Young Children - March 2008 - (Page 10) cture a group of preschoolers in the block area working together to build a city. Are they just playing with blocks? No, they are experiencing the benefits of an integrated curriculum. The children gain social skills as they share materials and ideas; apply thinking skills to develop plans; explore physics concepts while figuring out how to create ramps and tunnels; learn about sizes and shapes when choosing blocks for a tower; understand the usefulness of print when writing a sign that lets other children know the metropolis is not finished; and thumb through books about cities and architecture to answer questions. The children are learning through meaningful activities supported by an integrated curriculum. Their teacher has intentionally provided blocks, books, paper and markers, and the space and time needed for children to develop and carry out their plans. She asks the children questions about their work to encourage thinking, such as, What made you decide to . . . ? How do you plan to . . . ? What could you do to . . . ? and so on. An integrated approach to curriculum takes advantage of the natural relationships between developmental domains and between content areas, such as math, literacy, social studies, science, and the arts. Young children’s development and learning are interconnected. Each Pi Integrating the Curriculum in the Early Years and area of development affects the others, and the skills learned in one area support learning in other areas as well. When curriculum is integrated, children can explore a theme in depth, achieve early learning standards, and apply their knowledge in meaningful ways. They learn facts related to a specific topic, ways to find information, and how content areas are related. The articles in this cluster present teachers implementing integrated curriculum approaches and describe real children involved in the dynamic process of learning. The cluster begins with “Read All about It! A Classroom Newspaper Integrates the Curriculum,” by first grade teacher Laurie Sharapan Sahn and curriculum consultant Anne Grall Reichel. The authors describe the experiences of a classroom of young reporters who collaborate to produce a weekly newspaper that shares news from the classroom, the families, and the community. The busy reporters observe and collect data while focusing on conceptual themes in science and social studies. “Do Re Mi, 1-2-3— That’s How Easy Math Can Be: Using Music to Support Emergent Mathematics” combines the perspectives of Kamile Geist, an assistant professor of music therapy, and Eugene A. Geist, an Cluster illustrations by Sandi Collins 10 Young Children • March 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.