Q is for Quetzal

Imagination is a fun way to interact with kids. They bring so much wonderment to the lessons. Here is one way I have tried to capture this in a classroom  lesson.

The schools I have worked in often introduce a letter each week in Kindergarten. It makes it easy for me to plan my lessons around the letter of the week. In the past I created  lessons that used the letter and introduced an animal. I love doing this as a whole classroom lesson in the kindergarten rooms and it can be done in 30 minutes.  This activity introduced lots of vocabulary, comparing/contrasting, listening skills and problem solving skills.  This is the outline/script I usually followed:

Quetzal

1. What is the letter this week? Q!!

2. Who can think of any words that start with Q? queen, quick, etc.

3. Who can think of a creature/animal that starts with Q? not too many for this one!

4. If the animal was not guessed then I would give clues. It can fly, etc. I picked animals with two thoughts in mind- 1. a Minnesota animal  or 2. an animal that was unique or not as familiar and if I could find information about the creature

5. I would have books (from the school library), pictures, etc. and we would learn facts about the creature and where it lived.  We looked on the globe or map to find its habitat. Now the information could be displayed right on my iPad.

6.  I would choose 2-3 students to be the creature. They first came in front and stated one fact about the creature- “it eats frogs” etc.  The “creatures” would hide around the room and act out the fact they had stated.  I would use animal noses or other props that fit the creature. It could even be deciding what in the room would make a good nest.

7. The class would decide how we could travel to visit the creature- plane, train, boat, walk, drive, etc. We would pack our backpacks with our supplies which were dependent on where we were headed.  We might need sunscreen, sunglasses, rain coats, etc. We ALWAYS packed our cameras and binoculars. Now we can take real pictures on my iPad, iPhone or iTouch.  This app would be a fun way to make an ABC book for our creatures: ABC Spy

8. After “flying” to our destination we had guides to lead us on our safari. If there were 3 creatures hiding then we had 3 guides. We all followed in a line behind our guides as we traveled around the classroom and when the creature was spotted the guide would point. The cameras went wild but the voices were always quiet. We did not want to disturb our creatures!

9.  We “flew” home and sat in our kindergarten spots. I had reporters come to the front of the group to “show” the picture or “video” they had taken. They each talked about what the creature was doing. We all put our photos into our “photo books.”

10. I always sent home a page that talked about our creature so they could continue the safari with their families. This is the one for: Quetzal

So what adventure do you have planned?