Abraham Lincoln, Man of Integrity

Transcription

1 Abraham Lincoln, Man of Integrity Grade Level: PreK Presented by: Sandra Smith, Helen Nichols, Cheri Tyner, Winston Elementary School, Lakeland, FL Length of Unit: 2 Weeks I. ABSTRACT Teachers are instrumental in providing appropriate experiences so that young children can build background knowledge. However, when researching books for a unit on presidents, we found there were no developmentally appropriate biographies in big book form that would provide the key that unlocks the door to history for our children. Therefore, we have made our own big book that is developmentally appropriate for the children. Using the teachermade big book, with other activities, this unit introduces preschoolers to Abraham Lincoln. II. III. OVERVIEW A. Concept Objective The students will demonstrate their knowledge of Abraham Lincoln. B. Core Knowledge Content to be Covered 1. Storybook Reading and Storytelling a. Abraham Lincoln and His Humble Origins (1) Nickname - Honest Abe 2. History and Geography a. The 16th President b. North and South c. American Flag d. Other Presidents -- George Washington 3. Mathematical Reasoning a. Compare pairs of objects and use comparative vocabulary b. Copy/represent and continue an alternating pattern c. Name and write the numerals 1-6 in sequential order 4. Orientation in Time and Space a. Arrange photos and/or drawings of members of one s own family on a genealogical tree or diagram 5. Nursery Rhymes, Poems, Fingerplays, Songs a. A Tisket, A Tasket b. Yankee Doodle BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE A. For Teachers 1. Adler, David A. A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln. New York, NY: Holiday House, Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books, Combs, Martha. Developing Competent Readers and Writers in the Primary Grades. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1996.

2 4. Core Knowledge Preschool Sequence. Charlottesville, VA: Core Knowledge Foundation, Hirsh, E.D., Jr., Holdren, John. What your Kindergartner Needs to Know. New York, NY: Dell Publishing, Morrow, Lesley. Literacy Development in the Early Years. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, Schaefer, Lola. Abraham Lincoln. MN: Capstone Press, B. For Students 1. George Washington 2. Quarter, value, cent sign 3. Dollar, value, dollar sign 4. Numerals Patterning 6. Group setting activities 7. Listening skills 8. Social skills 9. Emergent literacy skills 10. American flag IV. LESSONS A. Daily Schedule 8:20-8:40 Morning Greeting -- Children come to the classroom, sign-in, and choose activity to read, draw, write or socialize. 8:40-8:50 Morning School News Broadcast Message from the principal 8:55-9:20 Breakfast -- Children go to the lunchroom and practice name recognition skills by picking out their meal card. 9:25-9:50 Circle Time Lesson One -- Who Was Abraham Lincoln? Procedure -- Prepare a KWL chart. Write the question, Who do you think Abraham Lincoln was? (While writing, discuss the structure of the question so the children come to recognize capital letters, punctuation and that what is said can also be communicated in written form.) Ask the question. Write down what each child says. Ask other questions (no more than 3-4) that pique their curiosity about Abraham Lincoln and to model to students what types of questions they may want to ask later. Example questions: What kind of house did Abraham Lincoln live in?; Who do you think he married?; How do you think he died? Teacher then asks, What do you think you want to know about Abraham Lincoln. Record responses in W column.

