Kindergarten Lesson 6: Y

This lesson was difficult for me on multiple levels. First of all, what even starts with Y that is useful in every day life????? Second of all, with the morning class I kind of didn't realize how quickly the time went by and unfortunately left almost no time for the step 4 activity, which was kind of the point of the lesson.

The students did love imagining the perfect ice cream sundae though.

In the morning class, the machine consisted of two lines of students with their hands touching at the top, creating a "tunnel." I selected a couple of students to choose a yucky food and walk through the tunnel as the students said "yuck, yuck, yuck..." repeatedly until the student came out of the machine with his/her ice cream. They would explain the ice cream to the class and then the students would say "yum, yum, yum!"

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "That's not drama." I know, and it was awful. My mentor had even warned me about it in an email. I totally failed my last lesson with my A.M. kindergarteners because I tried to teach everything in 15 minutes instead of adapting and keeping the most important things the most important. So I went to a completely new gear for the P.M. class.

With the P.M. class, we spent a lot more time making fake "yucky foods" and eating them together.  I said "Aw man! Well now we have all these yucky foods. Any ideas how we can make them yummy?" The kids suggested that we try to put different "toppings" on them to see if it would make them better, but the majority of the class still didn't like them. was a brilliant transition when one of the students said "I know what we can do! We can build a machine that will make the yucky foods into yummy foods!" With that, we colored our ice cream, and one student even drew what the machine could look like! I was in awe at the engagement and student-driven learning that was happening in the classroom!

However, in our efforts to bring the machine to life, things did get a little chaotic when the students tried to stuff the machine with themselves. You could say that our machine clogged up and kind of exploded, and that's how the lesson ended unfortunately.

I'm definitely still getting the hang of this "classroom management" thing.

I can't believe my time in kindergarten is over!! I'm going to miss our adventures so much... I feel that I have grown so much as a teacher this semester! With many failed attempts, unfortunately... But oh well. You gotta make so many mistakes before you make improvements, right?

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Casey Greenwood

BYU Arts Bridge

Kindergarten

Lesson: Y

Strand: Create, Perform

Standards:

• CR.1: Develop imagination to create artistic ideas and work.
• P.6: Use imagination to support artistic choices.
• P.9: Share dramatic play and guided drama experiences within the classroom or with invited guests.

Objective: Students will recognize the letter y sound and will be able to use their imagination to bring a situation to life by pretending to be inventors that use a machine to turn yucky food into yummy frozen yogurt.

Materials needed: Whiteboard and marker, ice cream sundae black and white pictures (1 per student), crayons/markers

Step 1: Have the students tell their carpet buddies some foods that they think are “yucky.” Next, have them talk about what ice cream/frozen yogurt flavors that they think are “yummy.” Ask the class for suggestions of ice cream/frozen yogurt toppings that make any ice cream/frozen yogurt even yummier. Write a few examples on the whiteboard.

Step 2: Have the students, at their tables, color the ultimate frozen yogurt sundae with all their favorite toppings.

Step 3: Invite the students to gather at the carpet. As a class, create a “yummy machine” that will turn any yucky food to yummy frozen yogurt. Talk about what the machine looks like, how big it is, suggest that we should paint it a color that has a y sound (yellow), etc. The class will create the machine with their bodies, leaving a pathway for the “foods” to go through.

Step 4: Have the students, one by one, start at the opening of the machine and tell the class a “yucky” food. It is okay if it is the same as someone else’s yucky food. The student will then take a “plate full” of the yucky food, walk through the machine, and when they come out, they will show the class their yummy frozen yogurt sundae that the yucky food turned into!