Our World -Kindergarten Geography

      I come from the view point that kindergarten is a year to get them ready to love the work of learning by laying foundations in fun and engaging ways. It is a great year to take your time exploring interests, diving into arts and crafts for the love of it, and getting a good solid start on reading and math. Kindergarten social studies and science should be simple and fun. We are sparking a love of learning while introducing them to concepts of our environment, change, time and geography that will lay the foundation for history and science as they head into the meat of their schooling next year. With this in mind I've come up with a 32 week plan of once a week social studies/ science primer lessons that will give them the holistic view of their place in the world and give a great jumping point to any history/ science curriculum you go into in first grade. Each lesson is listed with general objectives and links to projects on Pinterest or websites that the learning materials come from.

     Our Place in the Solar System

Where I live Stackers

1. Our place in the solar system Perhaps with nesting Russian dolls  (Phone number with Song/ Address with Song and other fun ideas) 
2.  How to read a map (Books like these,  Using a map with key,  Following a map visually,  cardinal directions, More map practice, Map mini unit, Draw a map of their room)
3.  Map of my community (Print and play with local maps, How to use a compass, Follow a map of a local park to get to a surprise, draw a map of our town, draw a route from our house to grandma's, map practice continued from week 2)
4.  I can be a good neighbor (Basic good citizenship, how people work together in a community, local service project)

How the world turns and what it is made of

1.   The earth is a sphere that circles the sun (Day/Night)
2.   The Earth is made of Air, land, and water ( We need air and water to live/ land to live on and grow, Sort things found in all 3, describe attributes of all 3, identify land and water on a map)
3.  Air, Land and Water week 2 (Water cycle, types of clouds, Oceans/Rivers/Lakes, Fresh water vs Salt water)
4.  Air Land and Water week 3 (How land changes, Erosion, Basic Land forms with salt dough land forms) 
5.  Weather (Weather types, Scientists can predict weather, Tools to measure weather, Start weather graph)
6.  Seasons (Order of seasons, what they look like, why they happen, Seasons video and this craft)

Cultural Differences

1. We are alike/ we are different (Skin/eye color, gender, height, language, likes/ dislikes Etc)
2.  What is culture? (Food, music, history, art, religion, celebrations. stories)
3.  What is habitat? 
5. (Define Habitat and talk about how similar habitats can be found in different places/ overview of types of habitats, and prep our dioramas for finish work) Perhaps this game  or This poem.

Continents/ Habitats

Waseca Elementary Continent Map

Each continent we will do a map activity in addition to using the continent mat to place animals and people where they go and talk about culture of a local people.

For every habitat week we will talk about: where the habitats are found, 5-10 animals found there, 5 or so plants found there, and typical climates. There will also be a diorama type art project (Like these habitat bottles, Or these sensory bins) and fictional story for each place. Once we cover a habitat they will choose an animal to learn more about and add them to their "animal book" with a drawing, narration, map, and basic facts.

1. Continents/Oceans Geography Overview
2. Oceans 
3. (Layers of the ocean, whale migrations, coral reefs, kelp forests)
4. North America
5. North American Woodlands 
6. (Types of forests, food chain)
7. South America
8. South American Rain Forests 
9. (Layers of the rain forest, food chain)
10. Europe 
11. Europe Woodlands and Rivers/ponds 
12. (Beaver dams, Fish migrations)
13.  Asia
14. Asian Rain Forests/ Tundra 
15. (Animal adaptations, permafrost)
16. Africa
17. African Savannah 
18. (Types of grasslands, food chain)
19. Australia
20. Australian Desserts 
21. (Where is water found, adaptations)
22.  Antarctica
23. Arctic 
24. (How animals stay warm, food chains)
27. Alaskan Habitats
30. Alaskan Nature Study 

Sticking to the Basics

Preschool through Kindergarten we plan on ONLY teaching Reading, Writing, and Math. 

Yep that's it.
No unit studies on clouds, or animals here, no history or music lessons, just the classic 3 R's. Oh and if that doesn't make you nervous then I'll add that in Preschool the lessons are only 10 minutes each totaling a half hour school day!

The reason for the short lessons is simple; an average kindergartner has an attention span of 10-15 minutes. Now they may still be at the task at hand longer than that, but  typically their minds have wondered off course. The theory is to use short focused lessons to get the information across then let it marinate through play and exposure throughout the day.

I'll happily explain the other core ideas/science behind our sticking to the basics as well (references at the end of the article)!

