Incorporating Reading, Writing and talking across the curriculum.
General Information
This is so incredibly easy, fun, and a wonderful learning experience. Later I will give you specific lesson plans on how you can use this in you classroom, but first I would like to explain to those of you who do not know how, or do not understand how this works.
I will start with a hypothetical situation. (By the way, this concept can be incorporated, or adapted from K through 12, and in all subject areas.)
Let us say you subject area is math and/or measurement. I would start, first thing in the morning by discussing with the children the subject or objective for the day. I would explain that today we will learn about math and measurement, and that we will have a lot of fun. When children have fun, they learn more.
First I would read an "age appropriate book", for example "Big Dog, Little Dog. It is a book about a tall dog and a short dog, who seem to find themselves in the wrong beds, and other assorted problems that they finally work out in the end, so that they are both comfortable.
I would next continue by introducing measuring tapes (you can make these yourself!), and have the children measure each other. We would chart everyone's measurements on chart paper, the chalkboard, or whatever you have.
We would have an actual chart that we could display in the room or in the hallway. During this time, we would discuss inches, centimeters, meters, yards, etc. I would next go into history by reading about famous people, such as napoleon, and how short he was, and I would compare him with another famous world leader who was quite tall.
Obviously we would discuss who they were where they were from and what country (Geography, history, etc.)
For a science/history project I might choose to give an assignment, (you choose the time limit) on the climate their particular famous person they wish to investigate. This could be a wonderful idea for a book report,. Another homework assignment might be to measure members of each child's family.
We can also chart those, which would teach and reinforce graphing.
As a really fun Art project, get some really big paper. Here in Philadelphia, we can get rolls of brown paper for only a few dollars a roll. Some of us can get it at our local dollar store, but if you don't have this in your area, try taping brown paper bags together large enough to accommodate a child's body.
Have another classmate trace your child's body on the paper. (You can get really creative here.) Then they can trade places. The children could decorate their body image anyway they wish. These can then be hung up, and compared to the "actual" measurements taken before.
For homework, let me reiterate.
Measure family members
Research famous people from past or present
Write a paper or book report on what you found out.
Orally read your report to the class.
By doing all of this you have read to the children, they have written, (try to have them do daily journal entries on their thoughts and feelings), and remember you can stretch this activity for days or a month depending on how much work you want to put into it.
Objective: Incorporate reading, writing, math, science, social studies, history, art.
Materials: Books to read to the classroom, large paper sheets, chart paper, crayons or markers, yarn, buttons, or other materials to decorate the children's body images, and help in finding resources for the children to investigate.
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