“Beaver” Unit Plan (Kindergarten)

This science unit is designed for Kindergarten students and it introduces them to the beaver, which is an important animal in their local environment. Students learn what beavers are, where they live, what they eat, what their predators are, what they do, and the things that make beavers unique. This unit also combines Indigenous knowledge of the beaver and the cultural connections that beaver brings. The lessons include stories, sorting activities, cut and paste activities, drawing, writing, puppet making, ADST beaver dam building, a PHE game, and a fun trivia game to help students review the unit.

Beaver-Unit.docx

This is an example of a beaver dam created by two students in my practicum class. The goal was to build a dam with the materials available that will block the water from getting to the other side of the container.

“Community” Unit Plan (Kindergarten)

This unit teaches students about their community and different types of communities. Students learn about rural, suburban, and city places, neighbors, places in a community, community helpers, why people work, and the difference between wants and needs. Through the various lessons, students receive a holistic view of communities and how they work. The lessons range from PowerPoints, interactive activities, and even a field trip to the grocery store.

Community-Unit.docx

This photo shows the community that we built as a class. I prepared the green map and each student was responsible for one community building. We discussed what were good spots for the buildings in relation to the map and to the other buildings placed previously.

“Fairy Tales” Unit Plan (Kindergarten)

In this unit, students learn about the structure of a story, characters, setting, and plot through a wide range of fairy tales. Each lesson explores a new fairy tale in which students identify the aspects of each story which makes it fit into the fairy tale category. Students engage in independent, partner, and small group activities throughout the unit and even create their own fairy tale characters and parts of a fairy tale.

Fairy-Tale-Unit.docx

This photo is of our bulletin board outside of our classroom. The students completed their pictures using permanent markers and paint. The inspiration for this art was the story Beauty and The Beast, with the writing on each picture saying “. . . for beauty is found within.”
On the last day two days of my practicum, we combined elements from our fairy tales and measurement units to bake gingerbread men! In our fairy tales unit, we read the story The Gingerbread Man and the students eagerly asked if we could bake some of our own.