Teacher Feature...
It's An Early Spring!
by Jay Davidson
With our early warm weather this year, spring has come sooner than usual. It's a rejuvenation process that we can see all around us, as well as feel inside ourselves. It's a wonderful time to plant seeds.
This is an activity that is easy to work on together at home and it can be a fun lesson for children to learn about the way things grow.
You may buy seeds, but you can also sprout several things that you probably already have in the house, such as a potato, sweet potato, or carrot top. You could also see what happens when you plant seeds from fruit or vegetables you eat at home.
The Tiny Seed is a wonderful book by Eric Carle. It chronicles the cycle of a seed being planted and growing into a flower. This is but one of many cycles of life that children can learn about in order to appreciate the wonder of the world around them.
Another Eric Carle book, Pancakes, Pancakes, chronicles the steps it takes to be able to put pancakes on the breakfast table -- from harvesting wheat to making the pancakes themselves. It is a great example for showing children that what they eat had a beginning in nature and didn't just pop out of a box purchased in the grocery store. It's a wordless book. As such, you may describe each picture to your child. On re-tellings, your little one will be able to "read" the story to you.
Many other books explain the benefits of plants to people. I have found that children as young as first graders can understand the process through which plants take in carbon dioxide and give out oxygen, while people do the opposite. This is an example through which we explain to children the relationship that people have with plants, and how important they are to us.
Planting seeds and watching them grow puts children in touch with a vital force of nature. It is an easy way to give them this connection, and leads to a respect and understanding of the process on which we all depend for food and oxygen.
Teacher Feature...
Geography Awareness
by Jay Davidson
I was reading a story to my class. It took place in Paris, and the
Eiffel Tower appeared in the background. One of my students surprised me
by knowing the name of the Eiffel Tower, that it was in Paris, that Paris
is in France, and that France is in Europe.
He distinguished himself among his peers, as many of them had no similar
sense of geography.
Parents are in an excellent position to help children become aware of
geography and the terms associated with it. For example:
- When you shop for groceries, look for labels on fruit, vegetables, and
other food items to indicate the country or region of origin.
- Look on the labels in your family's clothing and other household items.
- Talk to your child about your family's country of origin.
- When you hear people speaking other languages, teach your child to be
respectful of this. Most people, if approached in a friendly way, will be
delighted to teach you and your child a few words of their native
tongue.
- When communicating with family members who live outside your immediate
area, talk with the children about the city, state, or country in which
they live.
- Whether your favorite source for news is television, newspaper, radio,
or the Internet, the media is rich with references to other
countries.
- Use direction words such as north, south, east, and west to describe
where you are walking or driving. Relate these words to the directions
used on maps. The same principles are involved whether you are using a
road map or atlas.
- Use geography terms with your child. Hundreds of them are attached to
place names. Children who understand common terms such as bay, delta,
foothills, mountain, peninsula, swamp, and woods may enjoy learning less
familiar terms such as continental slope, escarpment, isthmus, shoal, and
veldt. (On my website, I will include more than 200 terms, from alpine
tundra to zone, with this column.)
When your child shows deeper interest, move from the atlas to books that
cover history, language, and customs of other peoples. In so doing, you
will have a child who is well prepared for geographic references wherever
she encounters them.
Use the following as an example of the magnitude of words that are
related to geography.
These geography terms appear on page 111 of Teach Your Children Well:
A Teacher's Advice for Parents, by Jay Davidson.
alpine tundra
Antarctic
archipelago
Arctic
area
arm
atoll
badlands
bank
bay
bayou
beach
berg
bitty berg
bluff
bog
breakers
breakwater
brink
brook
butte
canal
canyon
cape
capital
cascade
cataract
cave
cavern
channel
chasm
city
cliff
coast
coastline
continent
continental divide
continental shelf
continental slope
country
county
county seat
cove
crag
crater
creek
crest
crevasse
dale
dam
dell
delta
desert
dike
district
divide
drainage basin
dune
elevation
embankment
escarpment
estuary
field
fjord
foothills
ford
forest
gap |
geyser
glacier
gorge
grassland
growler
gulch
gulf
gully
guyot
harbor
headland
headwater
highland
hill
hollow
horizon
iceberg
inlet
island
isle
isthmus
junction
jungle
key
kilometer
knob
knoll
lagoon
lake
land
landing
levee
locks
lookout
lowland
marsh
meadow
meander
mesa
mile
mount
mountain
mountain pass
mountain range
mouth
narrows
national park
oasis
ocean
ocean ridge
ocean trench
oxbow lake
palisade
pampas
panhandle
pass
passage
pasture
peak
peninsula
piedmont
pier
pinnacle
plain
planet
plateau
point |
polar zone
pole
pond
port
prairie
precipice
promontory
province
quarry
quicksand
rain forest
rapids
ravine
reef
region
reservoir
ridge
rift valley
river
saddle
sandbank
sandbar
savannah
sea
sea arch
sea cave
sea stack
seamount
seashore
shoal
shoreline
slope
sound
source
spit
springs
stalactite
stalagmite
state
steppe
strait
stream
summit
swamp
tableland
temperate zone
territory
timber
timberline
torrid zone
town
trail
tributary
tropical zone
tundra
valley
veldt
village
volcano
waterfall
watershed
wetlands
wharf
whitewater
woodlands
woods
zone |
Visit www.jaydavidson.com for more information about Jay Davidson.
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