Blaise Nia LaingECH 537 University of Phoenix

Wintering AnimalsAn Integrated Unit

The Montessori Philosophy

Montessori CurriculumMontessori philosophy

Montessori philosophy is respect every individual child, and provide the child a well developed learning environment to encourage intellectual, physical, and social development in a none competitive environment where every child will have the choice to choose which activity he is willing to work on.

Goals of Montessori Curriculum To increase self-esteem and self discipline in a positive learning environment To develop a live long love for learning To build a solid foundation for academic success Develop a positive attitude toward school

Learning activities are individualized Helping each child develop self-confidence

Learning is based upon a step-by-step process only continuing when a child has mastered a step

Assisting each child in building a habit of concentration Teachers pay careful attention to what is said and demonstrated to the child

(developmentally/curricular appropriate) Fostering an abiding curiosity

Providing opportunities that are stimulating to the child in learning environments/situations

Developing habits of initiative and persistence Child becomes accustomed to individualized learned where he or she will be

learning on their own with materials they are familiar with Fostering inner security and sense of order in the child

Child feels secure and in control in the learning environment

Overview of Unit

The rationale of the unit is to provide children with fun and exciting lessons on winter animals. Children will have a basic understanding of activities, habits, and concepts regarding winter animals.

Grade Level and Development AgePre-KindergartenAge 3 to 5 years old

Brainstorming Web

List of Activities Science: Exploring hibernation by creating a model

of a cave for a bear to hibernate in.Mathematics: Counting using sticks to make a

house 1-10 through play.Language: Phonics (Letter “B”)Physical: Children pretending to be squirrels

preparing for a long winter. At Small group time children can use plastic salad tongs to pick up the acorns and move them to their cups "nests."

Social: Using large boxes, sheets, or blankets to create places for children to hibernate. This a great time for parents to read stories with the "sleeping bears."

Concepts, Skills and MethodsSpatial concepts created for bears caves.Counting 1-10 counting sticksLanguage concepts and letter recognition

“letter b”Seasonal concepts and time being taught

with preparation for winter, gathering acorns.

Parent involvement, social interactions, language, and communication skills developing.

Assumptions regarding previous knowledgeKnowledge of story structureKnowledge of the terms before and after

Summary of Activities1. Exploring Hibernation by creating a model of a

cave for a bear to hibernate in.2. Counting using sticks to make a house 1-10

through play.3.Phonics (Letter “B”)4. Children are squirrels preparing for a long winter.

At Small group time children can use the plastic salad tongs to pick up the acorns and move them to their cups "nests."

5. Using large boxes, sheets, or blankets to create places for children to hibernate. This a great time for parents to read stories with the "sleeping bears."

Activity 1: ScienceScience Activity: Hibernating AnimalsMaterials Needed:

Empty tissue boxSmall stuffed bear or squirrelBrown construction paper, gray

construction paper, glue, shredded paper

Painted cotton balls torn apart to look like fur

Steps to Science Activity:1. Have students turn tissue box upside down

so that the rounded opening is facing them.2. Have students tear small pieces of gray

and brown construction paper 3. Students glue the construction paper to

the entire box, do not cove the opening.4. Students place shredded paper and

painted and shredded cotton into the inside of the box.

5. Place a small stuffed animal inside the box. The animal is hibernating until spring.

Prior Knowledge/Vocabulary Expected of students before starting Science lesson:HibernationNests

Objectives and Goals of the Science Lesson:The students will be able to replicate a scale

model of a cave with a hibernating animal inside.

The students will be able to explain why the animal hibernates in the winter and why the animal chooses the cave.

The children will be able to give a brief description of what the animal does during hibernation.

Assessment of Science Lesson:The children will have successfully made a

scale model of a cave.The students will be able to explain why the

animal is hibernating in the cave.The students will be able to answer the

question “How long will the animal sleep in the cave or hibernate?”

Activity 2: MathematicsMathematics Activity: How Many Sticks?Concepts, Skills, and Processes: counting,

awareness of quantitiesLesson Objectives

Children will be able to count 123...10 consecutively.  Children will understand quantitative relationships

between numbers. Children will build the number sequence 1 - 10

correctly.Developmental and/or content areas that have

been integrated: Mathematics and cognitive development.

