I have to laugh at the way people react when I tell them I teach Kindergarten. "Aw, how cute! You get to play and fingerpaint all day-what a great job!" (this was honestly the comment made by a cashier at Target last week). I agree it's a great job, but a little more involved than fingerpainting. :)
Little do they know how much Kinder has changed over the past years. Things like art and dramatic play centers are unfortunately falling by the wayside. I have a housekeeping center in my classroom this year and here are some ways I'm going to incorporate learning objectives so everyone can see the kids actually are learning.
My mom found these for us at Hobby Lobby. I guarantee you these kids don't know what an eggplant or artichoke are. It can be used to introduce and then reinforce new vocabulary and it's very realistic.
Also, we use pictures of foods from different cultures. They can glue them to paper plates and make a meal with them; match them to countries the meals originated from on a map.
Sorting healthy or non-healthy--with all these anti-obesity initiatives out there you can't tell me that's not a viable learning objective for them.
Incorporate perspective-how would people in different jobs view the foods. Does an artist view fruit the same way a zoo keeper would?
Writing from the perspective of a certain food. Does an apple have the same perspective as a carrot? Probably not since one grows on trees and one comes from under the ground.
Compare and contrast-2 foods of their choice, how are they similar and different?
Where does it come from? I love when you ask a child where milk comes from and they say "the store". Right...but how does it get to the store? Sorting activities that show the different stages and the children have to place those steps in order.
Basic reading-matching the items with paper plates of the words that describe them.
Which costs more? Using coupons and waitress pads (they sell these at Sam's Club) to add up the cost at the Kindergarten Cafe.
Sorting the foods-what various ways can they come up with?
Lots and lots of ways to incorporate a housekeeping center into daily learning! And the best part is, the kids are flat-out having fun doing it.
Great post. In my pre-k class we have all the centers, housekeeping center included. We use the housekeeping center as making dinner at home w healthy meals/teaching nutrition; as a restaurant teaching how to order from menus; as a grocery store teaching how to shop for healthy foods and not buy everything on the store shelves, only buying what need at that time; also used as an office teaching what adults do at the office, phone skills, computer skills, taking notes, etc.
ReplyDeleteHousekeeping is used for many skills in life.