RE teaching report, with kvetching.
Feb. 4th, 2007 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaIt's been a long, long time since I did any teaching. There were mixed-age RE activities over the holiday, and then, in successive weeks, (1) I was deathly ill, (2) it wasn't my turn, (3) I was in Boston, and (4) only two kids showed up, so we postponed the lesson and just played. So I felt a little rusty when I hit the classroom this morning.
Our preschool class has been given three short nature-related curricula this year to fit in with the Religious Education program's overall focus on the Seventh Principle ("Respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part"). Two of the curricula have been great: the five senses one that we did first, and our seasonal studies focused on trees. The third one, "Animal Helpers," is a problem. The title is meant in two senses: children are supposed to pick an animal spirit guide that helps them be their best self, and they are guided in lessons about environmental stewardship focused on helping animals. I don't know if the author of this curriculum knows preschoolers who are waaay more mature than ours, or what, but the program as it's written is disastrously over their heads. So each week we wind up basically throwing out the planned lesson and trying to design a different lesson based on the same themes. That's a lot of work.
The theme for this week was "Animals and Water." According to the curriculum, we were supposed to (1) do a guided visualization of different water habitats, accompanied by our spirit animals; (2) look at pond water with a magnifying glass; (3) talk about how we use water; (4) talk about how little of the world's water is available for drinking; (5) go around the church finding all the water sources, marking problems (such as leaky faucetS) on a floor plan, and putting bricks in the toilet tanks to save water. Wouldn't that be a great lesson for, like, bright seven-year-olds? I mean, just looking at (5) alone, most three- and four-year-olds aren't able to connect a map or floor plan to real life (except maybe something very simple and concrete, like a map of the classroom with all the furniture drawn in), and don't have the knowledge of physics (or toilet construction) to understand what happens when you put a brick in the tank.
So that's not what we did.
We sat in a circle on the rug for our chalice lighting. ("This is the church of the open mind, this is the church of the helping hands, this is the church of the loving heart.") I told them we were going to talk about water, and how animals used it. We talked about what animals do with water (drink it, live in it, eat food that needs water to grow) and whether there are any animals that don't need water. I brought several National Geographic books and showed them pictures of underwater scenes and animals using water. We talked about ways that we use water ourselves: drinking, swimming, bathing, washing dishes.
Next we had an activity showing how the web of life depends on water. One little girl volunteered to be water, and I gave her a clear plastic cup with some water in it. Then another child was seaweed (a bunch of green ribbons tied together at one end). Seaweed needs water, so he held on to the little girl who was water. The next children took, in succession, a clam shell, a candle shaped like a tropical fish, a stuffed otter, a stuffed sand crane, and a little rubber squeezy shark. They figured out who they depended on, and put one hand on them. I wanted to get us all tightly bound into a web, and that didn't really happen - the kids were reluctant to really grab on, and also they were all holding their animal (or whatever) in one hand. (I hadn't thought of that.) But we were connected enough that I was able to push and pull a little to show that all the parts of the web are connected.
Then I said, "What happens if a person comes along and throws trash in the water?" I took a Chinese restaurant packet of soy sauce and poured it into the clear water. Great oil spill visual! It looked awful. All the kids got it right away, about how bad it would be. Then we deconstructed the web. The seaweed said, "Yuck! I can't live in that water!" Then the fish and the clam discovered that they had nothing to eat, and so on up the food chain. The kids clearly understood the message that hurting the water hurts everyone.
One of the kids (fortunately, the one whose mom is a co-teacher) threw a tantrum during the web of life activity, so I decided that it would be a good idea to break for a snack afterward. We drank water (of course) and ate goldfish crackers (I love a theme). All the kids spontaneously wanted to keep their web-of-sea-life critters with them at the snack table, and I saw a lot of cracker-feeding going on. While we ate, we talked about visiting the ocean. All of the kids had been there (this is Maryland, after all), and we had a happy discussion about finding shells, jumping over waves, playing in the sand. I worked the conversation around to the taste of seawater, and the kids happily informed me that it's gross and you can't drink it. We talked about the difference between salt water and fresh water, and where fresh water comes from.
