WEEK 5 final project-Thematic Unit

Throughout this course you have learned about many different aspects of curriculum planning and development to support the needs of diverse learners. In your summative assignment you will bring this knowledge together by finalizing lessons you began in Weeks 2 and 3 to develop your complete thematic unit. You will also continue to build your ePortfolio by adding a new page with your thematic unit.

To prepare for this assignment,

• Please refer to the Week 5 Guidance for further tips and examples that will support your success on this assignment.
• If you did not begin the development of your ePortfolio in ECD 305, please read the Folio Quick Start Guide (Links to an external site.).
• Read Chapter 11: Language, Literacy, and Language Arts.
• Review the feedback you have received on your previous assignments.
• Review the ECD 315 Summative Assessment Template downloadand ECD 315 Week 5 Summative Assessment Sample. download

In your assignment,

• Describe how the thematic unit you have created aligns with your philosophy of curriculum and uses a developmentally appropriate approach to meeting the needs of diverse learners. Refer back to your Week 2 Assignment: Sharing Curriculum with Families and Week 3 Assignment: Developing Your Thematic Unit for support.
• Explain your plan for sharing this thematic unit with the families of the children you are working with. Refer back to your Week 2 Assignment: Sharing Curriculum with Families for support.
• Examine your role in fostering each child’s development and joy of learning through the implementation of this unit, including how you will consider the needs of diverse learners.
• Finalize the concept map that you started in Week 3 by revising your current map and adding at least three ideas for social-emotional development, social studies, and literacy. Refer back to your Week 3 Assignment Developing Your Thematic Unit and Week 4 discussion Cognitive Development Through Math and Science for support.
• Develop your thematic unit lessons:
  • Revise your Creative Arts focused lesson from Week 3: Use the feedback you received from your instructor in addition to any new learning,
  • Revise your Fine and Gross Motor Skills focused lesson from Week 3: Use the feedback you received from your instructor in addition to any new learning,
  • Develop a STEM focused lesson. You must use the ECE/CD Lesson Plan Template (Links to an external site.) to create your lesson. Refer back to the plan you created in the Week 4 Discussion: Cognitive Development Through Science and Math to complete your lesson.
  • Develop a literacy and social -emotional focused lesson. You must use the ECE/CD Lesson Plan Template (Links to an external site.) to create your lesson.

Assignment Submission Requirements:

• This assignment will be submitted to Waypoint, as well as added to your ePortfolio. Please refer to the instructions below to submit your assignment.

For this assignment, you must submit

• A link to your electronic portfolio in Folio. To do this you will copy and paste the web address into the comments feature in Waypoint.
• A Word document of your completed assignment.

The Thematic Unit

• Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least three scholarly resources (Links to an external site.) in addition to the course text.
  • The BA ECDDI Research Guide is a resource that has been developed to assist you in completing the library research required for this assignment. Click on the button titled ECD 310 from the homepage of the research guide to gain access to additional resources that can support you with the development of your assignment.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center. Please refer to the In-Text Citation Guide (Links to an external site.) for further assistance.
• Must include a separate reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center. Please refer to the APA References List (Links to an external site.) resource for further assistance.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment

Week 2 and 3 feedback

Jennifer,

Nice work on your first assignment for the course. I was unable to view your assignment in Waypoint, so I had to view a downloaded version. It is evident that you understand how important it is for families to understanding the curriculum you are using with their children. You did a nice job of setting the purpose of your presentation and summarizing the philosophy of curriculum planning that you plan to use. You were able to use research to support your philosophy. Your discussion of how you will use early learning and academic standards to drive your curriculum was solid. You were able to discuss how you will differentiate your curriculum to meet the needs of diverse learners and shared how you will examine the professional and ethical practices related to working with families. Finally, you made sure to discuss how you will use play as a part of your curriculum and how you will keep families informed about curriculum throughout the year. Your presentation followed APA format and was supported with relevant resources. While you did a nice job covering the content, I want to give you a suggestion for improving in the future to keep your slides from being so full. Instead of putting so much on your slides themselves, try using the slide notes. This will allow you to be able to just highlight key points on the slide and then to describe them in detail in the slide notes. Give it a try next time.

Jenn

Jennifer,

Thank you for the effort you put into this assignment; it will help you with your summative. In your assignment, you included a concept map with at least three ideas related to creative arts, fine motor skills and gross motor skills. You shared the theme of your unit and provided a rationale for how the unit is developmentally appropriate for your chosen classroom. Your creative arts lesson from Week 2 was further developed and is headed in a good direction, as is your fine/gross motor skill lesson. Please see my comments on your lesson plans for some specific feedback and guidance. I will be looking for you to incorporate this feedback in your summative, so please let me know if you have any questions. If you find the hidden word in my in-text comments, please send it to me via course messages.