3 Introduce teacher-made big book on Abraham Lincoln. Go over pre-reading readiness skills (top, bottom, left, right, front cover, spine, back cover, title page, author, illustrator and publisher.) Read book. Emphasize facts in book that will be in the Question Canteen (see Day 2) and the beginning, middle, and end of Lincoln s life. Discuss the questions that they asked about Abraham Lincoln which were answered. 9:50-10:05 Small Group -- Lesson One Draw a Picture Procedure: Teacher hands out paper and crayons. Ask children to draw a picture of what they liked best about the Abraham Lincoln book. Teacher models how to do the activity by thinking out loud how to choose what to draw. Then, the teacher draws with the children, creating a child-like picture with which the children will connect. Next, the teacher models writing a sentence, again thinking out loud. Teacher asks children to write their words down. Teacher takes dictation. During this entire procedure, group discussion is the key. The children take the lead. The teacher is just there to guide. 10:05-10:15 Plan Time -- Children draw a picture of what they plan to do in their choice of centers. 10:15-11:00 Do Time Centers During the month, the floating center will be turned into the Oval Office of the White House. 11:00-11:10 Clean-up Time-- Teachers assist children but allow the students to be responsible for picking up the Center in which they played. 11:10-11:20 Review -- Students recall Center Time play. 11:20-11:50 Outside Time (See Outside Activity Page) 11:50-12:05 Music, Poems, Nursery Rhymes, Finger Plays A Tisket, A Tasket Yankee Doodle Abraham Lincoln A Great Man 12:05-12:15 Prepare for Lunch 12:15-12:40 Lunch -- Lunch is family style. Teachers model good eating habits, manners and socialize with children during lunch. 12:40-1:00 Prepare for Rest Time/Short Story 1:00-2:15 Rest Time 2:15-2:30 Prepare for Going Home 2:30-2:40 Back to Circle for recalling the day, planning tomorrow, and saying good-bye to each other. 2:40-2:50 Home We Go!

4 The daily schedule remains the same with the exception of the learning experiences during Circle Time and Small Group Time. B. Lesson Two Circle Time -- Question Canteen Procedure: Introduce Question Canteen Game. Teacher shows a real canteen to the students and tells them it was used to carry water for the soldiers to drink. The canteen is then passed around the circle. While the canteen is being passed, the teacher tells children that she needs their help. The Question Canteen is shown. Explain to students that the Question Canteen has questions about Abraham Lincoln. Tell students the answers to the questions can be found in the book they are about to read. Teacher asks students, Do you think you can help me find the answers? Reiterate that the children must listen very closely to the story to discover the answers. Read book. As the book is read, be sure to emphasize the facts that are the answers to the Question Canteen cards. Use comments such as: Hmmmmmm, that s really interesting, we may need to remember this one. COOOOOOOOL! That is just too cool! I need your help to remember that one. He did WHAT? Let me read that again. What did he do? Can you believe this? Naaaaaaaahhhhh, I didn t read that right. Help me out this time. After book is read, go to the Question Canteen and say to students, I wonder if we could answer one of these questions. Do you think we can? Teacher needs to use encouraging words at this time. You are all really smart, I know you can help me. Pick one card. If children answer correctly, encourage them to answer another by saying, You are so smart! Let s try just one more. Answer only two of the question cards today. (We have found this allows time to elapse and gives the children a chance to process what they have learned.) Small Group -- Money Bag Give each child a zip-lock bag, containing one penny and one quarter, with his/her name printed on the bag. Ask children to take the coins out of the bag and compare them. Discuss colors, pictures, textures, size, weight and shape. Ask open-ended questions. Example: How are they different? What are they made out of? Using the coin graph, have children mark their favorite coin and choose a center. Discuss the results of the poll during Review Time. C. Lesson Three Circle Time -- A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln

5 Procedure: Read A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln by David Adler, while seated on the floor, with children gathered around. Discuss with children that Lincoln liked George Washington and loved to read. Turn back to the page where Honest Abe is mentioned. Ask what honest means. Give examples of not being honest; then ask children to give examples of being honest. Review the KW on the KWL chart. Ask children if any of their questions were answered, if so, which ones? Repeat the same procedure as in Day One, but ask only one question during the Question Canteen game to make a total of three answered questions. Then open the book to the page that illustrates the celebration of the end of the war. Point out the flags. Review what the flag means to us. Small Group -- Pattern Flag Procedure: Ask the children if they would like to create their own flag. Give each child pre-cut tag board, one piece each of red and white construction paper, one blue square, scissors and glue. Teacher models cutting out strips from the red and white paper and gluing the strips in an AB pattern. Children then complete their pattern. Next, have children choose how many stars they want on the blue square. (Explain that the real American flag has a star to represent each state, but that you are allowing the children to choose their own number of stars for their own flag.) Have them count out and glue the stars to the square. The blue square is then put in the left hand top corner of the pattern board. Ask the children to show you where left and top are. D. Lesson Four Circle Time -- Abraham Lincoln Procedure: Read Abraham Lincoln by Lola Schaefer, while seated on the floor with children gathered around. Review the KW on the KWL chart. Ask children if any of their questions were answered; if so, which ones? Repeat the same procedure as in Day One, but ask only one question during the Question Canteen game to make a total of four answered questions. Small Group -- More Money Bags Procedure: Give each child a zip-lock bag, containing one penny, one quarter, one dollar bill and one five dollar bill with his/her name printed on the bag. Ask children to take the coins and bills out of the bag and compare them. Discuss similarities and differences, colors, pictures, textures, size, weight and shape. Ask open-ended questions. Example: How are they different? Are the penny and $5.00 bill worth the same? What about the quarter and the dollar bill? Do graph with children. Give each child crayons and paper. If you are a boy, write your name with a brown crayon. If you are a girl, write your name with a green crayon. If you like the coins better than the bills, draw a circle. If you like the bills better than the coins, draw a rectangle. After graph is completed, teacher takes dictation for Center Time.

