Curriculum Experience Plan

Name Robyn Olsen

Activity/Experience Name _____Social Studies - Similarities in Communities ____________

INTENTIONS FOR LEARNING

Goal(s): Describe the general or long-term developmental focus of this experience.
List the California Preschool Learning Foundation(s) or California Infant/Toddler Learning
and Development Foundation(s) here:

This experience is planned to support the development of social studies and sense of place.
Children should be able to demonstrate increasing awareness of the characteristics of physical
environments and connections among their attributes, including the people and activities in them.

Objectives: What specific and observable concepts or skills will the child learn, explore, or
discover? The child will be able to List the Preschool DRDP Measure(s) or Infant/Toddler
DRDP measure(s) here:

TCWBAT compare unfamiliar locations (e.g. other communities) with familiar ones, identifying the
characteristics or people associated with them. This is considered HSS 2: Sense of Place,
Integrating Earlier.

EXPERIENCE PLAN
Activity Description:

I will tell the children about my trip to London, England and show them photos during the morning
meeting. I want to discuss with them who has travelled outside of their home town or if theyve
lived anywhere else. I will also be asking them about the similarities and differences between
their community and other communities, such as London, as one example. I will also incorporate
the aspect of weather (as one of the differences) and go through a weather book provided by
Teacher Hope. During jobs, I would like to film each child telling me about their favorite place
theyve visited - and why.

Invitational Set-up: How will the experience be presented to invite participation or provoke
interest? (Provide a photograph of the set-up).

I will show the children photos from my trip of all the fun things I did and saw. I think the aspect of
children being able to relate to an idea grabs their attention and will hold their interest because
they will want to share their own experiences.
Specific vocabulary, teaching strategies, and open-ended questions you will keep in mind
(Using your textbook and/or Curriculum Frameworks, list specific ways you will promote
problem-solving and critical thinking beyond a simple recall of facts):

Specific vocabulary to offer: community, city, country, airplane, language

Possible questions: Has anyone travelled outside of California? Has anyone travelled outside of
the United States? If so, where? What sort of things might be different or the same in other
places?

Possible teaching strategies: I will first tell the children my experience so they have an idea of
where the conversation is headed. I will ask specific open-ended questions to keep it going.

How is this experience personalized (i.e. modified) to meet the varying developmental and
individual needs of the children in your class? (e.g., older children, younger children,
specific needs or interests?)

Each child has their own unique family experiences and travel experiences. This will help them to
verbalize them and hear about their peers experiences that are probably different (or possibly the
same) as their own.

Specific materials needed that are not already accessible to children:

I will bring photos from my trip.

 REFLECTION/EVALUATION

What did you do well?

Held the childrens attention for the duration of the story and the coloring project - and got them
engaged in discussing colors, vocabulary words and critical thinking.

How did the children respond to the experience presented? (Describe your observations
of childrens words and actions) What worked? What was difficult? Were there any
surprises?

They appeared to really enjoy the story we read together. They continued talking about it
after I was done reading and incorporated it into their drawings.

One thing that worked was addressing negative behavior right away and redirecting their
attention back to the book if there were distractions.

Something difficult was keeping the children from playing with the crayons on the table
before we started to color.

I was surprised to have a majority of their attention for the duration of the entire book.
They were very engaged!

What additions or changes would you make if you were to do this activity again? What did
the children teach you (e.g. about curriculum, teaching, or children)?

If I did this activity again, I would not take out the corresponding activity until after the story is
finished because it is distracting - they know theyre going to use the materials after the book is
over and cant help but want to start now.

I learned that if you make something fun and interesting enough, children will stay focused and
determined for any length of time. If there is passion, there is focus!