As a multiple subjects teacher required to teach all subjects each day, it is very necessary to have an interdisciplinary classroom. There is not enough time in the day to teach each subject separately. Teaching and integrating all subjects is a great way to keep students interests high and keep them motivated to learn. I always have to teach Language Arts and I try to incorporate Science and math into whatever we are learning or reading in ELA. For example, this past year my first graders read the story "The Hat"- a story that is part of the Frog and Toad series. To accompany the story I brought in non-fiction books on Frogs and Toads to help my students learn more about the differences and similarities between frogs and toads. This is how I brought in Science into Language Arts. We also talked about our schema about what they already knew, we researched different types of frogs and toads and then as a closing project my students wrote two five sentence paragraphs on frogs and toads.
I also integrated math into learning and reading about Frogs and Toads. I had my students create frog number stories and for math centers had a hands-on activity where my students had to work out number story problems on paper lily pads with plastic frogs. My students loved learning about frogs and toads in Science but also loved reading the Frog and Toad stories in Language Arts.
I have found many great ideas from other teachers on Pinterest. Here is the link to a great Frog and Toad comparison chart http://pinterest.com/pin/256986722456329658/ and the link to a Frog and Toad pattern to write facts about Frogs and Toads http://pinterest.com/pin/256986722456932543/. Here is the link to the math center that I did with my class http://pinterest.com/pin/225461525065396688/.
Here is a great website for kids to learn more about frogs and toads: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/animals/. On this website you can research any type of animal. My students love this website.
The blog I commented on:
Carolyn Cadle carriecadleMAIT.blogspot.com
I would like to see your teaching about frogs and toads in person. The sites sound good and would probably work for other levels in elementary education as well. I'm sure you engage the imaginations of your students and motivate them to learn while they are having a good time! For small children, that is essential. For older students, it's good, too.
ReplyDeletePatti