The Dot

The first class’ dots hung up with my custom poster.

As a lover of the arts, I adore the book The Dot  by Peter Reynolds as it inspires children to become an artist. Students participated in a storytelling session as a class where we explored themes of creativity, believing in yourself, and recognizing

the shape of a circle in different contexts. During centers, they got creative and painted their own dot, practiced how to make circles and made pictures from circles in various materials. They began to recognize the circles in their environment. . This lesson I created demonstrates professional competency 3 by using an appropriate text and follow up activities for their interest and developmental level so that they can develop a variety of competencies effectively.

 

For the first class, I did the painting as a whole group. As it was a kindergarten class in the beginning of the school year, a whole class painting at once was a bit chaotic. I reflected on my lesson objectives and changed my method for the second class and did centers involving circles, where painting was one of the centers. This worked a lot better, and I got to have very insightful discussions with each student about having fun with art as they freely discovered color mixing and I took notes. This shows my ability to perform professional competency 4 as I lead the discussions during a read aloud and during student’s independent painting/center time to aid in the development of competencies through play and gave feedback through conversation.

I gave prompts while reading the book to bring their attention to concepts related to the objective, and connected children’s experiences to the context of the story or centers, in line with professional competency 1.

To develop professional competency 2 during this lesson,  I used correct grammar and spoke in a clear voice while reading the book and facilitating discussions with students. I paced myself appropriately when reading aloud and articulated clearly.

Both classes’  unique dots up in the classroom (along with mine in the upper right corner).

As one student said as he discovered how to make green and purple, “It really IS magic!”
(Click here to view the full “The Dot” Lesson Plan, including circle centers)

Planetary Caretakers Unit

Planetary Caretakers- UBD adpated for K

I created this unit plan with three example lessons to show that Kindergarten is not too early to show children the importance of respecting and caring for the planet. I wanted to include this in my portfolio as this is a passionate topic for me.

This unit plan illustrates my ability to perform professional competency 3. I designed this unit and three lessons with specific learning goals, included lessons in different subject areas while developing the preschool competencies mandated by the QEP.