Kindergarten Memories

The 2008-2009 school year has been momentous for so many reasons. We’ve experienced the Beijing Olympics, an exciting election, the inauguration of the first African American President, and an all-encompassing focus on the environment and the economy.

For my students it is also an exciting year. It is the first public school experience for these 4-6 year old boys and girls. Many of them will have their first experiences with reading, writing, math, science and social studies. To mark these momentous occasions during kindergarten we will create a Kindergarten Memory Book.

Each month we will create a monthly memory page regarding our experiences during the month. For example, during the month of October we experience autumn harvests as well as Halloween and other fun events both in school and in our community. We will write about these events during our daily writer’s workshop. We will use digital photography enhance our monthly pages with actually photos. We will also utilize Kidspiration® to compare our lives with events in our world. *

The Connecticut State Standards for Kindergarten will also be incorporated into the ongoing lessons and are listed at the end of this document.

Purpose:
Kindergarteners will create a memory page each month which corresponds to their experience in kindergarten as well as a comparison using Kidspiration® to compare their lives to the world. (Connecticut State Standards are listed separately for objectives)

Materials:
Kidspiration® software books
Writer’s Workshop Journals Time for Kids
Digital Camera internet
Card stock Songs and Poems from Dr. Jean
Craft materials Hubbard’s Cupboard Nursery Rhyme
Computer Olympics
Printer and ink Laminate
Smart Board

Monthly Activities:
We will create a Kidspiration® document of our year in review. The children will learn about sequencing events by using the graphic organizing functions in the software. We will create the document as a whole group using the school’s smart board.

During our daily writer’s workshop time we will include our monthly happenings and experiences and compile these into journal entries, which can be incorporated into one document we create as a class for our monthly memory pages.

We will include photos and projects that have been saved from the years events.

We will also discuss current events and world happenings and by using Kidspiration® we will create comparisons of the two and how they relate to our lives.

This information will be compiled into a class story to better understand world events and how we participated in them.

We will also document any songs and poems we’ve used to further understand the world topics, such as “The Barack Obama Song” from Dr. Jean.

See information below for the finished product and the sample page included.


Accommodations:
Due to having children with special needs in the classroom some of the monthly activities will need to be accommodated for the children with these needs.
Including, but not limited to: visual explanations, written and auditory explanations and descriptions, modified journals with 3D gridlines, photographic support for all students.


The finished year end product will include pages for each month and seasonal pages with world experiences: The Beijing Olympics, the Presidential election, the Presidential Inauguration, the economy and the environment. It will include photos as well as our writing, news articles and a copy of the songs, poems and books we used. We will laminate and bind a book for each child to have as a keepsake.

Connecticut State Standards for Kindergarten which will be covered in this lesson:

Social Studies Standards
1.K-2.2 Engage in reading, challenging primary and secondary historical source materials.
1.K-2.3 Create timelines, which sequence events and peoples, using days weeks, and months.
2.K-2.1 Locate the events, peoples and places they have studied in time and place (e.g., on a timeline and map) relative to their own location.
2.K-2.2 Place the history of their own families in the context of local, state, national and world history.
12.K-2.1 Use maps, globes, graphs, models, computer programs and texts as appropriate.

Language Arts Standards
1.3.d Students develop vocabulary through listening, speaking, reading and writing.
1.3.e Students use content vocabulary appropriately and accurately (math, music, science, social studies, etc.
2.4.d Students will discuss topics about and connections with other cultures.
3.1 Students use descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive and poetic modes.
3.2.b Students will use strategies to generate and develop ideas for speaking, writing, and visual activities.
3.2.f Students will publish and/or present final products in a myriad of ways, including the use of the art and technology.

Math
3.3.a Use calendars and clocks to measure and record time.













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