I have chosen to explore community helpers and autumn as my themes. Firstly, I chose community helpers because they are so important, and it's good for children to know who they are. When children know who their community helpersare,it ensures that they know who to turn to when in need, and this could save theirs or someone else's life. Secondly, Ichose autumn because it is autumn here in China, and this is a theme that can be applied globally, where children can also learn about autumn around the world. This is also a theme I am considering incorporating into my class soon, and it has many elements.
1. Community helpers
Topics:
Who are your community helpers and how can they help: police officer, nurse, doctor, firefighter, paramedic, teacher?
Where to find community helpers: police station, school, hospital, fire station
How to contact community helpers: numbers to call
Within this theme, children would learn about some community helpers that they may already know a little about. Students would learn about these people in more detail, like what they do, how they can help, where to find them,and how to contact them. Knowing this information can help children know that if they are ever in trouble, they havesomeone to call. Learning more about professions like doctors and police could also help children be less afraid of them.Students can share their experiences with different community helpers and get a better understanding of what these peopledo exactly.
Interdisciplinary application
In a lesson about community helpers, students would talk about what they know about the police, nurses, doctors,firefighters, paramedics, and teachers. Students would also discuss what these people do, what words are associated with them, and how to reach them. Here are two examples of activities.
Activity: making associations (reading and writing)
Children would cut and paste pictures of the 6 professions;
After learning some associations, they would find words that match each profession and write or cut and paste (depending on ability) those words
Activity: poster (art)
The first activity involves reading and writing. It also allows children to practice their cutting skills. The second activity also involves some writing but mostly calls to their creativity. I would differentiate this activity by letting younger students who can't draw very well use cut-out pictures to make a collage. This still requires some creativity.
2. Autumn
Topics:
What happens in autumn: in nature, festivals
When is autumn in two different countries: China and South Africa?
Within this theme, children would learn which months autumn occurs in, in China (relevance), and in South Africa (they could learn the differences between their country and their teachers'). They would also learn what holidays each countrycelebrates during autumn. They would learn what happens during autumn in nature (leaves changing color). This topicwould benefit them because children should learn about what happens during different times of the year, and this themewould be introduced in autumn so they can witness the things they're learning about and share their experiences (it makesit relevant). It's also good to learn about what happens in other parts of the world, and a teacher from a different country isa good starting point for exposing children to cultural differences.
Interdisciplinary application
While learning about autumn, during circle time, students would share what they saw happening and how it's different from a few months ago. For example, are the leaves still the same color? We would learn the months of the year and when autumn occurs. While doing this, ask students when they think autumn is in my country and discuss. During this theme, we would talk about what holidays we celebrate, for example, the mid-autumn festival and national day inChina,freedom day, and human rights day in South Africa. The children would share if they have a birthday in autumn,like I do. I would share with them that although in China my birthday is autumn, I was born in spring because it's springin South Africa right now (this would be in an effort to make children understand that seasons are at different times insome countries).
Activity: leaves changing colour (science)
Children would conduct a leaf changing experiment
Activity: sizes (categorising)
The first activity would mostly be related to science. Within that activity, children will practice motor skills likebreaking leaves, mashing, and pouring. There is some vocabulary involved that the teacher will teach the children(materials are needed). The second activity serves as a categorization practice. The children can talk about the colors ofthe leaves they found and compare to see if they found the same or similar leaves. The teacher can also teach them thenames of the commonly found leaves. The children will also make their own chart or table and write the sizes (big,medium, and small).
Conclusion
There are an infinite number of topics that children can benefit from. The simplest way to choose is to look at what your students like and what is relevant to their lives. There are some topics that are relevant to all people that children may not know enough about or fully understand, like community helpers. On the other hand, there are topics that aren't life-savingbut that children can easily relate to and that can help them understand and explore their environment more, like autumn(or any season).
Comments