Communities!

I figured I would split up my posts so they don't all drag on! So the past few weeks in class aside from Microteachings we have been focusing on creating our Unit Plans. I am very happy that for the past weeks Dr. Smirnova has let us work on our Unit Plans in class. It is nice knowing that you have her plus fifteen of your classmates there if you have any questions. My Unit Plan Wiki is all about learning about Communities. I focused on first grade since I love the younger grades. At first I was overwhelmed because by looking at all different curriculum planning websites I noticed that 1st-3rd grades all learn about communities. I was nervous because it seemed like they all ran together in the areas each grade covers. My first intention was doing my Unit Plan on communities around the world, which moved to Communities around the United States, but then after even more reserach I realized that I would rather focus on the Individual Community. Boy, am I happy I did. I am really enjoying researching all these fun activities that students can do in class to learn about their communities. I am looking at all these websites such as Webquest, Discovery Education, and Brainpop. These websites are great ways to find out what students are learning in these grades and what type of activies these grades learn through. For my starting activies I have also been making books through Tikatok and videos on Xtranormal which are awesome websites which allows you to make your own digital books and movies, two websites that Dr. Smirnova have brought to my attention for group presentations and my microteaching. All in all I am looking forward to going over to Dr. Smirnova's house for our group presentations and our big Russian dinner! It should be fun, can't wait!