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Early Childhood Education Learning Experience Template Name: Kelsey Penquite Date: April 3, 2014 Lesson Title: Classroom Landfill! Developmental Domain: Physical, Social, Emotional, Cognitive, Language Standard(s)/Guideline(s): 1) Domain- Language and Literacy Development, Strand- Reading, Topic- Reading Comprehension, Standard- Demonstrate an understanding of the differences between fantasy and reality. 2) Domain- Cognition and General Knowledge, Sub-Domain- Science, Strand- Science Inquiry and Application, Topic- Inquiry, Standard- Make Predictions Pre-assessment of current knowledge: Picture walk of the book, We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers, by Lauren Child. This was read in a previous lesson to help teach the children about recycling, reducing, and reusing. They will do a picture walk and I will scaffold them to review the information they learned. Grade Level: Pre-K Instructional Objectives (1-2) One/Two Assessed Instructional Objective(s): The student will be able to... Identify non-fiction and fiction and discuss their differences. Draw their prediction of what will happen in the investigation. Assessment of Student Learning Identify Evidence: (What will you collect or record as data to demonstrate students have met your objective(s) and skill?) I will take anecdotal notes and compile them into a checklist to demonstrate the children met the objectives. Also, I will collect the artwork of their predictions to keep on file and share with them as the investigation continues. Learning Experience Academic Language: Fiction, Non-fiction, Investigation, Decompose, and Predict/Prediction Procedural steps: Transition children to sit on the floor as a large group after centers work. Have them act like their favorite animal on their way over. Pre-assess current knowledge by doing a picture walk of, We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers, which they already read. Use the pictures to scaffold them to discuss what they already learned. Show them the non-fiction book, Recycling (True Books: Environment), by Rhonda Lucas Donald. Begin by showing them the pictures and asking them if they are the same as in the previous book. Explain that this book is non-fiction, or reality, and that the other book is a made up story and is fiction. Begin reading the book, making sure to stop and ask questions to start discussions about the differences between fiction and non-fiction. After reading the book, go back and ask questions to scaffold the children to create discussion about landfills and what it means for something to decompose. Explain that we are going to do an investigation and create our own classroom landfill. Explain that we have our own soil that represents the earth and trash, which represents the trash in a landfill. Discuss the various objects that are going to be buried in your landfill.

One Assessed Developmental Skill: The children will demonstrate their fine motor abilities by using the shovels, pouring water, and creating artwork with crayons or markers.

Program Monitoring: (How will you aggregate or compile your evidence into a class or group view?) I will use my anecdotal notes to create a class checklist of the objectives. Also, I will keep their artwork together to share and discuss with them as the investigation continues. -

Safety Considerations: Monitor childrens use of shovels and be sure they are used properly. If water is spilled on the floor, clean up promptly to avoid falls.

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Early Childhood Education Learning Experience Template Discuss what it means to make a prediction and scaffold the children to make their own predictions of what will decompose the most in their landfill. Have the children assist in poring soil into the bottom of the bucket (a few inches) and use the shovels to spread the soil out evenly. Hand them each an item of trash to place on top of the soil. Have the children pour more soil on the trash. Have children use shovels to assure the trash is covered completely with the soil. Adding more if necessary. Have children pour water over the soil. Explain that every week we are going to make observations on our investigation and they will use their shovels to turn over the soil and add more water. In three weeks, we will empty the trash and soil onto a piece of newspaper to check our predictions and discuss our investigation. Have children transition to tables in a large group by acting like their favorite animals. Have children draw a picture of their prediction (What will decompose the most in our investigation?) While they are working, scaffold the children to discuss their predictions and take anecdotal notes.

Authentic Materials: (Describe authentic real life, hands-on materials.) Soil, Items to put in landfill (newspaper, pop tab, plastic bag, toilet paper, cardboard, styrofoam plate, glasses lens), small metal shovels, bucket, books, art supplies, water, cup to put water in Adult Roles: I will set up materials ahead of time, while Lizzie and the assistant teacher work with the children during centers. Then, I will lead the lesson as Lizzie helps collect anecdotal notes and assist when needed. While they draw their predictions, all three of us will discuss them with the children one-on-one.