When we returned to our circle on the floor, I took out a gallon jug of water. "If this was all the water in the world..." I measured out one tablespoon and put it into a cup. "this would be the amount of water that's good for drinking." We talked about how there's just a very little clean water in the world to drink, and how all the people and the animals of the world need to share. So we need to be careful that we don't use more than our share of water.
"How can we save water?" They had no idea. So I led them down the hall to the bathroom, most of them still carrying their sea critters. I put a plastic basin in the sink and asked someone to show how they brushed their teeth. None of the kids volunteered, but my co-teacher (who is a dentist) put on an impressive display. I had him leave the water running while he brushed. At the end, we looked at how much water was in the basin. I borrowed the stuffed sand crane from the kid carrying it and made it say, "Look at all this water! I could have drunk this water! I could have gone swimming in this water! And instead it went right down the drain!" All the kids' faces lit up, and they got their sea animals in on the act too. My co-teacher brushed his teeth a second time, being careful to turn the water off, and we looked at the little trickle in the bottom of the basin - but that part almost wasn't necessary. They totally got it.
Next we went into the kitchen and found two dripping faucets. I put a cup under the dripping faucet and caught some of the water, and asked them who was using it (nobody) and what would happen to it (it would go down the drain and be wasted). ("Oh no," said a staff member wandering through. "This looks like a Green Sanctuary thing. I told them to fix the faucets!") I told the kids that we could all look for dripping faucets at home, and then tell our parents to fix them "so water is left for the animals to use."
Back in our classroom, I put two samples of water on the table: the "oil spill" from the web-of-life exercise, and the cup with just a tablespoon of water in it, representing the world's drinkable water. I said, "There are two things to remember about today's class: that making water dirty hurts all the animals and plants, and that there's only a little water that's okay to drink, so we all have to share and be careful not to waste it."
Then it was time for the obligatory craft project. (Preschool = crafts. There is no diverging from this rule.) We made underwater scenes on blue construction paper, using construction-paper fish, markers, crayons, glitter glue, and shiny little glue-on gem-type things that mostly seemed to represent shells in the kids' minds. This was a very exciting, high-noise-level craft that they all got deeply involved in. It lasted up until the parents came to pick them up.
Most happily of all, my co-teachers and I unanimously agreed to scrap the "Animal Helpers" curriculum, so I won't have to try to drag any more lessons out of it. Yay!
Our preschool class has been given three short nature-related curricula this year to fit in with the Religious Education program's overall focus on the Seventh Principle ("Respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part"). Two of the curricula have been great: the five senses one that we did first, and our seasonal studies focused on trees. The third one, "Animal Helpers," is a problem. The title is meant in two senses: children are supposed to pick an animal spirit guide that helps them be their best self, and they are guided in lessons about environmental stewardship focused on helping animals. I don't know if the author of this curriculum knows preschoolers who are waaay more mature than ours, or what, but the program as it's written is disastrously over their heads. So each week we wind up basically throwing out the planned lesson and trying to design a different lesson based on the same themes. That's a lot of work.
The theme for this week was "Animals and Water." According to the curriculum, we were supposed to (1) do a guided visualization of different water habitats, accompanied by our spirit animals; (2) look at pond water with a magnifying glass; (3) talk about how we use water; (4) talk about how little of the world's water is available for drinking; (5) go around the church finding all the water sources, marking problems (such as leaky faucetS) on a floor plan, and putting bricks in the toilet tanks to save water. Wouldn't that be a great lesson for, like, bright seven-year-olds? I mean, just looking at (5) alone, most three- and four-year-olds aren't able to connect a map or floor plan to real life (except maybe something very simple and concrete, like a map of the classroom with all the furniture drawn in), and don't have the knowledge of physics (or toilet construction) to understand what happens when you put a brick in the tank.
So that's not what we did.
We sat in a circle on the rug for our chalice lighting. ("This is the church of the open mind, this is the church of the helping hands, this is the church of the loving heart.") I told them we were going to talk about water, and how animals used it. We talked about what animals do with water (drink it, live in it, eat food that needs water to grow) and whether there are any animals that don't need water. I brought several National Geographic books and showed them pictures of underwater scenes and animals using water. We talked about ways that we use water ourselves: drinking, swimming, bathing, washing dishes.
