I just started my first year in kindergarten. I'm a little overwhelmed with everything and I'm just trying to figure out where to work in extra things. Things that aren't really in our "curriculum", but are seasonal things like an apple unit or supplemental things like some sort of math game. How do you find time to do all of your curriculum and still work in things like that? :help:
You make sure the activities all touch on something that IS in the curriculum... so perhaps it's a writing activity on apples, or a book on apples, Math games should all tie in to the curriculum you're teaching... there's almost always a way to tie something that is truly educational into your curriculum, but if there's not, chances are you shouldn't be doing it.
I make all my activities theme based off of the curriculum. We are doing beaches/oceans right now, so today we used shells for our math manipulative, are discussing maps/globes in social studies, water/land in science, reading non-ficiton and fiction books in ELA, and making art projects that tie in with our reading selections. I don't use my basal word for word. I pick the activities they want me to do, and change it up to match the curriculum map my Kinder team has made up. I've never taught with themes before, and I am really enjoying it so far!
Thanks for your answers! I guess I should have been a little more specific....I meant in terms of time. Having the time in your schedule to allow for those extras.
In my district, the curriculum materials they provide (Storytown, Math Expressions), are to be used as resources. We should follow the content in the order the materials provide, but we can supplement however we would like. For example, if Storytown states that we should be working on long vowels this week, I will focus on long vowels, but come up with many of my own activities. Does your district allow for this sort of freedom, or do you have to follow specific curriculum materials?
If you make the extras truly tie into the curriculum, then they should be able to take the place of something in the curriculum where they met the same standards. It really is hard to fit everything in, but you have to make the decision of which activities and skills your students need more. This will change from year to year, even month to month.
