A Kindergarten Thematic Unit Plan

How we learn things (The five senses)

4 weeks

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Beginning the Unit.

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child explores)

· becomes aware of colours, shapes, patterns and textures in the environment

· recognizes familiar places within the community

· Recognizes that some activities or events occur at particular times

Personal and Social Responsibility

· follows directions of the teacher and other school staff

Physical Skills and Well-Being (the child acquires)

· experiences and develops locomoter skills

(The child develops)

· begins to identify and observe safety rules in such situations as in school, pedestrian, or playground

Write a letter to the class about the start of a new unit. Read the letter to the class. “Today we start a new unit on the senses. There are five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. We will learn about each of these. This time of year all of the leaves change colour and the leaves begin to fall. Everything begins to look different. Everything feels different. It gets cold outside . . .. Proceed with discussion of Fall.

· Write down the sense words. “Clap us, wave us, left or right we’re each a ________ (hand).

· Read When the Wind Stops by Charlotte Zolotow. Discuss the different things we can see, hear, smell, taste and feel from the book. Put up pictures of the organs.

· Take the class on a walking tour of the neighbourhood. Everybody brings a paper bag. Collect ‘interesting’ fall things for our class collection. The teacher carries a garbage bag and a special stick to collect garbage. Ask the children to think about all of the things they feel, see and hear while on their walk. Point out particularly pretty or interesting things.

· Pictures of the sense organs

· Paper bags for everyone

· Garbage bag

· Garbage collection stick

· When the wind stops by Charlotte Zolotow

· Observing student behaviour and understanding

· Begin checklists of learning centre skill development and concept development

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child explores)

· becomes aware of the five senses and how they are used to explore, investigate and describe the world.

(the child demonstrates awareness)

· Identifies some body parts and describes the function of each

(the child demonstrates curiosity)

· begins to participate in problem solving

Personal and Social Responsibility (the child accepts)

· takes some responsibility for selecting and completing learning activities

Review the five senses. Ask the children if they can remember all of them. “Maybe we should make a song”. Sing “ my head, my shoulders, my knees and then my toes.” Together we can invent a song for the senses. Suggest “my eyes, my nose, my ears and then my toes”. “Whoops we left one out. Which one did we leave out?” Try to make a song as a group (alternatively ”On my face I have two eyes;”).

· Write the following sentences on the board:

The leaves are _______ and ________.

My favourite fall colour is ________.

This is a(n) ________ tree.

Its leaves are ________.

Ask the students to recall our walk. Ask them to ‘fill in the blanks’ with their own words (providing examples).

· Get the students to empty their bags of leaves and things into a box (one box for each group). Ask them to start little piles of things that belong together. Provide an example of sorting by colour. During the sorting ask them to explain how they are sorting (e.g. colour, object, etc.). Now have a class discussion. How did the different groups sort (do a show and tell)? A majority of them will have sorted by colour. Engage them, asking why some of them did not sort by colour.

· An assortment of leaves (e.g. Maple).

· A picture or drawing of a tree.

· Chart paper

· Boxes

· Smaller boxes or circles of yarn for sorting

Observing group dynamics, how the children work together.

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child demonstrates curiosity)

· Demonstrates awareness of the properties of objects and events in the environment, by:

ü Sorting objects according to common properties

Mathematics:

· Classify and Describe linear attributes of objects; e.g., long, short.

· Cover a surface with a variety of objects.

Personal and Social Responsibility

· engages in some independent tasks, and seeks assistance as necessary

Beginning Sight

Ask the students to recall the sorting activities. Discuss. Talk about sight. What things did we see on the way to school this morning?

· Put a variety of objects up on the board above the reading area. Arrange into a pleasant collage of colours and shapes.

Talk about the arrangement. Discuss any impressions the students have. Then discuss the following:

This leaf is _________ and _________. (Explore colour)

This leaf is _________ and __________. (Explore length and colour)

This pinecone is _______ and _______.

This pinecone is _________ and _______.

· Learning centre 1: Ask the students to make their own collage of colours and shapes. Encourage them to talk about the objects they are arranging.

· Learning centre 2: The students take turns describing leaves to each other (long and red, round and green, etc.). Once they have had a bit of practice they can begin to describe a leaf without showing the one they are describing. The other students have to pick the leaf that was described. Get the students to focus on using complete sentences.

· Revision Learning centre (Whatever topic that is necessary)

· A variety of fall objects

· 22 sheets of black or white construction paper

· Glue/tape

· Observation

· Learning centre checklists

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Language Arts (Uses Strategies and Cues)

· Connects oral language with print and pictures.