Lesson ProceduresDiscuss with the children that today they

are going to be figuring out how to create a house for an animal by using sticks. Brainstorm with the children what types of sticks would they need. Ask the following questions:Are the sticks large or small? How many do you think would be needed to make

a house for a winter animal? Where would we find sticks to make a house if we

were animals?

Have the children get ready to go outside and collect sticks. Take the children on a nature walk and look for sticks that are comparable to the size that they decided would work best to build houses with.

When back inside and in the learning area suggest to the children that there should be a way to document how many sticks we would need for different parts of the house. How many walls are there?Will there be a door?

Use the sticks to count out how many would be used for each wall. Having the children line the sticks up and then ask them to choose the number from the title box that best represents the number of sticks chosen to use for the wall. Do this for all of the walls.

Having the children lay out their sticks for each wall onto the floor with the number title above them. Lay each amount of sticks next to each other so that from left to right the children can count their sticks by adding the numbers of sticks together.

66 77 6666 88 ++

Have the children select the titles that represent the sign (+) for addition and place them in between the number tiles. Have the children write down on paper their number of sticks for each wall. Then have the children add up all the sticks by counting them all together and then documenting the number of sticks that are needed to make the house.

Supply the children with glue to put together the sticks to make the walls. When the house is finished have the children write the number of sticks used for each side of the house on a small white square of paper and then tape it to each coordinating wall.

Materials NeededSticks collected by childrenMontessori Math Wooden Number Tiles with

rods (Rods are not used, children have collected sticks)

Small white squares of paperWhite drawing paper for

Brainstorming/Documenting mathematical knowledge

TapeGlue

EvaluationChildren will be evaluated through their

oral counting and documentation of their work through writing out numbers and through counting aloud. Teacher will observe this and document their counting and number recognition when children select number symbol to represent the number of sticks for each wall.

Activity 3: Language ArtsLanguage Arts Activity: Phoenix (letter B)Concepts, Skills, and Processes: awareness

of sounds and alphabetsLesson Objectives

Identify letter (B)Realize the sound that (letter B) make.Learn words that start with letter (B)Know how to write (letter B)

Developmental and/or content areas that have been integrated: Cognitive and language development.

Lesson Procedures:At circle time the teacher introduces letter “B”

and the sound the letter “B” makes. The teacher reads a story about letter “B” to

the children. Bubble Bear is a story that introduces letter B and words that start with letter “B”.

The teacher will have a conversation about what the story was about.

The children will move to small group time where every child will work on tracing letter “B”.

EvaluationPresents a flash card with the picture of a

bear to see if children identify which letter Bear start with.

Ask the children to point to (letter B) that is listed among other alphabets at the board.

Activity 4: Physical Physical Activity: Children pretending to be squirrels

preparing for a long winter. At Small group time children can use plastic salad tongs to pick up the acorns and move them to their cups "nests.“

Concepts, Skills, and Processes: Development of Fine motor skills

Lesson Objectives: Learn about changes in seasons.Learn what animals do to prepare for change of seasons.Learn about squirrels habitats.Learn what squirrels like to eat.

.

Activity 4: Physical (Continued)Developmental and/or content areas that

have been integrated: Seasonal concepts and time concepts being taught with preparation for winter, gathering acorns.

Activity 4: Physical (Continued)Lesson Procedures:Circle time discussion:

Show pictures of trees in each season of the year. Ask children to identify the season and choose words to describe each: bare, blossoming, budding, colorful, green, etc. Ask children what else is going on in nature during each of these seasons when the tree changes (colder or warmer temperatures, snow, etc.). Ask children if they know what makes the tree change. Explain that trees change because the temperature changes and the length of the days grow or are getting shorter.

Activity 4: Physical (Continued)

Teacher reads book Nuts to You! By Lois Ehlert.Teachers can teach children a rhyme about

squirrels. Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel

Gray squirrel, gray squirrelShake your bushy tail. (Pretend to shake tail.)

Gray squirrel, gray squirrel Shake your bushy tail, (Pretend to shake tail.)

Wrinkle up your funny nose, (Wrinkle nose.) And put a nut between your toes. (Pretend to eat a nut.)

Gray squirrel, gray squirrel Shake your bushy tail. (Pretend to shake tail.)

