups work in many positive ways, setting appropriate and meaningful goals, setting up

Finally, establishing an Animal Science class would give students a chance to try new things. By enrolling in this class, students could discover a hidden interest in animals. Since they are young and

I found the music and dance activity to be highly enjoyable and very engaging. My group picked a traditional Greek wedding dance and showed an authentic YouTube video of a performance of the dance. The video showed traditional Greek outfits that would have been wore to perform the dance in the past. It also had traditional Greek music that played while the dancers performed. This culture activity allowed us to explore the traditions of other cultures around the world. I thought it was very neat that Binasa shared how the Greek dance my group performed was similar to a dance Bosnian dance. I think this activity could be taught for any age group with younger students watching videos and reenacting the moves to older students performing a research