Community and Environmental Awareness

· Demonstrates awareness of the properties of objects and events in the environment, by:

ü Distinguishing between similar objects, based on one or more characteristics

Ask if anybody wants to share their collage. Talk about the collage and some of the other collages with the students. Explore the aesthetics of having a variety of objects versus having just a few. Write some of the attributes on chart paper. Now ask the students, which leaf or object we should use to remember the words “long”, “short”, etc. Place the objects that are chosen on the board beside its corresponding word.

· Sing or Recite: “Down, down, Yellow and Brown, Fall the leaves, All over the ground. Rake them up, In a pile so high, They almost reach, Up to the sky.” The students can do the accompanying actions.

· With the students construct a few word/picture sentences using our new symbols. Be careful which things you describe.

· Learning centre 1: Sort a pile of leaves by length or size the group should decide together how to sort them.

· Learning centre 2: Preparing for colour: A Colour mixing station. Allow the students to experiment with the colouring in the containers (one colour, two colours, one drop, several drops).

· Chart paper

· Food colouring

· Several margarine or similar type containers

· Observation & Checklists

Language Arts (Creates Original Text)

· Contributes ideas and answers questions related to experiences and familiar oral, print and other media texts.

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child demonstrates)

· identifies familiar shapes and symbols in the environment and community; e.g. stop signs, traffic lights

Mathematics (Shape and Space)

· Use the words full, empty, less and more, to talk about volume and capacity.

What different things can we do with our eyes? What did you do with your eyes on the way to school? How about when you woke up this morning, or when you played with the blocks? Discuss. When you walk, what do you do with your eyes? Can we count things with our eyes? Blindfold the teaching assistant (if willing) or a brave child and ask them to cross the classroom (give passive guidance for protection).

· Vocabulary: More, less than, full

· Discuss the ways our eyes can keep us safe. Display the signs (e.g. stop, washroom, don’t walk, walk, etc.). Talk about the meaning of each sign and the reasons they exist.

· Play a game with four or five signs distributed throughout the classroom. Tell the students to pretend they are going for a walk and when you call out the name of a sign they have to turn toward the sign.

· Learning Centre 1: Get the children to draw signs and the dangers that not paying attention to a sign would cause.

· Learning Centre 2: Have the students talk about a number of jars filled with leaves. Diagram more, less, full. Teacher helps with the labels.

· Pictures of traffic signs, and other signs in the environment

· Blindfold

· Observation

· Learning centre checklist

· Multiple-choice exam (just kidding ;-))

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Language Arts (Understands Forms, Elements and Techniques)

· identify the main characters in a variety of oral, print and other media texts

· experience a variety of oral, print and other media texts

(Discovers and Explores)

· shares personal experiences prompted by oral, print and other media texts

Discuss colours, those that are appealing and disgusting. Read Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess to the students. Discuss colours and how they make us feel. Would you like to eat green eggs and ham? Discuss appearances versus reality.

· Write down colour vocabulary. Draw on the colour learning centre (the food colouring one).

· Sing: “Autumn leaves, all around me . . .

· Class discussion: Discuss the characters and try to get the students to brainstorm an activity that addresses the story (even if it ends up being one of the learning centres below).

· Learning centre 1: Direct the children to act out the above story.

· Learning centre 2: Ask the children to draw pictures of the events and characters of the story (alternatively they can make wacky cars and trains from play-dough).

· Revision Learning centre (whatever topic that is necessary)

· Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess

· Play-dough

· Observation

· Learning centre checklists

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Mathematics

· Identify, sort and classify 3-D objects in the environment.

· describes, and discusses orally, objects, using such words as big, little, round, like a box, like a can.

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child uses materials)

· selects and works with a variety of materials to build structures

(the child demonstrates awareness)

· expresses preferences, and identifies likes and dislikes.

Talk about shapes, reviewing our discussion of leaves. Ask everybody to remember which leaf is their favourite (or select a new favourite). Get the students to stand in a line in front of their favourite leaf. Discuss the results. How can we know which leaf is the most popular. Show them a simple bar graph illustrating the human graph we just made. Talk about 3-D objects linking these to the theme of sight. Show them some objects and ask where they have seen these in their homes.

· Write down shape and math vocabulary (e.g. round, like a can, pair, alike, different).

· Show them a selection of 3-D objects and talk about them all briefly in relation to the 2-D shape they match.

· Learning centre 1: Ask the students to sort a group of objects, then build something from an assortment of objects (cylinders, cones, blocks, e

· Learning centre 2: An assortment of objects for introspection into visual perception (e.g. kaleidoscope, optical illusions).

