Mrs. Whittington’s Kindergarten class is finishing up a citizenship unit. The unit focused on rules, making choices, being a good friend, learning how to take turns, how to share, working hard, cooperation and helping others. She believes this is a good unit to work on at the beginning of the year because some students are in school for the first time and it teaches them about what to expect and how to behave in the classroom setting. The unit was taught through read alouds with activities. Books that were included in the unit were “No, David” by David Shannon, which addressed rules. “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister is about friendship and a bulletin board in their classroom displays the activity they completed for this book. They also read “The Crayon Box that Talked” by Shane Derolf, which focused on cooperation and they made group pictures in which everyone at the table worked together on one picture, showing that they knew how to cooperate with one another. They learned about working hard by listening to “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle and finished the unit by listening to “What Does It Mean to be Kind?” by Rana DiOrio. The activity for this book was, the students wrote what they thought kindness meant in their lives and drew a picture. This project is displayed in the hallway on a bulletin board that encourages to “Spread Kindness Like Confetti”. Mrs. Whittington plans to continue these types of lessons throughout the year.