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Early Childhood Education Learning Experience Template Resources & References: We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers, by Lauren Child Recycling (True Books: Environment), by Rhonda Lucas Donald Illinois Early Learning Project. Tip Sheets: Predicting: Helping Preschoolers Look Ahead. http://illinoisearlylearning.org/tipsheets/prediction.htm Reflection: (What have you learned about your students? How will this inform future instruction?)

I chose to create the classroom landfill investigation with the children to offer them an experience carrying out an investigation in their classroom. I believe that children, even Pre-K, have the ability to predict, observe, and take part in inquiry and that they should have this opportunity early on in their education. This investigation fits into our science unit with the children that revolves around the concept of reduce, reuse, and recycle. They have learned about the Three Rs in previous lessons, so they had the previous knowledge to be able to understand and reflect on the investigation. This unit ties into the relationship between humans and our earth and what actions have positive and negative impacts on our environment. Also, it teaches the children characteristics of our earth and gives them a better understanding of items we use every day. In the opening activity for the investigation, I chose the objectives very carefully. I decided to incorporate early language and literacy development, since it is crucial for young children to have many experiences with this domain in the classroom. The objective describes that children should have an understanding of different types of texts and be able to distinguish between them. I chose this because I believe that young children need more exposure to non-fiction texts and that in order to gather factual information, they need to be able to identify non-fiction. When exploring and learning about science investigations, non-fiction must be included so that children can see what they are investigating is reality, which makes their learning meaningful to their lives. The second objective I chose was that children could make predictions. I chose this objective because it is vital for young children to be able to discuss, express, and understand their own thoughts, so that they can monitor and lead their own learning experiences. The experience of creating a classroom landfill was chosen because it would give the children an opportunity to test everything that they have learned in the unit and create an experience with inquiry that will be meaningful to them and they will remember. The materials in the experience were chosen because they are authentic and closely mimic what occurs in a real landfill. Providing the children with real soil, trash-items, shovels, etc. gives them an opportunity to take part in an investigation that will be accurate and supports their development. The experience was set up as a large group activity, however, there are only six preschoolers in our classroom that we work with, and so they all received a great deal of hands-on experience and one-on-one instruction. I believe that the children achieved the instructional objectives in the lesson. They were engaged and could demonstrate and discuss an understanding of the differences between fiction and non-fiction easily. The picture walks immediately helped them see the difference between the fictional illustrations and real-life photos. Also, they discovered that the fiction had made up characters and a story, where as the non-fiction was factual and just was truth as one boy said. The children also could all make predictions during the lesson. I used the academic language throughout the lesson, so before we even got to the last step of drawing their predictions, the

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Early Childhood Education Learning Experience Template

children were already using the term and discussing their own thoughts about which trash would decompose the most in their landfill. They were all able to draw their predictions and discuss them, which I have attached. Their predictions are included, with notes of their main points on the back. The lesson built on their prior knowledge since it was integrated into the science unit that they are taking part in. Also, the investigation will continue throughout the last few lessons in the unit and they will be given the opportunity to observe changes, discuss, and see if their predictions were correct. It will connect to the childrens future learning because the children are going to continue to learn more about reducing, reusing, and recycling in the next weeks. Also, the lesson offers a first experience with taking part in an investigation, which they will continue to build upon through their years in education and fosters their early thought and inquiry. If I were to teach the lesson again, I think that I would have saved up enough materials to make it possible for each student to create their own mini landfills. I believe this would have given them the opportunity to take more ownership of their work and thoughts. Other than that, I do nt believe I would have done anything differently if I taught the lesson again because it went very well, the children enjoyed it, and they easily took part in inquiry and met the obstructional objectives. Examples of evidence and pictures on following pages.

5/23/2013

Early Childhood Education Learning Experience Template

5/23/2013

Early Childhood Education Learning Experience Template