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Kindergarten Understanding by Design Unit

Seonyeong Lee

260849025

EDEE 253: Kindergarten Classroom Pedagogy

Rationale for choosing the topic "Rain"

Children experience the change in the weather since they are very young. Among different weathers, the rain is most likely to trigger
their different emotions: some feel depressed when the sky is dark and it rains whereas some are so excited that they would love to go outside
and enjoy the feeling of getting rained on. The rain not just stimulate students emotions, but also is closely related to numerous scientific ideas
such as the cycle of water. By becoming familiar with the concept of the rain in early childhood, students will be able to grab the information of
the rain and other related topics more easily when they get to learn them in the secondary school.
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Title of Unit Rainy Day
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Time Frame 6~8 Weeks
Developed By Seonyeong Lee
School Rainbow School
Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)

Domain Areas: Curricular(subject) Areas:

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1. Psychomotor development
●Children will be jumping, skipping, and hopping on the picture of a puddle.
●Children will develop the sense of dynamic balance by walking on the
picture of a log across the pond.
●Children will express rainstorm using their bodies.
●Children will express the movement of the earthworm using their bodies.
●Children will develop fine-motor skills by building a structure under which
they can avoid the rain.
2. Emotional development
●Children will share their stories and emotions towards the rain after reading
the book related to the rain.
●During the group work, students will be able to complete the work they are
in charge of.
●Students will be able to express their feelings in an appropriate way when
they are interacting with others by participating in various group works.
3. Social development
●Students will show respect to their peers by listening to them.
●Students will develop their ability to work in teams by actively participating
in the group.
●Students will learn to share materials with others by being put in the
situation where the materials are not enough and they ought to figure out how
to deal with the situation.
●Students will participate in rule keeping by trying to keep heel to toe walking
on the log they made.
●Students will recognize and respect people's similarities and differences by
learning different cultures related to the rain and listening to their peers'
various stories.
4. Language development
●Children will see the patterns (rhythms, rhymes, etc) in the book.
●Children will be able to read the book in diverse ways such as chanting and
singing.
●Children will be able to properly pronounce the words they learned in the
book and use them in appropriate situations.
●Children will write or draw a journal of a rainy day.
●Children will be able to describe the weather everyday in the morning.
Especially, when it's raining, they will be able to employ the words they used
during the lessons.
5. Cognitive development
●Children will be able to answer questions I ask using the information
1. Math
●While reading the book Raindrop, Plop, students will count from one to ten
and ten to one. They will also express certain numbers of raindrops on the
umbrella.
●When students write their journal, they will write both numerical and verbal
version of the date and time with the weather. For example, when it's
November 15th, they will write down November fifteenth as well as 15/11/2020.
And if it's 18:26, they will write down both 6:26 p.m. and six twenty-six. Also,
they will express the mood of the day with the number from 1 to 10.
2. Science
●Throughout the unit, students will learn that organisms need water to grow
by actually growing plants in the classroom. They will observe the process by
which plants become taller and flourish when they water them.
●Students will do a rain jar experiment by which students will learn how it
rains, observing simplified clouds and rain.
3. Music
●Using the materials in the classroom, students will design a sound of the rain.
●Students will devise the rain sticks using paper tubes and different kinds of
beans in order to represent the sound of the rain.
●Students will be introduced several songs related to the rain such as "It's
Rainy" and "How's the Weather?" and will sing them on the rainy days.
4. Art
●Students will express their experiences related to rain by drawing or crafting
with various materials.
●Students will develop their art skills and creativity by drawing puddles and a
log using watercolors.
●Students will make rain boots by doing origami and create their own version
of rainy day.
●Students will make a rainbow using various colors of strings.
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Essential Questions Enduring Understandings

Open-ended questions that stimulate thought and inquiry linked to the What do you want students to understand & be able to use several years from
content of the enduring understanding. now?
1. What can you do when it's raining outside? 1. Students will understand and properly use several expressions that can be used to
2. What can you see in a rainy day? describe a rainy day.
3. How can you express a rainy day? 2. Students will understand some factors with which they can detect it's raining.
4. How do you know that it's raining? 3. Students will understand that animals and plants need water to survive and one of
5. What does the rain mean to you? the sources of water is the rain.

Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)

What assessment strategies /tools will help check for understanding? Performance Task (Overview)

●At the end of each lesson, I will ask students what they learned during the ●Students will act a light rain, heavy rain, rainstorm, and rainbow by
class and repeatedly review what was addressed in the lesson. Here, I can see if differentiating how active they move. They will also hold different colors of
students grabbed the key idea of the lesson. fabrics in order to maximize their movement and expression.
●As a formative assessment, when students come to school in the morning each
day, they will describe the weather of the day in their own words. When it's
raining, students will be encourage d to use more various words that were
dealt during the lessons.
●Summative assessment will be conducted at the end of the unit. Students will
be assessed on each developmental domain.

