Catching Up

Happy Saturday! I'm sorry so much time has passed since my last post. My kids went on Spring Break last week, which meant that the week leading up to the break was jam packed. Since then, I've been trying to simultaneously relax and put the finishing touches on my thematic unit, which I start teaching on Tuesday! My unit, which is about play and the role it plays in kids' lives, is pretty much ready to go. 

I haven't written my final two lesson plans, and that's for a couple different reasons. I want to leave some space for "emergent curriculum." Usually emergent curriculum means that the teacher doesn't necessarily start off with a lesson plan, rather they listen and observe to see what students are interested in and then plan around that. I'm not experienced enough to craft my whole unit around an emergent idea, but I figured leaving some space at the end of my unit (which isn't until the second week of April) would be reasonable. Also, I haven't written my final two lesson plans because I'm really curious to see how the lessons I have written actually pan out. It is going to be a really challenging couple of weeks, but it's a challenge I'm looking forward to. I can't believe I wrote a unit and now I get to teach it! I feel like I wrote a play that's about to be performed. I'll be updating this blog with my progress (I promise!).

On a completely unrelated note, I just saw "The Theory of Everything" and thought it was really good! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The score for the movie is beautiful and I think they do a really good job of tying it into the story. 

I'll leave you with this:

Picture Book Collection

Do you have a favorite picture book? I don't remember being too crazy about Dr. Seuss when I was a kid, and for some reason those are the only picture books I really remember. When I got to Penn, one of the first classes I took was called Children's Literature. We read a variety of chapter books and graphic novels, but we also learned about many different picture books. I took picture books for granted! There are many picture books that can serve a wide range of audiences, not just young elementary school kids. I have a relatively small library of picture books on my book shelf, but the ones I do have are very special books that I think will transition well between grades. I wanted to share some of my favorites and some of the books I will be reading to my students very soon.

Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne

Told from four different perspectives, Voices in the Park is absolutely packed with material. It has art history references, symbolic imagery, multiple perspectives, socioeconomic class differences…to name a few. It's about a mother who takes her son and their dog to the park, and a father who takes his daughter and their dog to the park. I'm using this in my thematic unit on play because the two kids end up playing together and crossing the barrier between them that their parents can't. 

The Dumpster Diver by Janet S. Wong

The Dumpster Diver is an awesome book about upcycling and community. It tells the story of a group of kids who live in an apartment building in New York City. Every Saturday one of their neighbors puts on a scuba suit so he can transform into the Dumpster Diver! He goes through their building's dumpster, looking for trash that he can transform into all sorts of strange inventions. The illustrations are amazing. David Roberts also illustrated two other pictures that I love: Iggy Peck, Architect and Rosie Revere, Engineer. 

Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

This is going to be a pretty important book during my thematic unit on play. Roxaboxen is a land invented by children in a desert town. They made roads, built houses, and had two competing ice cream shops (like any self-respecting place should)! The amazing this about this book is that Roxaboxen is a real place the author's grandmother and her friends invented when they were young children. I'm using this book to spark my students' imaginations into designing their own playscape in our classroom.

Some additional titles for you:

The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

A Fine, Fine School by Sharon Creech (author of Walk Two Moons, which is also amazing, though not a picture book)

The Dark by Lemony Snicket

Mama's Saris by Pooja Makhijani

The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Estrellita Says Goodbye to Her Island/Estrellita se despide de su isla by Samuel Caraballo

Thank you, Snow Days!

I owe a lot to the weather. Thanks to having two snow days this week (Thursday and Friday), I am finished with my Term IV assignment! It was stressing me out to no end, so it feels great to have it done! My Term IV assignment included a written explanation of the context and rationale for a two-week long thematic unit, as well as three sample lesson plans from the unit and various other planning charts and graphs that we used to help us plan. In retrospect, I think it's been the most fun assignment to complete, probably because it was so personal. I got to pick my unit topic (play) and come up with performances of understanding to go along with it. I've learned so much in the process of planning this unit, and I think that play is going to be one of my favorite topics of teacher research for many years to come!

If you're interested in learning about some of the topics I'll be covering in my unit, I recommend you read up on Adventure Playgrounds (here too) and watch this trailer. My students are going to learn about adventure playgrounds, and have a debate about the safety issues that surround them. We're even going to build one in our classroom (no fire or saws allowed, though).

I'm also happy to say that I was at an information session this morning for the Teacher Education Program, and I think there were some awesome future-teachers there! Meeting potential applicants and getting to talk with them about the TEP is one of the best parts about being a Graduate Assistant. Despite how it may have sounded in my last blog post (I was stressed!), I love the TEP and being at Penn has been life-changing.

On that note, enjoy some snowy pictures!