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Educators understand and apply knowledge of student growth and development.

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Creating Engaging Lessons

If a child is engaged they are focused — If they are not focused they will not learn. Through my studies, I have learned how to create meaningful, engaging lessons for kindergarten children.

 
School Should Be Fun

In kindergarten, the students need to move and play. It is part of their physiology and it is also how they learn. In my classroom, the students develop through lots of “hands-on” interactive experiences. When I pace a lesson, I work with their maturity level — not against it. I consider their short attention spans and their inability to sit still — and I incorporate it into the lesson. I bring in books, videos, puppets and other objects to capture their wonder and curiousity. I challenge them with various games or activities. I ask, “What’s another way we could look at this?” And most importantly, at the end of the lesson, we sit together and share what we’ve learned.

Geometry Through Geoboards

Creating shapes is the best way to learn about them. In lesson 1, the students had fun exploring and creating interesting shapes on their geoboards. This child made a helicopter (left photo). One thing the students learned about in Lesson 2 was triangles. At one point, the children were asked to fill their geoboard with different kinds of triangles (right photo).