Unit: Social Studies for Kindergarten

For my latest assignment I was suppose to choose a topic learned in school and a grade and set up a week full of activities that would cover the unit chosen for the class. I chose to teach Social Studies and then while studying the learn curriculum I thought that teaching social studies to kindergartner's would be a great experience, so I chose Kindergartners. One of the GLECS's was for the Kindergartens curriculum that shows each step of the learning process for the unit Social Studies. Showing Content Expectations, Concepts, Vocabulary, and skills. This also shows the curriculum and how we can build each concept. I also looked at the K-8 Social Studies Documents that explain many different aspects of the topic. Explaining the expectations of social studies as well as the curriculum itself. I also like the fact that this document includes the society of the students. Citizens , active citizens are included in this important document that gives different perspectives of social studies. I like that this document also explains that the each active citizen has responsibilities. This document is very informative and covers a large part of the unit and explains thoroughly each aspect. As for the MET's I chose to read the K-2 document about technology and their standards. I thought this document was very informative and interesting to explain what student's need to learn about technology and their expectations kindergarten through second grade.
Through the week of Social Studies, my unit consisted of activities that were fun and educational. On Monday I chose to learn about Michigan's History. So I found a website that has all of Michigan's information on its site for the students to be able to use technology and learn about their state.http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108228.html . This is a great state for students to explore. For Tuesday I chose the activity of adventuring a legend of a Map. This is a activity that allow the student to explore a map and what things mean and how to use these instruments.http://geology.com/state-map/michigan.shtml. Check it out, it is a site that has many different types of maps for Michigan. For the third day, i chose an activity for the unit that goes along with the previous activity. I chose for the students to use a map and locate different cities and lakes. I also used the same site as before. There are also different websites for the students to use, I just chose the most affective site. For Thursday, the students had more of a review day, learning terms and concepts of Michigan and things learned earlier in the week. The site I found most helpfulhttp://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/KindergartenKVCS_229526_7.pdf. For the last day the students were suppose to use their artistic abilities to make their own rendition of a Map of Michigan. I think I made a week full of different activity that gave the students a variety that allowed them to be interested. I think my students would have fun learning social studies. I hope that you all get the chance to look at my websites. If you have any questions, always feel free to ask.

Mary Meagan Behnke

http://del.icio.us/marybehnke/Social