Jenn

Assignment Thematic Unit

Thematic units are used often in the early childhood classroom. As the professional you will learn about your students and get to know what their interests and hobbies are. You will learn where your students are developmentally and you will then begin setting up interest centers and choosing themes that can be used throughout your day and in all areas of the curriculum.

When you are choosing your theme it will more than likely align with your philosophy and be able to cross all curriculum and developmental domains. It needs to be interesting to the student and allow for hands-on engaging learning opportunities. At the beginning of the year you will get to know your students and discuss and relay to families what types of things you will be doing in your classroom (daily schedule, snack calendar, themes, centers, cooking, field trips, Parent Parties, etc).

After you choose your themes for the year, you can choose children’s literature that coincides with them, cooking activities and even have take-home book bags for families to work on at home that involve the themes. You will set your centers up to incorporate each theme, you will cover the theme at carpet time, large group, small group and one-on-one time. Your assessment will reflect on each one of the learning opportunities so that you can see what students understood and what you should re-teach.

Your assignment must include the following:

In your assignment,

• Describe how the thematic unit you have created aligns with your philosophy of curriculum and uses a developmentally appropriate approach to meeting the needs of diverse learners. Refer back to your Week 2 Assignment: Sharing Curriculum with Families and Week 3 Assignment: Developing Your Thematic Unit for support.
  • Instructor Tip: What is your philosophy of teaching and caring for young children? How does the theme you chose align with your philosophy?
  • Instructor Tip: Think back to what DAP means and what it means for you as the EC professional. What are the DAP approaches you will be using to meet the needs of all the learners in your care?
• Explain your plan for sharing this thematic unit with the families of the children you are working with. Refer back to your Week 2 Assignment: Sharing Curriculum with Families for support.
  • Instructor Tip: How will you involve families in the themes you use to teach?
  • Instructor Tip: How do you plan to explain the different themes with the families and show or tell them what they are?
• Examine your role in fostering each child’s development and joy of learning through the implementation of this unit, including how you will consider the needs of diverse learners.
  • Instructor Tip: How will you find out each student’s interests? How will you incorporate those interests into choosing each theme for the year?
  • Instructor Tip: How will you ensure that you are meeting all students’ needs?
• Finalize the concept map that you started in Week 3 by revising your current map and adding at least three ideas for social-emotional development, social studies, and literacy. Refer back to your Week 3 Assignment Developing Your Thematic Unit and Week 4 discussion Cognitive Development Through Math and Science for support.
• Develop your thematic unit lessons:
  • Revise, using the feedback you received from your instructor, in addition to any new learning, your Creative Arts focused lesson from Week 3
  • Revise, using the feedback you received from your instructor, in addition to any new learning, your Fine and Gross Motor Skills focused lesson from Week 3
  • Instructor Tip: Take the feedback and reflect and make your lesson better.
  • Develop a STEM focused lesson. You must use the ECE/CD Lesson Plan Template to create your lesson. Refer back to the plan you created in the Week 4 Discussion: Cognitive Development Through Science and Math to complete your lesson.
  • Develop a literacy and social -emotional focused lesson. You must use the ECE/CD Lesson Plan Template to create your lesson.Week 4 discussion
  • Describe how incorporating math and science into the early childhood curriculum can promote cognitive development in young children.

  Cognitive development is significant with the brain development of young children because it helps determine how children think, explore and figure things out. This contributes to their thinking skills, including basic knowledge of their surroundings, problem-solving, enhancing skills, and dispositions. Math and science play a big role in promoting cognitive development because it pushes children to explore and think harder. Math and science is something that the children will come into contact with daily, and they should begin to be prepared for how to use the information provided to then and solve the problem without the help of others.Explain why mathematics and science for young children a paper-and-pencil activity is no longer primarily.Hands-on activities have been proven to aid children tremendously when it comes to math and science. Seeing is believing, and children learn better by being more hands-on with activities revolving around math and science. Math and science are beneficial to children’s knowledge skills because they come into contact daily. Enhancing a child’s thinking skills enables them to think without necessarily writing it down. It enhances their ability to think and make rational decisions to help them overcome obstacles they face, whether in the classroom or on the playground. Children can develop the skills needed to figure things out without writing it down.Create a plan for a STEM lesson that incorporates either science or math and is hands-on by adding a STEM section to the concept map you started in your Week Three assignment. Attach your concept map to your discussion.Cloud in a JarMaterials needed:Food coloring, water, clear jar, shaving cream, and plastic pipettes This activity allows children to create a cloud within a jar by pouring the water in the jar and adding the food coloring inside. Once the water changes colors, add the shaving cream to form the clouds. Use the plastic pipettes to make the “rain” come out of the clouds inside the jar. Children have to measure the amount of food coloring drops to add to the water and how much water is added to the jar.