Integrated Curriculum

583 Words2 Pages

Integrating literacy with different content areas can be a very constructive way to help foster literacy development in children. One way to integrate literacy with art is to select a book that is based on your classroom theme and extend one aspect of that book into an art project. Discuss connections between the project and the book with the children. Ask open ended questions and allow the children to make the connections without giving them the answers. Literacy is integrated with music on many levels without having to strive to connect them. Kindermusik research tells us that “Listening is the first language mode that children acquire, and it provides a foundation for all aspects of language and reading development.” ("The Impact of Music"). Music also introduces many new vocabulary words for children to explore, and helps support phonological and phonemic awareness. So using music in your classroom will go a long way to helping language development. Integrating math and literacy may seem hard to some, after all math is numbers. But math is more than just numbers. It’s problem solving, measuring, patterns, shapes and so much more. Anytime you give a child a problem to figure out and use open ended questions to prompt them you are using literacy. One way to integrate math and literacy is cooking activities. You’ll be combing casual conversation by reading the recipe and asking questions along with the math skill of measuring. Science for young children should always be hands-on and not fact studying. Science for young children should involve, asking questions, probing for answers, collecting data, and doing investigations. By doing these things you are using language, promoting conversation, prompting thinking skills, and ... ... middle of paper ... ...ld. You have to know when enough is enough and not pack too much into one lesson or you run the risk of confusing the children. The themes should be child directed and not planned out a year in advance by the teacher. The teacher doesn’t know if what interested last year’s group will interest this year’s group. It is important to let the children learn by what interests them. Works Cited “The Impact of Music on Language & Early Literacy: The Impact of Music on Language & Early Literacy: A Research Summary in Support of Kindermusik’s ABC Music & Me." Abcmusicandme.com. Kindermusik, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. http://www.abcmusicandme.com/documents/ impact_of_music_on_literacy.pdf>. Salas, Mike. "Integrated Curriculum." Aplaceofourown.org. Community Television of Southern California, 2007. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. http://aplaceofourown.org/question_detail.php?id=635

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