Lights! Camera! Social Studies!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My Students

Visits to the police station, library, and post office are staples of kindergarten social studies. Help make these experiences more real and relevant for my students!

My students attend a school located in our nation's poorest Congressional district, at a charter school that focuses on both intellectual and character development.

Many of my students are English Language Learners, and others have not attended preschool. We focus in kindergarten on providing foundational experiences, developing prereading skills, and building students' desire to continue learning throughout elementary school. All of our young scholars are enthusiastic about coming to kindergarten and learning. They love reading, writing, painting, and making friends every day!

My Project

We are looking forward to an exciting social studies unit that will incorporate multiple curricular areas. We will begin by exploring our neighborhood and reading nonfiction about the people who work in the area around us. Students will then work in groups to author and perform plays that take place at various places in the neighborhood. These plays will encapsulate and call on many new skills, such as an awareness of the roles of various community helpers, understanding of setting, and knowledge of story structure. Students will, of course, also have to use their oral language and social skills, both cornerstones of kindergarten learning. I have requested costumes and props, such as a doctor's set and mailbox, to make students' plays more realistic and exciting. I have also requested a variety of nonfiction and fiction books about neighborhoods and community helpers.

Learning in kindergarten is most powerful when it is connected to students' lives and features a culminating experience where students can draw connections and reflect on their learning.

This project will provide my students with all of these opportunities, enhancing learning in literacy, social studies, and the arts.