Kindergarten – Building Community Through Environmentalism
My kindergarten babies, like me, were new to the school; so I decided to try and give them the opportunity to do something fun and practical. My cooperating teacher was amazing and bought the classes some little pallets of pansies to plant. We ventured outside during our second class meeting to plant the flowers in the ground, and they drew some of their own flowers using crayons.
In an effort to build more of a sense of community in the school, the kindergarteners used their newfound knowledge to paint flowers around a mural that the first graders would be coloring.
While we were working on this unit we also discussed the importance of plants both to the body as well as to the environment. I asked the students to share why they think that plants are beneficial, and explained the necessity for them to our health. The students then pointed out the different colors in the flowers that they painted, as well as whether or not their flowers had many petals.
I gave each of the students a variety of flower pictures (collected by my cooperating teacher from calendars and things) to provide a visual reference for the kids. Also, giving them each a different flower allowed for the opportunity for students to have a unique flower design, as opposed to a generic flower painting.
This project helped the students improve some of their fine motor painting skills, their ability to use basic color theory, and gave them the opportunity to work on the floor in a more relaxed setting, as opposed to sitting on stools.
Categories Fall 2019, Student Teacher Blog