KAPOK TREE
Ceiba
Group 1 (2-4 year olds)
THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS CYCLE ARE:
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Use appropriate conversational and other communication skills.
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Be responsible for the execution and maintenance of the structural rituals of the class.Interact with the concepts of past, present, and future.
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Be responsible for the execution and maintenance of the structural rituals of the class.
When you see that there is progress in these areas, you can move on to the next cycle. Check the rubric that will help you know if the group is ready to move forward!
WE SUGGEST YOU CHECK THE EVIDENCES WITH WHICH YOU WILL OBSERVE IF YOUR STUDENTS HAVE ACHIEVED THESE OBJECTIVES
CLASS PLAN
3. HANDS-ON
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To get to know or refresh the characters that take roles in this cycle.This is the main activity that will follow the narrative in our classes. There are surveys, creative projects and activities around the school (if that's a possibility).
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The hands-on! activities are always inspired by the narratives, so make sure you check them in advance in order to choose the best.
2. NARRATIVE
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Everything starts with the narrative. It may be a written text, a short movie, a speech, a scene from a documentary, a comic strip, etc. Our classes begin here, and we will be constantly referring back to it in our activities.
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Always try to generate curiosity in your students by eliciting from them any kind of speculation
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The narrative will always be followed by a simple discussion, in which you will ask specific questions about what they’ve heard or seen.
4. MOVE!
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These are activities that require body movement. They may be learning brain breaks or music videos for kids to sing and dance along.
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These activities may be done in any part of the class, especially if kids are too distracted or have been seated for too long.
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When choosing the “Sing along” activity, try to have students choose the music videos. You may select a student to be responsible for that in each class. This will help build their autonomy and develop their active participation.
My class is 25 to 30 minutes long!
Remember that if your periods are shorter than 50 minutes, you can try out these shorter plans!
To ask your students about the video experiences (jornadas), ask them how they did them, if they are liking them so far, which were their favorites, etc.
Remember
1. STARTING SONG
As usual, we will begin the class with the starting song.
We suggest you let the kids start this activity by themselves, even with a bit more autonomy than in previous cycles. Once you see they’ve started singing and dancing, you can join the fun.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES
CONCENTRATED MODE
If the kids are concentrated, we propose a few activities that will help you manage the energy of the group.
MIRROR DANCING
Ask the children to get in pairs.
One of them will be the dancer and the other will be the mirror.
The idea is that the dancer moves freely to the rhythm of the starting song and the mirror has to imitate the dancer’s moves.
You can tell the children to switch roles halfway through the song so that they all get to act as dancers and as mirrors.
FOUR WORDS EACH
In a circle, start the song by singing the first four words.
The student sitting by your side should sing the following four words, and the next student the four words after that, and so on.
The idea is that the kids listen and pay attention to the words they have to sing out loud.
They win the game if they manage to sing the whole song in this manner!
EUPHORIC MODE
If the kids are euphoric, we propose a few activities that will help you manage the energy of the group.
ADJUSTING VOLUME
Open your hand and raise it as high as you can. While your hand is up and the starting song is playing, sing the lyrics in a loud volume and encourage the kids to do the same.
Then, as your hand goes down, slowly lower the volume making them understand they should lower the volume too. Once they understood the game, play with the volume of the kids singing of the starting song with the use of your hand.
*you can use this resource anytime to adjust the volume of the class by raising or lowering your hand.
CHANGING PLACES
Choose a few of the words that are repeated during the starting song, for example “room” “English” and “Vivadí”.
When the children listen to these words they should switch places with another student or just move to another place in the classroom.
This activity will require an active listening of the song, which will help with the general concentration of the group.
ORCHESTRA
Tell the children to sit in four separate groups. During the starting song, you will be an orchestra director. This means that you decide which group has to sing in different parts of the song.
So, you will point at the group that has to sing and the others will have to remain silent until they are pointed at.
2. NARRATIVE
After the starting song, you will introduce the narrative moment
In this cycle, we will always begin with the narrative. We will be constantly referring back to it in our activities. When reading them, make sure you use your body language so that the meaning is clear.
The narrative will always be followed by a simple discussion, in which you will ask specific questions about what they've heard or seen.
SHORT MOVIES
Watermelon A Cautionary Tale
Who loves fruits? Have you ever heard that when you eat a seed of some fruit, the fruit grows in your belly? Let’s check out the story of this boy who ate a watermelon, and see what happens when you are too hungry!
Teacher Intervention (Post Reading)
After the story, you can ask your students
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What happened in the story?
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What part of the fruit the boy ate?
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What is your favorite fruit?
Material Girl
June never feels confident in her own shoes until one day, while stumbling upon a record store, she discovers a powerful influence for her new style. Obsessed, June loses herself in trying to impersonate a powerful and iconic pop star. However, when her borrowed identity is inevitably taken from her, she must remember that her own style is what makes her special.
Teacher Intervention (Post Reading)
During the short movie, you can pause in the moments you feel are the best to question the students. For example:
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What happened in the story?
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Which body parts can we see?