1. We create a learning rich environment in the home for a culture of learning through out the day. Meaning we have books, and blocks, and craft supplies out, TV is a once in awhile treat and play the expected course of action for the day. They have chores and help with the cooking, and are encouraged to strike up conversation when we are out. As a culture we have moved away from letting kids have free time to play outdoors and learn natural life skills and I think that is a tragedy. As a homeschooler I am teaching the whole child and at this age confidence building is the name of the game for all of their skill sets, not just academic.
2. They are expected to read at younger and younger ages and every developmental psychologist will tell you that boys especially are not mentally/physically ready for a full school day by age five and many are not ready to read until age seven! The American standard timeline for education is simply not developmentally appropriate. So what are they supposed to be doing up until that age? Exploring the world around them and making connections with their bodies and minds. In many countries, such as Finland ranked #1 in the world for reading and math , formal education doesn't even start until age seven and there have been several studies that show no real advantages for early readers in the long term over their later reading peers; in fact by 3rd grade boys/ girls/ early/ late readers all tend to even out on skill level. The only real difference in better literacy skills is in how much they were read aloud to. 
3. So many of the early, and even more complex, math skills can be learned before the kids are ready to express them abstractly. Giving them a chance to solve verbal math problems, manipulate objects, and build things concretes math concepts so that when they do learn how to write 2+12=14 they know what that means inside and out because they are so well acquainted with what the number 14 is and how to construct and deconstruct it its just a matter of handwriting at that point.
4. We want to give them a solid literacy foundation to build from. So much of education these days is reading books and instructions. If they feel confident as a reader and associate it with fun (by being read to and taking a SLOW and encouraging path to literacy) then you eliminate the mental block that can come with being introduced to complex concepts while they are still trying to figure out phonetics! The same goes for handwriting. What quality of writing would you have if,  when trying to get a thought across on paper, you had to stop and wonder whether the "b" has the bump on the front or the back and how to stay in the lines? By giving them extra time to practice, practice, practice and not rushing the curriculum along to stay on schedule you build learning confidence so that when you start to introduce other subjects they are met with enthusiasm and they already know how to read and write well enough to use them as tools instead of viewing them as obstacles.

This may sound a little bit un-schoolish up until this point but we really are not. I absolutely believe in structure, routines, and that boxed curriculums save mom a lot of time and can be a great fit for all the accepted learning styles. Furthermore while it's great to follow a kids interests whenever you can, sometimes you just have to learn the hard stuff so you can move on and even fully conceptualize the fun subjects. Self discipline is an essential character trait only learned through having expectations to meet and pushing through to do hard things. In our home, character is as important as academics.

In fact we actually found a curriculum we LOVE that is through and engaging for teaching reading, writing, spelling and grammar comprehensively. It's called the Logic of English and we started our oldest on it when he was 3 because he had a desire to learn his letter sounds. Each lesson in their foundations curriculum has 4 parts so we just broke it a part and taught one lesson a week until he built up stamina to get through 2 lessons a week. The activities vary so you don't get bored with it and they teach each concept auditory, visually, and kinstheticly whenever possible.

For Math I purchased two books titled "Mathematics their way" and "Hands On Learning" to get a scope and sequence of early math concepts. I use these, Mathstart books, math games, manipulatives, Montessori materials, and fun projects/ ideas I find on Pinterest to teach or really "play" math with my son a few times a day. Once we get into first grade I'm also looking at Math on the level as a way to naturally flow from one concept into another with each math subcategory as he grows out of some of the early math concepts and is ready for more complex materials.

Oh and I also read to all of my kids CONSTANTLY. It is the best for snuggle times and we read new books from the library as well as the same book over and over again in the same day. My 3 year old had several books memorized and loved to pretend to read as he was learning what a letter, word, and sentence were.

We call this Montessori-inspired-play-based-foundation-setting-learning Stage 1. Each stage of their education will look different based on what they need at that time but for laying a foundation in young learners that sparks joy and curiosity we believe this is the way to go.

Resources I've found useful in forming these ideas are listed below in affiliate links and links to other websites/videos:

• One of the several articles available on children's attention span 
• An article on how the American standard education timeline is not developmentally appropriate.
• Finnish Education- There are a lot of videos out there with great information but this is the most recent one I've come across that focuses on the younger students freedom to be a child. 
• The Read Aloud Handbook book and this reading info-graphic show the importance of reading aloud to your kids and this reading info-graphic to show the importance of continuing to read to your kids.
• The 3 R's was an especially enlightening read for me. It help concisely explain the sequence of teaching early math skills and gave insight into learning math skills/concepts vs being able to explain them abstractly.
• (More math resources/ reviews available soon in another blog post!)