Kindergarten
Houghton Mifflin Theme 8 Launch:
On the Farm
Starting the Research
Introducing the Super3 – the young students’ version of Eisenberg and Berkowitz’ Big 6. This research process breaks it down into three steps.
Step 1 = Plan (beginning)
Step 2 = Do (middle)
Step 3 = Review (end)
Step One: Plan
“The Plan” (Beginning) is the important first step of the Super3, and it is a step that students do not always take naturally. More often, they jump right into the middle and begin doing their assignments. The key is getting them to understand its importance. When kindergartners are given a picture to color, spend a moment with them discussing the step that they take in choosing colors. What are they doing when they choose a blue crayon for the sky? They are planning how they will tackle the assignment to achieve the desired effect. This is really no different from a twelfth grader planning which resources she will consult first when writing her term paper about Hamlet. Helping your students begin to think in terms of process creates the foundation for educational success throughout their school career.
Information Literacy Standards covered:
1 The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.
Here are the things involved in “the plan” for this lesson as well as the CA State Standards covered (other than the obvious ELA standards covered).
•S2.a Observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals (e.g., seed-bearing plants, birds, fish, insects).
•S4.d Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).
•Put up PowerPoint with pictures and sounds from the farm. Discuss it with your students, paying attention to the similarities and differences of the animals.
•Have students help you sort the animals by size and place them into the template which follows the PowerPoint. You’ll have to cut and paste the animals from the original slide to the sorting slide.
•Give them each a copy of the pictures and have them cut out the pictures/labels, and paste them onto their own “farm” (a poster with the barn in the middle).
•Have the students use their posters to answer the following four questions, which use the high frequency words for this theme.
See PowerPoint presentation Pathfinder for source information.
Step 2: Do
•This is where the students will use the sources gathered to actually find the information. At this grade level, most of this will be teacher directed. The “sources” are: Cows in the Kitchen and the included PowerPoint
–View PowerPoint. Talk about each animal and click on the sounds so students know what each animal sounds like.
–With teacher, sort animals by size (on the PowerPoint, cut and paste) into grid provided
–Have students cut out animals and paste them to their poster which already has the picture of the farm in the middle.
–Use their poster to answer the questions
•Read aloud story from theme:
Cows in the Kitchen
•Have students use the information in the book to cover the following standards
–R2.5 Ask and answer questions about essential elements of a text.
–R1.3 Understand that printed materials provide information.
–Info. Literacy Standard 1 The student who is information literate accesses information efficiently and effectively.
•After reading Cows in the Kitchen, ask the following 5 questions and have the students fill in the blanks on their papers.
Step 3: Review
•What animals can live on a farm?
•How did we find the answers?
See PowerPoint presentation for worksheets and examples.