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

Sarah Blascovich Brown Teacher on Assignment

Some things you’ll find in Unit Three

Misconceptions in Unit Three

• Columbus discovered

America.

• Columbus discovered

that the world was round.

•

The Native Americans Columbus met were hostile warriors.

• 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.

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

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

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

Literacy Resources:

A Coyote Columbus Story, written by Thomas King – allegorical story of Coyote creating the world, with some interference from Columbus.

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.

A Coyote Columbus Story, written by Mary Wade – probably on the shelf in your media center (Rookie Reader series).

Rethinking Columbus, edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson – if you’re interested in learning more about what really happened in 1492, and after.

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!

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.