Midterm Projects!!

Instead of physically going to class, Dr. E allowed her students to do some research for their midterm project that is due in just a few weeks! The individuals working in my group are both going into teaching with a focus on early childhood development, so we talked about maybe doing a project that would be for kindergartens. I looked at all of the research links that Dr. E made available, and I not only found out a lot of valuable information but also got some good ideas for our project. The useful information I found out all had to deal with kindergarten; I could have looked at different grades but I thought I would just look at this grade level since we will probably be focusing on it. I found out that kindergarten teachers need to focus on observing and collecting information about the progress students are making. I also found out that all kindergartens should be able to do the following things: describe solid objects in terms of one physical attribute, identify water in its liquid form, name a difference between day and night and between summer and winter, and identify pictures of living things. Before looking at the website, I never would have considered these things for kindergartens to be able to do. The things listed above are such simple things that I think some individuals look past but should not, those concepts are vital things for kindergartens to know. I also found several good ideas for our project from the example activities website Dr. E listed. The projects that I found were only for kindergartens, the following are a few examples: learning about different senses, learning about all the different colors, understanding the concept of animals and the changes they go through like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, and finally solid, liquid and gases. All the experiments I found had to deal with developing skills that kindergartens need to learn in order to understand and excel in school. I think these projects will be fun to do and I also think they are an excellent idea because it not only gives us a hands on experience but also gives us ideas for teaching in our near future!