Kindergarten Unit Three: Helping Kids Find Their Place in the World

1. Kindergarten Unit Three: Helping Kids Find Their Place in the World Sarah Blascovich Brown Teacher on Assignment

2. Some things you’ll find in Unit Three

3. Misconceptions in Unit Three • Columbus discovered America. • Columbus discovered that the world was round. • Really – people already lived there. • Most educated people already knew this – they simply didn’t understand the arrangement of the continents & oceans. • The Arawaks’ beliefs did not mesh with Columbus’s ideas of ownership. • The Native Americans Columbus met were hostile warriors.

4. Resources (Geography): • My Wonderful Word (National Geographic’s initiative to increase geographic learning): http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/educators_welcome.html • The Georgia Geographic Alliance:http://www.gaofgeorgia.org/ (click on teacher resources for lessons) • The Geography Educators’ Network of Indiana:http://www.iupui.edu/~geni/ (be sure to look at the resources & lesson plans) • Roundup of “upside down maps”:http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/ (list of different nations’ typical map perspectives is listed at the bottom) • List of K-2 lesson plans & resources:http://www.hawaii.edu/hga/k2/websites-k2.htm

5. Resources (Columbus): • Columbus & Columbus Day from the Library of Congress: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct12.html • Basic information from the UK’s National Maritime Museum: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/explorers-and-leaders/christopher-columbus • Howard Zinn’s article on Columbus & the Arwak:http://www.newhumanist.com/md2.html • Columbus’s Book of Privileges at the National Archives: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trt029.html

6. Resources (Chronology): • Video regarding the teaching of chronology: http://www.teachers.tv/video/3315 • Use clotheslines! • Hang pictures up in chronological order • Use words from standards to organize them • Make walkable timelines with events from students’ lives, historical figures, or holidays throughout the school year. • Use chronological words as headings for picture sorts

7. Literacy Resources: A Coyote Columbus Story, written by Thomas King – allegorical story of Coyote creating the world, with some interference from Columbus. A Coyote Columbus Story, written by Mary Wade – probably on the shelf in your media center (Rookie Reader series). In Their Own Words: Columbus, written by Peter & Connie Roop. Uses excerpts from Columbus’s journals to tell the story of his life – good for REFERNCE. Rethinking Columbus, edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson – if you’re interested in learning more about what really happened in 1492, and after.

8. Teaching Unit Three: • Location • Discuss North American continent (use a map!) • Work with maps and globes to help students learn the difference • Help students see how water and land are often colored similarly on a variety of maps to help people understand them • Discuss who Columbus was • Discuss Columbus’s contributions, and their effects on other people – make sure to treat this story accurately!

9. Teaching Unit Three: • Time, Change, and Continuity • Discuss differences in transportation, clothing, etc., between Columbus’s time and today (extension) • Review “now & long ago” • Review “before & after” • Review “past, present, & future” • For chronological words, be sure to incorporate these into other relevant areas – calendar time is a natural fit.