Section III Applying Fundamental Concepts, Attitudes, and Skills Unit 22 Integrating the Curriculum through Dramatic Play and Thematic Units and Projects

Section IIIApplying Fundamental Concepts,

Attitudes, and Skills

Unit 22Integrating the Curriculum through

Dramatic Play and Thematic Units and Projects

©2013 Cengage Learning.All Rights Reserved.

Integration

• Dramatic play and thematic units and projects provide opportunities for children to apply and extend their math and science concepts


Dramatic Play

• Allows children to use the concepts and skills they are learning in math, science, and other content areas through play

• Allows children to practice being adults


• Allows children to learn to play cooperatively

• Problem-solving skills are refined through dramatic play


Concepts are applied in a multitude of play activities

Examples:1. One-to-one correspondence can be practiced by

exchanging play money for goods or services

2. Sets and classifying are involved in organizing each dramatic play center in an orderly manner, for example, placing all the items in the drugstore in the proper place

3. Counting can be applied to figuring out how many items have been purchased and how much money must be exchanged


Concepts are applied in a multitude of play activities

4. Comparing and measuring can be used to decide if clothing fits, to determine the weight of fruits and vegetables purchased, to check a sick person’s temperature, and to decide on which size box of cereal or carton of milk to purchase

5. Spatial relations and volume concepts are applied as items purchased are placed in bags, boxes, and/or baskets and as children discover how many passengers will fit in the space shuttle or can ride on the bus

6. Number symbols can be found throughout dramatic play props, for example, on price tags, play money, telephones, cash registers, scales, measuring cups and spoons, thermometers, rulers, and calculator

©2010 Cengage Learni g.All Rights Reserved.

Thematic Units and Projects

• Allow mathematics and science to be integrated with other content areas

• Provide real life connections for abstract concepts

• Offer opportunities for naturalistic and informal activities


Topics for Thematic Units and Projects

• Many topics can serve as the focus for a thematic unit

• Children can select topics of interest for project study

• Mathematics and science can be integrated into these units and projects


Webbing (concept mapping)

Thematic Unit Example: Food

A thematic unit that focuses on food can involve many science, mathematics, social studies, language arts, art, music, and movement experiences:

• As scientists, children observe the growth of food, the physical changes that take place when food is prepared, and the effects of food on growth of humans and animals


Food Unit

• They also compare the tastes of different foods and categorize them into those they like and those they dislike and into:

1. Sweet and sour

2. Liquid and solid

3. “Junk” and healthful

4. Groups such as meat/dairy products,

cereals/ breads, and fruits/vegetables


Food Unit

As mathematicians, children pour, measure, count, cut wholes into parts, and divide full pans or full bowls into equal servings

• They count the strokes when mixing a cake,

• make sure the oven is on the correct temperature setting, and set the clock for the required baking time


Food Unit

• At the store, they exchange money for food and weigh fruits and vegetables

• They count the days until their beans sprout or the fruit ripens


Food Unit

Through food experiences, children learn much about society and culture

• They can make foods from different cultures

• They learn where food is grown, how it is marketed, and how it must be purchased with money at the grocery store

• They cooperate with each other and take turns when preparing food, and then they share what they make with others


Food Unit

Music & Movement:

• They can move like an eggbeater, like a stalk of wheat blowing in the wind,

• or like a farmer planting seeds


Documents

Section III Applying Fundamental Concepts, Attitudes, and Skills Unit 22 Integrating the Curriculum through Dramatic Play and Thematic Units and Projects