In today's educational system, the differences between kindergarten and first grade are massive. They go from a potentially half-day program with free choice play into a highly academic full day of non-stop learning. It's taxing on teachers but even more so on six- and seven-year-old children.
First graders have a very difficult job, and it takes special students to be able to handle everything that first grade throws their way.
They overcome obstacles every day to do their very best. Many of them do not get enough sleep or enough to eat at home, and, yet, they still come to school every day, ready and willing to learn.
My Project
This year, our district has opted to implement a new science curriculum with a unit on animal structures and defenses. Our first grade students dove into this unit with such enthusiasm; we were vastly underprepared for how much they wanted to research and explore the content within the curriculum. We decided to integrate the science curriculum across our learning format and incorporate their love of animals, particularly ocean creatures, into a semester project using writing, science, literacy, and social emotional standards such as collaboration and cooperation.
When you integrate student voice and choice into the curriculum, the outcome of learning changes dramatically.
Our students couldn't wait to get to our integrated studies time each day. However, we were not adequately prepared with the amount of resources we would need to support this learning. The curriculum we were given provided a wonderful baseline, but in order to truly immerse ourselves and our students into the content, we need additional resources such as texts for research and animal models for visualization. The books will not only be used for research purposes in our final projects but will be used for our weekly shared reading plans as well as small group and individualized instruction.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Waldo and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.