Final Project

The Head Start curriculum, which is WeCan, contains the theme Farm, Ranch, and Dairy. The video that I created is in reference to this theme. Part of the theme is that the students need to name at least two animals that we get food from. I decided to do it on chickens and cows. The both are great sources of protein and vitamins that are very important for the health and growth of children. They will see a few pictures of chickens and cows and what they produce, which is eggs and milk. I will introduce them to how important these two commodities are to our society and how they help the economy and farmers make money. My student are small but they already begin to understand concepts that they are familiar with and begin to make connections because Hatch is a rural community. There is a dairy where some of my student's parents work. Some also talk about going to the "rancho", so they are familiar with some of the jobs related to farming. I will introduce to them these concepts so they can develop a better understanding of why it is important to raise these animals and what they provide. I will also briefly talk about other animals that live on a farm, but can also be found in the wild. The video at the end will have some pictures of a couple animals.

This is the video that I would use in my classroom. Actually, there are several that I really enjoyed but this one integrates phonemic awareness and alphabetic awareness. The students will be learning their letter name and sound. This is very important because it is part of the Head Start framework. It is on the progress report that we use to assess our students. The students need to be able to name 10 letters by the end of the school year. This video will enable them to learn the whole alphabet in a fun and interactive way. They will learn a new song and rhythm to the old version of the ABCs. Throughout the curriculum, we introduce about 2 letters a week. With this video, we would be able to introduce the whole alphabet but still focus on the letter of the day or week. It will just reinforce our instruction.



I also found this one for my biligual students because my classroom is a mixture.



The Spanish alphabet is phonetic. As to not confuse our ELLs, this would reinforce their native language. These two videos would be part of a mini-lesson and then moved over to a listening center where students could go once a week until it is not necessary. As part of the Head Start framework, students need to be able to discrimate between sounds. These videos will help to reinforce how each letter has a different sound and when put together they create a word. Also how letter sounds can be substituted to give a word a new meaning, i.e., c-at and h-at. I would use it to also introduce beginning and ending sounds. The extension would be combining letter sounds to form rhyming words, i.e., r-e-d, b-e-d, f-e-d.

My Classroom

A SmartBoard is a piece of technology that I will be using in my classroom. From the beginning of class with Calendar time. They will be able to see the months and interact more with it, i.e. circling the month, the first letter of the month. I can also use it to introduce my themes and vocabulary words. The themes will be presented via PowerPoint. Students will be using it to learn their letters and sounds. Students will be able see the word and a picture representing the word. They will be able to see the beginning letter of vocabulary word and other words that begin with that letter. Students are also going to learn their numbers. They will learn to identify in sequence and out of sequence. We can use it to create ABAB patterns. A SmartBoard is a powerful tool and resource becuase it can be using during whole group and the activity can be extended into a center with a smaller group.
We can use it to introduce a book and reinforce what was read by discussing sequence of order. We can use it to show our songs that the students can follow along with during song and movement. We would do poems with rhyming and alliteration. They students will be able to manipulate different letters and sounds to create new words. They will also be able to see their classmates names and compare longest to shortest. They will be able to group accorinding to letters, length, or match how many begin with the same letter or end with the same letters.
We can create science projects and discuss possiblities and research together on the internet. We can go from one theme to another and compare and contrast. We could also so that with books where the kids would be more involved and engaged by interacting with the board. These activities can then be moved to a learning center as an extension of the book or theme.



This is a wonderful way to view the many different ways this piece of technology can be integrated in a classroom. There would be a new teacher helper everyday who would be interacting with the Board during different activities. We can also use it to show videos of students work during conferences and meetings. We can play games like create syllables or rhyming words to match and reinforce memory and fine motor skills. The possibilities are endless.