· Learning centre 3: Using a 3-D object as a model, create 2 or more 3-D objects from play-dough, paper, and/or smaller 3-D objects.

· An assortment of leaves

· 3-D objects

· Kaleidoscope

· Optical illusion exercise sheets

· Play-dough

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Mathematics (Data Analysis)

· Collects with assistance, first-hand information

· Constructs, with assistance, a concrete/object graph, using one-to-one correspondence.

Community and Environmental Awareness

· demonstrates awareness of objects by:

§ distinguishing between similar objects, based on one or more characteristics

Beginning Touch (and feel)

Read King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, Audrey Wood. Discuss the story, our reaction to the story and the twist ending. Begin a discussion of how it feels when you have been in the bathtub for too long! What does it feel like to touch or do things after being in the bathtub for too long?

Whole class activity: Review our discussion of 3-D shapes by placing one object into ‘the mystery can’ and having a student feel (not look!) and describe the object to the other students. The others guess the object in question. Write down important words that arise (e.g. round, sharp, long, like a box, like a can).

· Learning centre 1: Students play ‘touch what’s in the mystery can’ game with a variety of objects in a small group (e.g. leaves, pine-cones, 3-D objects).

· Learning centre 2: Exploring touch with play-dough, students can review the skills of last class or play creatively.

· Learning centre 3: Students poll each other on their favourite colour. They can construct a graph with guidance and the ‘favourite leaf graph’ as a sample. Students should use colourful counters to keep track of the ‘votes’ and create the graph.

· King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, Audrey Wood

· Colorful counters

· Observation

· Checklists

Specific Learner Expectations

Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Physical Skills and Well-Being (the child develops fine motor)

· develops fine motor skills involving finger speed, arm steadiness, arm and hand precision, finger and hand dexterity, and the manipulation of small materials

· demonstrates body and space awareness, in relation to self and others, during activities and games

Community and Environmental Awareness (demonstrates curiosity)

· becomes aware of the relationship between cause and effect

Read: Left and Right by Joanne Oppenheim. Begin a shoe-tying workshop. Teach the students a technique for tying their shoes, and strategies for knowing which shoe goes where (left and right foot). Ask the students to try their newfound skill while wearing gloves. Discuss the importance of touch and feel in everyday activities. Review briefly our discussion of sight and how we can use our eyes to warn us of danger. Ask if there are any signs (like traffic signs) that we can feel. Discuss touch (also pain) and the way it protects us. Brainstorm with the classroom, discussing things that are unsafe to touch.

· Learning centre 1: Get the students to make a safety poster about the things we should not touch. We will put the poster up in the hallway to help others. The teacher can write any brief messages or slogans.

· Learning centre 2: Take some students into the gym or the hallway with a small stick. Experiment with keeping our eyes shut and ‘feeling’ our way around.

· Learning centre revision.

· Walking stick

· Left and Right by Joanne Oppenheim

· Posters

· Drawing/colouring implements

· Observation

· Checklists

· Probe for understanding

Community and Environmental Awareness

· becomes aware that people have and express feelings in similar as well as different ways; e.g. feelings may be expressed in various actions/behaviours, such as happy, angry, sad

· becomes aware of colours, shapes, patterns and textures in the environment

Personal and Social Responsibility

· shows willingness to explore and expand learning, and to try new things

Bring a puppy, kitten, or a soft teddy bear to the classroom. Discuss touch and how people and animals need to be hugged and animals need to be petted to be healthy. Using a series of objects draw touch words out of the students (soft, furry, hard, rough). Lead a more focused discussion of touch with the kitten/ puppy/teddy-bear present, if possible. Discuss ways we can tell how the kitten feels, expanding this to our friends and family.

· Write down emotion vocabulary.

· Learning centre 1: Using feathers ask the students to find out which parts of their body are most ticklish (model this one carefully).

· Learning centre 2: Using 3-D letters of the alphabet have a blind-man’s bluff game. With one child blindfolded they feel a letter that has been selected. Upon removing the blindfold they find the letter that they felt (alternatively draw/name the letter).

· Learning centre 3: Using the mystery box (and blindfold), students explore their touch vocabulary and play the guessing game.

· A puppy, kitten, or soft toy

· A variety of objects with an assortment of textures

· Several feathers

· 3-D letters

· A blindfold

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Physical Skills and Well-Being (the child develops fine motor)

· develops fine motor skills involving finger speed, arm steadiness, arm and hand precision

· develops perceptual-motor skills through activities involving eye-hand coordination

· recognizes personal abilities while participating in physical activity

Hearing

Read Listen to the Rain, by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. Explore the onomatopoeia, alliteration and rhythm of this story. Ask for students to make the sound of rain, cars, washing machines, and etcetera. Talk about vibrations (feel your throat when you hum).

