Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools

Lesson Idea Name: National Holidays

Content Area: Social Studies
Grade Level(s): Kindergarten
Content Standard Addressed:
SSKH1 Identify the national holidays and describe the people and/or events celebrated.
a. Christmas
b. Columbus Day
c. Independence Day
d. Labor Day
e. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
f. Memorial Day
g. New Year’s Day
h. Presidents Day (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the current president)
i. Thanksgiving Day
j. Veterans Day

Technology Standard Addressed: 1) Empowered Learners

Selected Technology Tool:

☒ Blog ☐ Wiki ☐ Other: Website Creation Tool (list):

URL(s) to support the lesson (if applicable):

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☒ Understanding ☐ Applying ☐ Analyzing ☐ Evaluating ☐ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☒ Level 3: Infusion ☐ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):

Engagement: Design activities so that outcomes are authentic, communicate to real audiences, and
are purposeful
Representation: provide written transcripts for videos or auditory clips
Action and Expression: Use prompts or scaffolds to estimate effort, resources, and difficulty

Lesson idea implementation:

The lesson idea is a fun introduction into national holidays. Students are asked to find something at their
house they like that represents any of the holidays we will be learning about. Some examples could be a
Christmas present, an American flag, or a stuffed bunny. They will have the whole weekend to find something
and think of what they can say to their classmates when they present what they brought. Students will be
assessed by how much effort they put forth into this activity. They should bring something thoughtful to them
and be able to explain what it is and why they like it.
The variety of artifacts the students bring in can help begin too show how every holiday differentiates and
what each one Is celebrating. To extend their learning, students could be broken up into groups by the
holiday they spoke about and research that holiday together. They can then explain deeper what that holiday
is to their classmates. Since this lesson is the introduction into holidays, the conclusion will lead me to

Summer 2017_SJB
 Classroom Blog and Website Creation Tools
teaching them about the national holidays. We can use the things all the students brought in as a visual
representation of the holidays in the classroom throughout the lesson period.

Importance of technology:
A website-creation tool is important for this project because it depends on the students bring an
object from home. Having the ability to remind the students to bring something from home with
them when they come back on Monday eases the concern of them forgetting my request. They can
access the audio clip of the homework reminder anytime through my blog so they can’t forget about
it. This project could be done without the use of a web-creation tool; however, you face the chance
that some students will forget to bring something. Also, they could bring the wrong object to class
because they couldn’t explain the project to their parents correctly. With this tool, parents can listen
to your instructions easily and fully understand what is expected from their child.

Inspiration (optional):

Internet Safety and Student Privacy:

With this project occurring mostly in the classroom, I do not see any issues with Internet safety and
student privacy arising. However, if I was to expand on the project with the group research into the
holidays, some issues could arise when they go searching on the internet for information. With this
scenario, it will be very important to go over internet safety again with students. The class should be
blocked from harmful content and highly monitored while they are online. If they want to include
any pictures in their project that they found online, remind them about copyright laws and explain
how to find perfect pictures they could use with no problems.

Reflective Practice:
This project is a great personal opportunity for students to be introduced to the new lesson on
holidays. It helps them create a connection between a prized memory and holidays, hopefully
through this connection they can memorize the holidays better which makes learning about them
easier. There are multiple ways to extend your teaching off this fun introduction into National
Holidays. One way of extending the lesson they I believe could be both fun and educational for the
students is if student create a video showing off their objects and explaining the history behind the
holiday it represents. This will bring a few other technology tools like video and media tools into
play, but students can easily catch on how to use them. Grouping the students into holidays by their
objects will make it easier for them complete the project and improve their communication skills.
Their finished videos could then be uploaded onto the blog, with their parent’s permission, and
students can access these anytime as an extra study material on National Holidays.

Summer 2017_SJB