Heidi Chappotin
Kindergarten
Geography

Purpose: 

The purpose of this lesson is to teach the children about Texas.  I just want each of them to know where we live and where other major cities in Texas are.  I want them to be able to look at a map and know the generally where some of the major cities are.  I want them to be able to look on a map and find cities. I also want the children to learn about the people in their past.  I want the children to learn about all the exciting things that happened here in Texas in their past, and all the exciting things there is to do in Texas today.  I want them to know about the state flower and the Texas flag.

National Standards:
No.1- Knows and understands how to use maps, globes, and other graphical tools to acquire, process, and report information. They will learn how to pick out cities on a state map, in Texas.
No.4- Knows and understands the physical and human characteristics of places. They will know what the people in Texas do and how they are.
No.6- Knows and understands that culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and experiences. They will learn what the culture of Texas and about the people who made it so special.
No.14- Knows and understands how the earth's physical and human systems are connected and interact. They will know about the land in Texas and how that effected the people.

TEKS:
Use terms including over, under, near, far, left, right to describe relative location.
Locate places on the school campus and describe their relative locations.
Identify the physical characteristics of places, such as, landforms, bodies of water, natural resources, and weather.
Identify human characteristics of places, such as, houses and ways of earning a living.

Objectives list: 

Students will demonstrate their ability:
1. To know what the state of Texas looks like.
2. To pick out our city on a map.
3. To find other cities on a map.
4. To find information and analyze an Internet site.
5. To know about their past and the people in their past.
6. To see the Texas and flag and the state flower and be able to recognize them.
7. To learn all the neat things that there is to do in Texas today.
8. To know all the exiting events that went on in their past.

Overview of Presentation: 

I want the children to learn about Texas in the past and present.  I want them to be able to pick out things in Texas (flag, flower).  I want the children to be proud of where they live, and feel like they know the people in their past, and why they are like they are today.  I want them to know a lot about where they live.

Procedures: 
Day 1:
1.  Sponge activity:  when the children come into to the classroom there will be a big Texas up on the board at the front of the classroom.  I will have the children sit at their tables and try to draw what they see on the board.

2.  During the first 5-10 minutes I want to find out what they know about Texas.  I will ask them what is on the board, and just roam around the known.  We will just discuss what it is.

3.  I will show them where we live in Texas, and have each of their tables come up separately and then I will show them where we live.  I will then ask each of them if they know a city in Texas and if they know where it is on a map.  Next I will show them where different cities are on the Texas map.  I will let them ask we where cities they know are located.  Then we will talk about why it is important to know how to read a map.  We will also look on the Internet and find a picture of Texas.

4.  I will have of the children go to their tables and get their crayons and scissors and glue.  I will have pictures on Texas with the cities on it.  I will have them color our city blue and then they can color one other city they choose red.  Then they can color the rest of Texas as they choose.  Then I want them to cut it out and glue it on construction paper.  When they come to turn it in they have to be able to tell me the two cities that they colored.
 

Day 2: 
1.  I will have the children play with their animal flash cards with their partners.

2  I am going to ask the children to tell about some of the animals that they were playing with during the flash card activity.  I will just tell them about how in the past in Texas, people lived on animals and crops.

3.  I am going to teach each of the children how Texas in the past was very different from Texas now.  We will talk about the cloths that the people in our past wore and how they got their food.  Then we will watch a video on Texas and how the children back then learned and how they played, and what they played with.  Then we will discuss how lucky we are to have life like it is.  Then I will answer any questions that the children have.

4.  I am going to have the children to draw or make what they think things would have looked like back then; they can choose to make a house, store, school, ranch, church, house, and etc.  This will help me to see what they have learned about life in the past in Texas.

Day 3: 
1.  I will have each on the children color a picture of Texas in red, white, and blue.

2. I plan for the children to learn about all of the special places there are in Texas.  We are going to discuss all the different things there are to do in Texas, for entertainment.  I want the children to name all the places that they have been and what they did while they were there.

3.  I am going to bring items and pictures from the different places that I have been.  We will then have each child come up to the front of the room and tell some place in Texas that they have been and why they think everyone should go there.  I will then explain how lucky we are to have places like this close to us, and that many people have to go on vacation to see things that are so close to us.

4.  I will have each child pick a place and write a few sentences and about why they love it, and also draw a picture on the special place.
 

Day 4: 
1.  Today the children will have pictures at their tables (flag, flower, and other special things in Texas), and they will talk with their tables about what they are.

2.  I am going to ask the children if they decided what the pictures are.  Then I will go over what the items are and have the children say if they have seen these items before.

3.  We are each going to look up on the Internet and find the site about Texas.  It will also show the flag and flower and other interesting facts.  I will have each child look onto my computer so that I can read the information to them.

4.  I want them to make their own Texas flag, and their own state flower.  I will watch and help them if they need help.  This will help them learn even more what the two items look like.  I will also have a worksheet about what we did on the Internet.  I expect them to understand what the Internet is and how important it is, and how helpful it is.

Day 5: 
1.  I will have the children sitting at their tables putting the pictures and papers they have done during the week in order.  They will do this and then bring them to me at my desk and have a seat at the front of the room in their circle.

2.  I will have all the children come to the front of the room and explain why they are wearing what they are wearing.  I want to make sure they understand why everyone is dressed like they are.  I was going to have all the children wear  clothes like they thought the people in the past in Texas would have worn.  Then we will review about what we learned about Texas.

3.  Then we will all get in a group and hang all of our pictures up on the bulletin board.  I want the children to see that their work is important.  I will have all the pictures they have done throughout the week up on a wall in the room, it will be our Texas wall.  I want the children to be proud of what they have done and where they live.

4.  Then I will have all the children make one last picture of what they have learned in the past week, but they will make something new that they learned.  We will have a separate wall for the pictures that they drew on Friday.  I want them to feel like they have accomplished something and that they know something new about where they live.

5.  Test:

     Name_________
     Date__________
 

                                                     Texas

1.  Name one city besides Burleson that is in Texas? ___________________________

2.  What is your favorite fact about Texas? ___________________________________
 
3.  Draw the state of Texas.

Appendix:  The only worksheet that I will hand out during the week is one on Texas.  The name is Texas Geography Skills and I got it from the Glencoe World Geography.  The other projects we do are from scratch.  My test is also from scratch.

Extensions:  I could teach science from this lesson by incorporating the way that the weather was in Texas in the past and how is affected the people back then.  I could incorporate English by having them write a paper on the subject.  Government, but too advanced for kindergartners, by explaining how the government was ran back in past.

Bibliography: 

"Texas Trails", www.lone-star.net (Feb. 5,  1998)

"The Best of Texas", pages.prodigy.com (Feb. 4, 1998)

"Texas Best", www.texas-best.com (Feb. 5, 1998)

"Internet Information of Texas", www.ii.texas.com  (Feb. 4, 1998)

"Remember the Alamo",  www.anslado.it (Feb. 5, 1998)
 
 
 
  Used with permission.

 
 

Created April 16, 1998

Return to Geography 354, Spring 1998
 
 
 
  Oh by the way, this is my husband!!! His picture is linked to our friend from A&M's page.
 
Created May 2, 1998

Return to http://ejw.i8.com/geog/98/plans98.html