ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: 1.That in our climate, different clothing is worn in cold weather verses hot weather. Also, the students should know and use the names and functions of various pieces of cold-weather clothing.
Goal(s): 1. What type of clothing do you wear when it is cold outside?  2.What is each piece of clothing used for?  3.Where is it worn?

Questions Answered

Essential questions:1. What do you wear when you go outside in the winter? summer? 2. What is a hat/ jacket/ boots/ mittens… used for?
3. What does cold/warm feel like?  4. What do various pieces of clothing feel like to touch?
Objectives: 1.Students will match pictures of cold-weather clothing.  2. Students will identify and name a variety of clothing. 3. Students will demonstrate listening skills and answer simple questions about clothing during a story. 4. Students will sort pieces of cold-weather clothing from warm-weather clothing.  5. Students will describe the function of specified clothing.  6. Students will explore and manipulate a variety of cold-weather clothing.

Assessment

1.What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? I will be asking the children to identify named pieces of clothing, match pictures of clothing, and participate in computer generated quizzes using the Intellipics program on our classroom computer.
2.What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
Asking questions such as “What do you wear when you play in the snow?”, “What do you do when you are cold?” and “What do you do with a hat?...jacket?...socks…?” will allow me to observe answers and expand on the knowledge of clothing they already have. I will provide modeling and visual aids to those children who need it.
3.What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product)will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
  Children will sort through a variety of real pictures (taken with the digital camera) to compose a story about the clothing they wear in the winter/snow.
4.What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? Observations will be made during sorting activities, games and exploration of various pieces of clothing to assess each child’s understanding of the lesson content. Art projects will provide a “finished product” sample of the children’s understanding.

Instructional Strategies

A combination of inquiry-based and project-based teaching strategies will be used to teach the children about winter clothing and its functions. By providing them with background knowledge on the subject (the variety of clothing worn by people, what “cold” and “warm” feel like) and the tools to experiment with (books, snow, clothing, etc) I will be setting the stage for the children to explore and reach some of their own conclusions through trial and error. The children will be responsible for exploring the items provided to them and manipulating the pieces of clothing to learn about their qualities and possible uses. As 3-5 year-olds, they will need more direction and guidance during structured group activities in order to benefit from planned lessons. During such lessons, I will provide prompts, models, visual aids and direction to ensure that all students are participating and understanding.