Weather Prop Box Reflection

INTASC and NAEYC Standard: Principle #1: Making content meaningful

The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teachers and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful to students.

NAEYC Standard 1.Promoting child development and learning 4b. Using developmentally effective approaches 4d. Building meaningful curriculum Artifact: This artifact was created in my pre-primary semester with the focus of discussing weather in a fun and engaging way. Each game was designed to promote child development and learning. Each activity in the prop box centered on the theme of weather. This artifact is developmentally appropriate for pre-k to first grade students. Rationale: The artifact represents the INTASC principle 1 because the weather prop box creates a learning experience that is meaningful to the students. The weather box provides a means to help children think more deeply about weather. Each skill is designed to be developmentally appropriate. Reflection: I felt that this lesson was successful because every child was an active participant in each center activity. I discussed the directions for each center to the class and modeled each game. I divided the class into four groups and rotated the children every seven minutes. The students worked together in their groups which promoted social interaction and peer teaching. The class environment was supportive of learning and stimulated curiosity. The students were so excited about the activities that class management was not an issue.
Relationship to Teaching/Learning: The artifact impacted the student's learning by designing developmentally appropriate approaches that made the curriculum meaningful. The first skill was the dramatic play area. Students learn to dress appropriately for each season by the use of authentic play. The students matched the seasons to each photo on the box and dressed for the season. This engaging activity helped students learn about the seasons and temperature. The next skill was to identify and match upper and lowercase letters together. Students worked in partners. The next center was Freddy the Frog. In this center, each player spun the weather spinner and dressed Freddy the Frog appropriately for each type of weather. The third center was a math based game where partners rolled a die and added counters that corresponded to the number rolled to a tens frame. This game was differentiated academically, students that are secure in numbers up to six will use two dice. The students record their totals for each roll. The fourth center was a literacy activity where students can read about different types of weather. This artifact made learning meaningful by relating weather to their everyday lives and showing the students how weather affects their lives.