How the World Works: Of Animals and Humans
“How are people and animals related? How do they affect each other? How do people use animals as resources?”... These are but some of the questions the kindergarten kids tackled in this unit. The main idea for this unit, “How the world works”, is to help kids realize and understand more that we, human, and animals, are all connected.
For starters, we needed to know more about animals-- the different places where they live, the different kinds of animals, etc. We even took a field trip to the zoo to observe and understand animals better!
Moving on, we looked into how animals and humans are connected through what both sides can give and provide for each other’s needs, as well as through the food chain/web. In this activity, students started to learn to give some artistic visual feedback toward their peer's work.
food chain taking care of pets
After weeks of learning, understanding, reflecting upon animals and human’s relationship with them, we started preparing a musical play “Five Little Birds” as a summative assessment for this unit. The play focuses on more bird type animals, their habitat, their special characteristics, their relationship and as well as their relationship with people. For this assessment, he kids made continuous books, designed their own costumes, even their stage. As in any acting play, kids rehearsed for weeks.
For the day of the show, all parents and whoever were interested were invited to come and watch. The kids showed off the result of all their hard work and learning. Everyone had a happy, fulfilling, memorable time. The kids reaped the good fruits of the seeds of their inquiry and learning...and that’s how the world works.
