I received a few comments on TPT this week about my units {the buyer stated that the Vocabulary was inappropriate for Kindergarten kids} and it made me start thinking about how different we all are as teachers. We have different philosophies about HOW and WHAT children should learn. Some of us are given teacher manuals and basal programs to teach from {my district doesn’t use a reading program} and many of us are given a framework to use to guide us in our instruction. I believe that learning should be FUN, MEANINGFUL and ENGAGING. I want my students to be excited to come to school every day. I want them to be so excited about what they are learning that it is the topic of dinner conversations. I’ve had parents tell me that their entire dinner conversation revolved around regurgitation and how penguins feed their babies (appetizing, huh?) and I’ve also had a sweet little friend tell me that when he tried to tell his Mom about pangea she had to Google it. Yes, I teach these vocabulary words to Kindergartners and they know what they mean and they can have a meaningful conversation about them. I use these big vocabulary words and put the definition in simple, kid friendly terms. Then, we interact with the word. Sometimes we act out the word and sometimes we draw it or complete an art project to help us gain a deeper understanding of the word. We made the butterflies in the above picture after learning about butterflies and SYMMETRY.
The chart above shows some of the vocabulary words we learned during our butterfly study.
Butterfly writing. I just love the growth I see in my Kinder kids writing. They are doing an amazing job with stretching and writing their words.
Notice the word oviparous in the writing above. This word is spelled correctly because it is on our insect anchor chart.
Interactive writing for the life cycle of a butterfly.
*** I will be adding a lot of new stuff to my insect unit this week. If you’ve already purchased it stay tuned for the updates! 🙂
Also, I’m working on a FROGGY unit that will include some activities based on the books by Jonathon London and some nonfiction frog activities as well.
*clipart by Melonheadzillustrating.blogspot.com
I would love to know your thoughts about teaching higher level vocabulary. Please comment below and let me know what you think!