Next we had an activity showing how the web of life depends on water. One little girl volunteered to be water, and I gave her a clear plastic cup with some water in it. Then another child was seaweed (a bunch of green ribbons tied together at one end). Seaweed needs water, so he held on to the little girl who was water. The next children took, in succession, a clam shell, a candle shaped like a tropical fish, a stuffed otter, a stuffed sand crane, and a little rubber squeezy shark. They figured out who they depended on, and put one hand on them. I wanted to get us all tightly bound into a web, and that didn't really happen - the kids were reluctant to really grab on, and also they were all holding their animal (or whatever) in one hand. (I hadn't thought of that.) But we were connected enough that I was able to push and pull a little to show that all the parts of the web are connected.
Then I said, "What happens if a person comes along and throws trash in the water?" I took a Chinese restaurant packet of soy sauce and poured it into the clear water. Great oil spill visual! It looked awful. All the kids got it right away, about how bad it would be. Then we deconstructed the web. The seaweed said, "Yuck! I can't live in that water!" Then the fish and the clam discovered that they had nothing to eat, and so on up the food chain. The kids clearly understood the message that hurting the water hurts everyone.
One of the kids (fortunately, the one whose mom is a co-teacher) threw a tantrum during the web of life activity, so I decided that it would be a good idea to break for a snack afterward. We drank water (of course) and ate goldfish crackers (I love a theme). All the kids spontaneously wanted to keep their web-of-sea-life critters with them at the snack table, and I saw a lot of cracker-feeding going on. While we ate, we talked about visiting the ocean. All of the kids had been there (this is Maryland, after all), and we had a happy discussion about finding shells, jumping over waves, playing in the sand. I worked the conversation around to the taste of seawater, and the kids happily informed me that it's gross and you can't drink it. We talked about the difference between salt water and fresh water, and where fresh water comes from.
When we returned to our circle on the floor, I took out a gallon jug of water. "If this was all the water in the world..." I measured out one tablespoon and put it into a cup. "this would be the amount of water that's good for drinking." We talked about how there's just a very little clean water in the world to drink, and how all the people and the animals of the world need to share. So we need to be careful that we don't use more than our share of water.
"How can we save water?" They had no idea. So I led them down the hall to the bathroom, most of them still carrying their sea critters. I put a plastic basin in the sink and asked someone to show how they brushed their teeth. None of the kids volunteered, but my co-teacher (who is a dentist) put on an impressive display. I had him leave the water running while he brushed. At the end, we looked at how much water was in the basin. I borrowed the stuffed sand crane from the kid carrying it and made it say, "Look at all this water! I could have drunk this water! I could have gone swimming in this water! And instead it went right down the drain!" All the kids' faces lit up, and they got their sea animals in on the act too. My co-teacher brushed his teeth a second time, being careful to turn the water off, and we looked at the little trickle in the bottom of the basin - but that part almost wasn't necessary. They totally got it.
Next we went into the kitchen and found two dripping faucets. I put a cup under the dripping faucet and caught some of the water, and asked them who was using it (nobody) and what would happen to it (it would go down the drain and be wasted). ("Oh no," said a staff member wandering through. "This looks like a Green Sanctuary thing. I told them to fix the faucets!") I told the kids that we could all look for dripping faucets at home, and then tell our parents to fix them "so water is left for the animals to use."
Back in our classroom, I put two samples of water on the table: the "oil spill" from the web-of-life exercise, and the cup with just a tablespoon of water in it, representing the world's drinkable water. I said, "There are two things to remember about today's class: that making water dirty hurts all the animals and plants, and that there's only a little water that's okay to drink, so we all have to share and be careful not to waste it."
Then it was time for the obligatory craft project. (Preschool = crafts. There is no diverging from this rule.) We made underwater scenes on blue construction paper, using construction-paper fish, markers, crayons, glitter glue, and shiny little glue-on gem-type things that mostly seemed to represent shells in the kids' minds. This was a very exciting, high-noise-level craft that they all got deeply involved in. It lasted up until the parents came to pick them up.
Most happily of all, my co-teachers and I unanimously agreed to scrap the "Animal Helpers" curriculum, so I won't have to try to drag any more lessons out of it. Yay!