· Start a body rhythm section. Begin with hand clapping “Clap-Clap-Clap”. Then try “Clap-Clap, Clap-Clap”. Also “Clap-Clap-Clap, Clap-Clap, Clap”, and other variations.

· Organize the students into groups. Begin an impromptu band with combs, pails, and chairs. Lead each group’s rhythm (start out slowly).

· Discuss sounds that are dangerous and sounds that warn us to stay away.

· Listen to the Rain, Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

· Everyday items (musically adaptable)

· Sounds from the computer (ambulance)

· Observation

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child demonstrates)

· Identifies familiar sounds in the environment and community

(the child uses materials)

· explores and responds to the design and properties of a variety of natural and manufactured materials and objects

Language Arts (Responds to Texts)

· participates in shared listening, reading and viewing experiences, using oral, print and other media texts from a variety of cultural traditions and genres

· experiments with sounds, words, word patterns, rhymes and rhythms.

Discuss rhythm with the students. Ask how they felt about making music. Ask if they can think of other ways to make music. Begin a list on the board (clapping, humming, singing). Discuss how talking can be rhythmical. Discuss rhyme.

Read Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, by Suess, Prelutsky, Smith. Point out the rhymes as they develop within the first few pages. Ask students to name the rhyme.

· Ask students to imitate dogs, cats, dripping water, computer beeps. Talk about how we write some of these sounds. Write them on the board.

· Have the students draw or paint while listening to a selection of music with different tempos.

· Learning centre 1: Have a skin drum station where the students can experiment with sound and the vibrations of the skin.

· Learning centre 2: Have the students cut out pictures from magazines (e.g. washing machine, car, ambulance). Have the students chose a picture and imitate the sound. The other students can pick the picture that best suits the sound.

· Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, by Suess, Prelutsky, & Smith

· Magazines

· Music from different genres

· Skin drum

· Scissors

· Glue/tape

· Learning centre checklist

· Observation

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Physical Skills and Well-Being

· recognizes that some household substances may be harmful; e.g., cleaning products, drugs

· recognizes that hazardous products are labelled with warning symbols

· identifies nutritious foods, including snack foods

Mathematics (Patterns and Relations)

· sorts objects, using a single attribute. [CN, R, V]

Community and Environmental Awareness (demonstrates curiosity)

· becomes aware of the relationship between cause and effect

Taste and Smell

Tastes in our neighbourhood. Sing the song “In Your Neighbourhood” writing down taste vocabulary. Now discuss smells that we know. Talk about things we should not taste and the hint that sometimes smell can give us if something is bad to eat. Show the students an assortment of things they should not eat or drink. Pay special attention to warning signs that these things sometimes have on them. Follow this up with a discussion of safety.

· Write taste vocabulary

· Sing: “I'm smelling, I'm smelling,
my nose is busy smelling.
This is the song I like to sing,
When I smell most anything!

· Learning centre 1: Discuss with the students things that taste good and are good for you too. Discuss snack foods. Have the students create pictures that represent snack foods (healthy and unhealthy).

· Learning centre 2: Use an assortment of foods that fit the four main taste categories. Have the students prepare a tasting centre, discuss the areas of the tongue and sort the foods into taste categories. Before moving on to the next learning centre they can make their vote for their favourite taste.

· Pictures of detergents, bleach, etc.

· A number of foods that fit into the 4 main taste groups (banana peel for bitter)

· Learning centre checklists

· Observation

Specific Learner Expectations

Learning Activities

Resources

Evaluation

Personal and Social Responsibility (the child demonstrates independence)

· Separates from parents/guardian willingly when in familiar and comfortable situations

Community and Environmental Awareness (the child explores)

· becomes aware of the five senses and how they are used to explore, investigate and describe the world.

TASTE-O-RAMA

At the end of this unit on the senses we will have a big dinner party. The teacher and hopefully some of the parents will bring a diversity of food. Before the dining takes place we will engage in a variety of activities that engage all of the senses (feasting our eyes on all of the things we have created, listening to music, finger painting, and smelling). Finally during and after lunch we can discuss all of the things we have learned and begin to discuss what we will learn next week.

· Learning centre revision: Here we can set-up the learning centres that were the most popular, productive, or complex. Also, many of the students will have missed the point of some of the centres. This is a good time to finish up the checklist, making sure each student has addressed the entire unit.