Activity 4: Physical (Continued)Children will move to small group. Every

child will have salad tongs, acorns, and a plastic cup to be able to move acorns from the table into the cup using plastic salad tongs.

Teacher can continue to discuss concepts learned from circle time about squirrels preparing for winter.

Activity 5: Social Social Activity: Using large boxes, sheets,

or blankets to create places for children to hibernate. This a great time for parents to read stories with the "sleeping bears."

Concepts, Skills, and Processes: Parent involvement, social interactions, language, and communication skills developing.

Lesson ObjectivesChildren will have an understanding of why bears

hibernate.Children will interact communicate and interact socially.

Developmental and/or content areas that have been integrated: Parent involvement, social interactions, language, and communication skills developing.

Activity 5: Social (Continued)Lesson Procedures: Follow up from science

lesson on hibernating bears. Pajama day hibernation party. Allow

children to wear their pajamas to school.Parent involvement to set up bear caves in

the classroom using large boxes, sheets, or blankets.

Parents can help read with the bears in the caves.

Resource Websites

http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/hibernation.html

This website provides educational activities for the hibernation

unit to include songs, books, rhymes, activities, etc.

www.brainpopjr.com/science/ This website has online activities for children

to participate in. It also has animated movies where an animal is shown hibernating and the author explains how the animal survives the winter without eating.

Resource Websites (Continued)

www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/hibernationThis website has ideas that include the children

having a“hibernation party” where they bring their

sleeping bags andpretend to be bears.www.kidssoup.com/Fall/

Fall_Activties.html#freesquirrelactivities

This website is an online resource library for prekindergarten and

kindergarten activities. These are ideas shared by teachers for

teachers for ideas to teach children about squirrels.

Resource Websites (Continued)

www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/hibernation

This website has many ideas for preschool aged children about

hibernation that are designed and written by preschool teachers.

E-mail addresses are included so that the author can be contacted

for further information. www.suite101.com/content/preschool-winter-science This website contains ideas for science centers about

hibernation.For example, making bear caves, putting up pictures of bearsputting out “bear food”, have the kids draw pictures of bears Icave sleeping.

Resource Websites http://www.readinga-z.com/samples/index.html

This website provides activities for developing the literacy level of children at different levels. The teacher can choose a reading materials based on her objectives. She can choose the level of the story based on the children age and based on her theme. For example, the teacher can choose a book that teaches phonics, vocabulary, or poetry. This website can guide the teacher by choosing the age appropriate reading materials. Also, the parents at home can use this website with their children if they want to develop their children’s phonics abilities or increased their vocabulary. This website provides lessons ideas of phonics. Phonics is an important element that children need to master as a basis for their reading level. Children will find the lessons ideas so fun and interesting, and they will have the ability to master all the phonological sounds of the alphabets. This website gives the teacher the chance to have an idea of preparing her own phonics lesson plans or can order them online.

Resource Websiteshttp://www.iknowthat.com/com/L2?GradeLevel=-

1:6&Subject=Language+ArtsThis website is useful to use from the preschool level up to the sixth grade. This website teaches children basic literacy skills through playing games. This website provides great chances of cognitive development specially when the children need to know the missing sound to complete a word. When children answer the right answer this will increase their self-esteem and at the same time if they got the wrong answer they will have another chance to try to think what the right answer is. It will encourage children to think and will make them believe that if we got the wrong answer we can go back, think, and find the right answer. The children can create two teams to see who will get the most accurate answer and will give them the chance to experience the feeling of being a winner or a loser specially if their a teacher monitoring, and encouraging the loosing team to try their best next time.

Resource Websites http://www.starfall.com/

Starfall is a quality website that teaches children phonics and how to read. The children have the chance to choose the alphabet, hear the sound of the alphabet, and present some words that start with the chosen letter. The website provides many chances for the child to hear the sound several times before moving back or forward to a different letter. The repetition process can teach the children the sounds of the alphabets in a very easy and fun manner. The website also teaches them phonics by creating games for children to be able to distinguish upper and lower cases. Children need to use the mouse many times and this will help them develop their fine motor skills. Children can play the phonetic games together and this will develop their social skills through chatting with each other, emotional skills through learning to take turns, and cognitive skills through being able to choose the right answer.