Kindergarten Dinosaurs

[Paul Fairchild]

I was a bit phased by this question since I haven’t really seen Mrs. Ziemann lead any full lessons with the kids, simply due to the fact my tutoring usually falls during free time, snack, and rest time. However, the class theme lately has been regarding dinosaurs. Before, it was centered around pumpkins. Now, the classroom is filled with student drawings of dinosaurs, dinosaur themed books and various dinosaur themed decorations. I’m not sure of the rhyme or reason for this- obviously, before the pumpkins were directly related to the Halloween season. Dinosaurs seem to be a bit out of left field, but it certainly seems to have the kiddos excited and it’s a good liaison for teaching the kids other subjects. All it takes is a caricatured dinosaur to get the kids engaged, and you can teach them anything from there.

That said, this lesson about dinosaurs seems to have a few objectives. Firstly, it’s attempting to make the children aware of dinosaurs and give them a little perspective on paleontology  and the general age of the earth. It’s certainly done that, the children are clearly excited about dinosaurs. Secondly, it’s attempting to reinforce their counting skills. I’ve helped the kids with an assignment where they had to arrange strips of paper with a partial image of a dinosaur and a number. If they arranged the numbers in the correct order and glued them down, they would have a complete picture of a dinosaur. I’ve come to realize that with kids this age, lessons aren’t necessarily about the ability to reinforce one specific skill or the ability to learn about one topic, it’s just about subtly reinforcing all the basic skills they’re trying to master, like counting! Secondly, it’s being used to reinforce reading skills. Every day during the day, I would assume, and based on what I’ve observed when it does happen, that every day during a lesson they read a book regarding the topic. This helps to reinforce their reading skills and keeps them interested with the broader topic. I’ve even seen some dinosaur books pop up in their book-in-a bags!

I’m not sure how Mrs. Ziemann concluded the lesson. I’m not there to see everything, but I’m sure she had something fun. In general, the kids are pretty extrinsically motivated. They just don’t know any better. Plus, their actual academic assignments and free time activities tend to look pretty similar. I doubt it’s anything she ever even bothered to take into account. I wish I could give more detail on the lesson, but like I’ve said, I’m kinda stuck.

One thing I’ve loved about this term working with the kids is how I’ve gotten to know them all. I know the St. Olaf tutors tend to rotate between classes. There’s one girl that helps in Tuesdays in my class, but that’s it. She doesn’t get the same amount of time with the same kids that I do. It’s been so great to really get to know every kid. It’s definitely helped me in situations where I’ve worked with them one-on-one. Even knowing something simple like that Anastacia loves cats helps keep them interested. It’s fun to be able to relate things like counting to her love for cats, or anything else.”1 cat 2 cat 3 cat 4 cat..” Just little things to help keep them engaged. I’m hoping to return to the class at somepoint this year. It’s starting to hit me I’m reaching the end of my time with them, and it’s making me really sad. I’ll just try to make the best of it and hopefully I will get the chance to return!

 

 

[Renee Smith]

Hi Paul!

It makes complete sense that the dinosaur lesson doesn’t seem to have a concrete plan behind it with the objectives and specific structuring like we’ve talked about in class. Honestly, I think that’s where younger grades actually seem to have an advantage in student engagement over upper levels, because like you said they are focusing so much more on learning skills rather than discrete chunks of information. While many upper grade lessons have objectives like “students will be able to synthesize so and so”, the lessons tend so much more to focus on the actual information that students need to have learned to be able to come up with larger patterns and conclusions on their own instead of using things that interest them to teach them the larger skill of synthesis. Mrs. Ziemann definitely seems to have some freedom in how she gets to build certain skills with her students and it is super cool to hear how engaged the students are (for reference, I tutor high school students, for many of whom the actual lessons seem to definitely not interest, if only they could learn chemistry with the help of dinosaurs!).

I also completely understand being bummed about tutoring ending. Even though the students I work with don’t tend to talk to me about how much they love cats, their questions and conversations with me are definitely something I’ll really miss. I actually mentioned this casually to a St Olaf student who tutors on Thursday with me and she didn’t seem as bummed, which I think was because of exactly the reason you mentioned, she switches between a couple different classes and so I think the students didn’t connect with her as much. I’m really glad that you’re hoping to return! I’m sure the kids will absolutely love to see you again, especially since you’ve taken the time to connect with them, learn their interests, and help customize their learning. I hope you get a chance to go back!

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