· Multi-cultural food

· The products of several learning centres

· Learning centre checklists

· Observation

Class Description:

· The class consists of 15 – 25 four and a half to 5 and a half year-olds. Between 1 and 3 of the students are ESL, and one of the students has a cleft palette (though he may have transferred as I have not seen him in 2 weeks). The student body in this classroom is very transient. On average the students present on any given day make a sum of 14. However, I have heard that in early October the student body tends to stabilize at this school.

Timing and unit Rationale:

· I was assigned this thematic unit by my cooperating teacher. Her main interests were that I take a broad approach to the kindergarten curriculum using the senses as my thematic orientation. My approach to the theme was to authentically construct activities and develop concepts in a way that is logical and understandable. My cooperating teacher was expecting each sense to take approximately 1 – 2 days. But, upon viewing my plan she stated that she believes this one will work and be of benefit to the students because of the richness of the theme in use.

Possible Learning Delivery Problems and Special Adaptations:

· The teaching staff assigned to this classroom, consist of an experienced Kindergarten teacher and an experienced Teaching Assistant. My Unit plan tries to take advantage of this staffing situation by designing learning centres that are more complex than would be possible were the students not guided at each centre.

· My plan only occasionally provides room for a revision learning centre, but this is intended for group revision in the event that student understanding fails to meet the schedule. The plan allows for one adult to be free of planned activities in order to cope with the unknowns that will most assuredly arise in such a transient and at present unknown classroom. The additional free adult that I have designed into this plan would most likely spend a substantial amount of time each day helping individuals and small groups to grasp the concepts on a one-to-one basis or in very small groups.

· The ESL student (or students) will require the special assistance and stability of small groupings and careful attention to understand and cope with the classroom environment.

Self – Assessment and Student Assessment:

· I plan to take on the some of the revision learning centre tasks (which include assisting the ESL students) as well as work with the learning centres so that I can grow to understand the developmental needs of these children. Undoubtedly some of these learning centres will be revised in favour of unknown weaknesses and strengths that will be uncovered.

· Wherever possible, I have tried to work repetition into this plan. For example, allowing students to sort by taste, colour, and texture is not in my mind meaningless repetition.

· The uncovering of the weaknesses and strengths of my plans will be accomplished through checklists of learning centre completion (gradients of completion and understanding), general observation, and during the class discussions (checking for understanding and growth).

Resources:

· Most of the songs used and mentioned came from here: http://www.preschooleducation.com/ssenses.shtml

· Snow Day, Werner Zimmermann, North Winds Press, 1999, Toronto

· King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, Audrey Wood, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1985

· Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Suess

· Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, Lois Ehlert, Harcort Brace Jovanovich, 1985, New York

· Left and Right, Joanne Oppenheim, Gulliver Books, 1989, New York

· When the wind stops, Charlotte Zolotow, Harper Collins Publishers, 1995, Illinois

· Listen to the Rain, Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault, Henry Holt and Company, Inc. New York

· The Three Sillies, Kathryn Hewitt, Harcourt Brace and Company, 1986, Hong Kong

Resources Consulted

· Hearing, Mandy Suhr, Wayland Ltd. 1993 East Sussex

· Sight, Mandy Suhr, Wayland Ltd. 1993 East Sussex

· Smell, Mandy Suhr, Wayland Ltd. 1993 East Sussex

· Taste, Mandy Suhr, Wayland Ltd. 1993 East Sussex

· Touch, Mandy Suhr, Wayland Ltd. 1993 East Sussex

Sample Checklist

Learning Activities

Fall Object Sorting

Sorts by

On task

Shows persistence

Group skills

Fall Walk

Collects right objects

Walks safely

Obeys Adults

Rememberseeing

Attendance

Revise skills

Attendance

Revise skills

Amy

Colour

Yes

Butterflies

Tom

Yes

Size

Maybe

Yes

No just toys

Yes

Oak

Satchel

Yes

Colour

maybe

Yes

Ben

Yes

Kind

Yes

None

Runs

sparrows

Notes on the effectiveness of the activities (too difficult, too easy, what concepts to develop, skills to develop) :

Sample Observation Record

October 10-13	Monday (Thanksgiving)	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Amy		Doesn’t put socks on	Eats lunch for snack	Won’t/can’t nap	Went home at recess!
Tom		Naps all day	Won’t go to gym	Lost his shoes	Found them in his lunch
Satchel		Tied his shoes today	Shared well
Ben		Fought!			Read a book
Satchel			Won’t talk		Won’t listen
Ben		Brought scat into class	Speaks first full sentence		Listens well

Lessons		Bored the children	Alternate center invented by student they found it exciting. WHY?	School assembly try again tomorrow	Excellent dialogue. Ask questions like this ______ ___________________?

contact me