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Which part of your face do you think it's beautiful?
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The girl from the story, is she happy or sad?
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Are you happy or sad?
3. HANDS ON
This section is the main activity that will follow the narrative in your classes. There are different formats to choose from.
*It's important to know that these activities are always inspired by the narratives, so make sure to check them in advance to choose the best fit for your students!
ACTIVITIES
Inspired by Watermelon | A Cautionary Tale
Game: Seed of your favorite fruit
imagine that you ate the seed of your favorite fruit. What would happen to you? Draw a picture of this situation.
Game: Grow a Bean Plant in a Jar
How to grow a bean plant in a jar. This video will show you what happens when you plant a little bean seed, using the right materials. The activity is carried out using a glass jar, towel paper, water and bean seeds. In a few days, it is already possible to see the bean seed transformation.
How to grow a bean plant in a jar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTRW2Cf9U2U
ACTIVITIES
Inspired by Material Girl
Game: Self Worth
The goal of this exercise is to explore what happens when evaluating one’s self-worth. Knowing yourself, appreciating yourself and taking care of your physical and emotional health, understanding yourself in human diversity and recognizing your emotions and those of others, with self-criticism and the ability to deal with them. Competence deals with the learning that children and young people must acquire about themselves, being able to identify their strengths and weaknesses, deal with their emotions and maintain physical health and emotional balance.
Materials: Acrylic mirror (or unbreakable material) previously fixed in the external or internal space of the reference room and having measurements close to the size of the children.
Space: The space must be organized in advance, with the mirror fixed to the wall in the internal or external space.
Questions to guide your observations:
1. When seeing their image reflected in the mirror, each child can react or express themselves in a way, arousing their curiosity. It is important to note: how does each child react when seeing their image reflected in the mirror?
2. Each child may react with surprise, run away from the reflected image or want to grab it, smile, babble, and talk about what they are looking at. What good interventions can the teacher use in the face of such diverse reactions in the mirror?
3. Pay attention to how each child perceives their own body movement when viewing the reflected image.
4. See which parts of the body and face the kids will be more interested in. Also, which face expressions and funny faces the kids will make.
To include all:
Identify physical, communication, or relational barriers that can prevent a child or group from participating and learning. Reflect and propose supports to meet the needs and differences of each child or group. For babies who cannot move independently, invite them to be on your lap, in a comfortable position for them, and include them in the mirror proposal. Dialogue with babies, as this helps them to understand about their own bodies and contributes to the construction of their identities.
What to do during?
1- The whole group is in the room in an exploratory activity with toys they know. Invite small groups to come over and present the proposal. Ask them to look at themselves in the mirror, ensuring that everyone participates. Children are curious about the reflected image. Even those who do not communicate verbally express themselves with gestures, babbles and reactions. Stay close and attentive to observe and record their expressions with photos and videos. This first moment is of discovery, between them, in front of the mirror.
2- Continue to make sense as you conduct each child's mindful observations individually as you look at the image reflected in the mirror. Based on their reactions, propose a dialogue about what they are seeing and the parts of the body. Always try to refer to each child by their name, for example: Look over there (Child's name). He is in the mirror seeing himself. He put his hand over his mouth now.
3- Pay attention to the other observations that each child makes in front of the mirror: he can perceive the reflected image, which can be himself, other children, objects and the teacher.
Possible actions of children at this time: a child approaches, bends his body towards his image reflected in the mirror, looks at his own hands and opens his mouth.
Possible speeches by the teacher at this time: Who is there? What is this child's name? Whose hand is moving there? And that open mouth.
4- In pairs, they can tell each other which are their favorite body parts and why.
5- After free exploration in front of the mirror, mediated through dialogue with the classroom teacher, invite the whole group, still in front of the mirror, to play with the body, to the sound of music.
My Body Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRNXfe9-aWo
To Finish: Towards the end of the activity, ask the children to appreciate themselves in the mirror and signal to them what the next moment of the day will be, giving them a predictability of the next daily activities and helping them to understand the notions of time and space.
CHINESE WHISPERS
Game: Self Portrait
It's craft time, use this video as a guide for your students to make a self portrait!
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTnJw91s7Wk
Players form a line or a circle, and the first player comes up with a message and whispers it to the ear of the second person in the line. The second player repeats the message to the third player, and so on. When the last player is reached, they announce the message they heard to the entire group. Here, you can use the words from the stories: watermelon, seed or mirror, for example.
4. MOVE YOUR HIPS!
Use Move your Hips when you feel students are too distracted or have been seated for too long. The idea is to move and refresh the body, always through learning, and it can be used at any moment of the class. Below you will find some ideas for your age group.
5. HARMONY
Choose one of the following videos to do with your students for Harmony Time!
6. ENDING SONG
Finally, as always, you will sing our well-known Ending Song.
Make sure everyone sings it out loud together. Encourage, especially those kids that don't participate much in class, to see if they can repeat the song phonetically.
Do not forget to put the class back in order while you sing.
To remind your students to access the platform and do the jornadas.
Don't forget