Carousel Curriculum Farm Animals and Farm Crops

By Bridgett Parsons M.Ed

Definition- carousel: a merry-go-round, a conveyer on which items are placed for later retrieval. (Education should be fun, and we learn by retrieving old information and building on it.)

My curriculum is a collection of literature-based thematic units for early learners. The units are developmentally appropriate for all early learners. They are standards based and Creative Curriculum friendly. Carousel Curriculum has been used successfully with young learners including English language learners, children with special needs and diverse learning styles as well as homeschoolers.

I am a teacher with 35 years of teaching experience in the areas of early childhood education and early childhood special education. Principals and co-workers always expressed an interest in my thematic units. This planted the bug for me to write down and market what I have used successfully for so many years. The curriculum was created through years of education, experience, trial and error, revisions, and updating.

Each unit covers a span of 4-6 weeks. Each unit includes an introduction, weekly outlines, daily plans, poems and songs, a book list, additional activities listed by domain, and related ideas for centers.

Each unit can be used independently or be used as part of the collection of units to create an interwoven curriculum: Animals And Their Environments. The total collection includes: Farm Animals, Forest Animals in Winter, Polar Animals, Jungle Animals, Pond Animals, and Ocean Animals. Additional units available are Farm Crops, A Safari, The Zoo, and The Circus.

I hope the units will be a great resource for you and your class. Enjoy!!!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469164991

Bridgett Parsons M.Ed

NA

Book preview

Carousel Curriculum

Farm Animals and Farm Crops

A Literature-based thematic unit

for early learners

Bridgett Parsons, M.Ed

Copyright © 2012 by Bridgett Parsons, M.Ed.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4691-6498-4

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4691-6499-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Farm Animals

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Farm Books

Farm Poems And Songs

Farm Animals Unit—Center Ideas

Additional Farm Activities Listed By Domain

Game Rules

Farm Crops

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Farm Crops Unit

Farm Crops Unit

Farm Crop Unit

Farm Crops Unit

Hope You And Your Children Enjoy The Unit!!!

A special thanks to Helen Litterst, C.A.G.S. and Liz Cameron, C.A.G.S. for their encouragement, assistance, and friendship.

This unit is developmentally appropriate for all early learners. It is standards based and Creative Curriculum friendly. The curriculum was written by a teacher and has been used successfully with young learners including English Language Learners, children with special needs and diverse learning styles as well as homeschoolers.

INTRODUCTION

The following literature based thematic unit plan covers a 40-day period. I have used and refined these lessons over the course of 35 years of teaching early learners in both regular education settings and special education classes.

In developing these units, first I collect books on the topic. I look for a variety of fiction and non-fiction books—Big Books, books with audio tapes/CDs, books with flaps, tactile books, scratch and sniff books, books that make noises or light up, etc. I also choose different versions of the same story.

For each lesson, I select a specific unit-related concept or theme, a book/story that exemplifies this concept or theme, a related song/poem or rhyme, and a follow-up related activity (art, cooking, math, science, etc.). These concepts or themes are reflected in each lesson’s Question of the Day and Related Activities sections on the Daily Lesson Plans.

Each day’s lesson includes a list of materials needed for the activities, extra related activities, and several standards that are covered by the day’s work.

The unit includes a list of books that can be interchanged with those on the daily plans or for extra reading times. The unit includes Center Ideas, a Poem and Song List, and extra activities listed by domain.

Additional Suggestions:

1. In the classroom, place some books in the Book Area and in other centers, but keep some specifically for Language Arts/story/circle time.

2. Choose concepts from the story that the children may not know and introduce the concepts before reading the story to help the children better understand the story.

3. Display the children’s work from the units in the classroom. Save some samples of their work for evaluation purposes/recording their yearly progress.

4. Take pictures of the children with their work samples. Later in the year, these pictures can be used as a review with the children to help evaluate if they can recall information from the previous unit or tell you something about the picture.

5. When choosing related activities keep in mind that one activity can often be plugged into more than one standard and, one standard can often cover several activities.

FARM ANIMALS

OUTLINE OF WEEK 1 LESSONS