6 E. Lesson Five Circle Time -- Big Book Procedure: Read teacher-made big book. Review other books that have also been read. Ask children what they have learned about Abraham Lincoln. Fill in the What We Learned about Abraham Lincoln part of the KWL chart with children s comments. Ask what each child thought was the most interesting thing learned about Abraham Lincoln. Ask why they think Abraham Lincoln wanted to be president, and whether they think his love for books helped him to be a great president. Why? Read the L part of the KWL chart back to them. End with the fact that Lincoln lived in a log cabin. Small Group -- Log Cabin Procedure: Say, Remember when we went on a nature walk and collected sticks? How would you like to make a model of the log cabin Lincoln lived in when he was a boy? Give each child a bag of sticks collected from the nature walk, glue, crayons, and one piece of white construction paper. Discusses the elements needed to make a cabin -- roof, wall, door, etc. thinking and talking out loud, as you describe the steps you use to create a cabin. After children make their own cabins, ask them to draw a background for the cabin on the white paper. Have children write a sentence about Abraham Lincoln. Teacher then asks child to read what they written and takes dictation. V. ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION KWL Chart -- What We Learned About Abraham Lincoln. VI. VII. CULMINATING ACTIVITY Make and read a student constructed Abraham Lincoln book. Have a birthday celebration for Abraham Lincoln. MATERIALS A. Lesson One 1. Chart paper 2. Markers 3. Teacher-made-big book 4. Drawing paper 5. Crayons B. Lesson Two 1. Markers 2. KWL chart 3. Teacher-made big book 4. Dictation sheet

7 5. Pencil 6. Question Canteen 7. 3 x 5 index card for questions 8. Real canteen (place in housekeeping after discussion) 9. Zip-lock bag (One for each child) 10. Pennies (One for each child) 11. Quarters (One for each child) 12. Poster board 13. Tape C. Lesson Three 1. Trade book 2. KWL chart 3. Markers 4. Question Canteen 5. 3 x 5 index card for questions 6. Tag board 7. Scissors 8. Red, blue, and white construction paper 9. Glue 10. Gold stick-on stars D. Lesson Four 1. KWL chart 2. Markers 3. Trade book 4. Question Canteen 5. 3 x 5 index card for questions 6. Zip-lock bags (One for each child) 7. Pennies (One for each child) 8. Quarters (One for each child) 9. Play one dollar bills (One for each child) 10. Play five dollar bills (One for each child) 11. Paper 12. Crayons E. Lesson Five 1. KWL chart 2. Markers 3. Question Canteen 4. 3 x 5 index card for questions

8 5. White construction paper 6. Sticks and twigs 7. Glue 8. Crayons F. Floating Center (Found at second-hand store, garage sale) 1. Two small black blazers 2. Two bow ties and/or regular ties 3. Old typewriter 4. Old telephone (spray-painted red) 5. Old brief case 6. One table (for desk) 7. Old hats (ladies and men) G. Parent Involvement Activity Parents are given one piece of tag board and asked to create with the help of their child, a family tree that will be shared in class at the birthday celebration.