2 Weeks in My America

I feel like there was a lot of contrast between the last two weeks in the My America class I'm teaching.  Most of the contrast involves communication.  That is, in one class I feel like I communicated the main idea effectively, and in the other I feel I did not.  Here's how they played out.

Week 4's song was America the Beautiful.  The main idea of the class was that America is a big, beautiful and geographically varied place.  Unfortunately I made that concept too complicated.  After we sang the song, I gave all the kids maps of the US.  I had a matching map blown up and taped to the wall and had them copy various landforms onto their map.  I really didn't think it was important that they knew the names or exact locations of these things for now, but I think I made them think that I did.  Many of them were overwhelmed and confused.

Student example - this one copied my map with reasonable accuracy.

This one is Caleb's.  I really like his active volcano and giant palm tree in Florida.

Week 5's song was Yankee Doodle.  In preparing the class, the more I learned about Yankee Doodle, the more I liked it.  It just seemed a natural fit, plus almost all the kids already knew it and that helped give them a reference point for the rest of the class.  After we sang, I showed them a map of the 13 colonies and we talked very briefly about the Revolutionary War.  I showed them this political cartoon.

Of course that sparked many comments about snakes they had seen.  But they understood the idea that it was a symbol.  We moved from the cartoon to Benjamin Franklin, who suggested the turkey as the national bird, but since he was unable to persuade the other founding fathers, we made a bald eagle craft instead.

And here is where the difference between the Pre-K/Kindergarten class and the 1st/2nd class really shows itself.  I didn't have to help anyone trace their hand or cut the parts out.  And they all turned out super.  Even the ones that just went horribly wrong still looked bald eagle-ish.

Caleb's eagle.  The body of the eagle is tracing of his foot.

Another example.

As the classes have gone on, the kids seem to like the singing part of the class more.  I think it's because they know the songs better.