Learning Plan (Stage 3)

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How will you hook students at the beginning of the unit? (motivational set)
What events will help students experience and explore the enduring
understandings and essential questions in the unit? How will you equip them
with needed skills and knowledge? How will you organize and sequence the
learning activities to optimize the engagement and achievement of all students?
I will make students listen to the sound of falling raindrops. Then, students will
guess what this sound is. After sharing what they have felt while listening to the
sound, they will listen to a song called "It's Rainy." Then, students will learn the
song and sing it altogether. When this singing activity is done, I will explain that we
will be learning about the rain for next couple of months.
Then, I will bring plants and tell students that we will grow these plants during then
and see what happens to them.
●Students will first read literary works related to the rain such as Raindrop,
Plop! and become familiar with the words that express rain and the rainy day.
●Students will then think about their own experiences and stories related to
the rain and write or draw a journal regarding them.
●Students will also be engaged in various plays twice a week that will make
them keep motivated and have positive attitude towards what they are
learning.
●Students will then make puddles and a log. They will be jumping, skipping,
and hopping on the puddles and carefully cross the log.
●Students will also learn different songs related to the rain and sing them
when it's raining.
●Then, students will do scientific experiments for the last couple of weeks
during which they will learn the process of raining.
●Students will participate in the performance task during which they will
express a light rain, heavy rain, rainstorm, and rainbow using their bodies.
●Students will observe the plants and identify the difference between when
they first encountered the plants and now. They will think about what made
them grow and write down or draw their ideas.
●As the formative assessment, students will work individually and in teams to
complete a project by which they will be assessed on each developmental
domain.
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How will you cause students to reflect and rethink? How will you guide them
in rehearsing, revising, and refining their work based on your essential
questions and enduring understandings?
How will you help students to exhibit their growing skills, knowledge, and
understanding throughout the unit?
Environment
(What will be added to the environment to support the unit?)
I will try to conduct a lot of class discussions by asking productive questions. Here,
students will be expected to reflect their initial ideas and how those ideas have
changed after investigations and experiments.
Also, at the end of each lesson, I will repeat the essential question of the lesson so
that students can check themselves if they can answer the question and ask them
what they liked and didn't like during the class.
I will use a portfolio to collect each student's works as well as to put the picture of
them working individually and together.
Also, after each activity, students will be invited in front of the class and introduce
their works: why and how they devised those artworks, what they wrote in their
journal, etc. I will take a picture of them presenting as well and put it on their
portfolios.
Conversations
What open ended questions can I ask to learn through conversations that will
scaffold children’s learning?
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●Children's recent artworks will be posted on the wall. I will make them
displayed on the eye level of children. All other works will be collected in their
portfolios.
●Children's drawings of puddles and a log will be placed on the floor so that
students can play with them after the lesson.
●Learning centers will help students with different learning styles and
preferences to reach their full potential while they are learning.
●What happened when the clouds could not hold water anymore?
●Why did you make your movement in such way in order to express light rain/
rainstorm/ rainbow?
●What do you think best solution is when there is no enough materials for all
individuals?
●What do you think the plants need in order to grow?
●What's the difference between when it's raining and it isn't?
●What kinds of patterns can you identify in this book?
●Does anyone want to share their stories about a rainy day? Do you like when
it's raining? Why or why not?
●How do you think we can imitate the sound of the rain using the materials
around us?

Play
Resources
What interactions (e.g., environment,
What resources will you use in the
conversations) can I offer to maximize Outline of l planned lessons:
learning experiences to meet the
the children’s opportunities for learning
outcomes?
and inquiry?
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1. Books ●Learning centers will consist of a 1. Art lesson
●Singing in the Rain reading center in which students will Students will imagine and draw a huge puddle made during the rainy day.
●Tap Tap Boom Boom given various texts and comprehensive They will also draw a log across the puddle. Then, assuming that they are
●Raindrop, Plop! questions, a music center in which wearing rain coats and boots, they will skip and hop on the puddle. When they
●Splish! Splash! students will make rain sticks to express meet the log, they will do heel-to-toe walking, assuming they have a mission to
●This is Our World the sound of the rain, and a tactile center safely cross the pond. Alternatively, students can draw several small puddles
in which students will be provided with and, assuming that they don't have rain boots, they can walk on the paintings
2. Materials for Activities the wet leaves and dry leaves and talk while trying to avoid the puddles.
●watercolor about the changes in the nature due to
●fabric the rain.
●colored papers 2. Science lesson
●beans ●Students will be provided with cards Students will make a rain cloud using fluffy shaving cream on top of the water.
●paper tubes with the images of different weathers Then, they will pour blue tinted water on the rain cloud and observe the blue
●umbrella and with the words of different rainwater being smeared in the cloud and eventually falling off. Through this
●cottons weathers. In teams, they will match the activity, students will learn that the clouds hold water until certain extent and
●stickers picture and the word. when they can no longer hold it, it starts to rain.
●shaving cream
●etc ●First, students will create a structure
that they can go inside. Then, one 3. Reading activity「Raindrop, Plop!」with an art lesson
3. Youtube clips student will assume the role of rain and First, I will read the book aloud. Then, I will make students read aloud the
●https://www.youtube.com/watch? tag someone while everyone is running. book together. After letting students realize the patterns in the book which are
v=wUUGI8p_NzU The student who got tagged will be the the increasing and then decreasing numbers, I will pair up students and assign
●https://www.youtube.com/watch? rain and tag another. One special rule is each pair a number from one to ten. Then, we will do the read aloud again, but
v=t7Q7y_xjR5E that the tagger can't catch students who at this time, students will read the parts of their corresponding numbers, and I
●https://www.youtube.com/watch? are in the structure. Also, students can will read the rest. At the end, we will read the book again altogether.
v=7Li59FFilYQ stay in the structure for 10 seconds at a
time.
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Assess and Reflect (Stage 4)

Does my unit promote life long learning, encourage the development of self and I will make sure to connect what students learn to their real lives and
community, and engage students? introduce them the very basic of life science.

Through the literary works, students will extend their understanding of their
surrounding nature, especially weathers. They will develop their understanding of
Do the learning experiences allow learners to use multiple literacies while
the rain and further air pollution that contaminates the rain. I will help them
constructing knowledge, demonstrating social
develop a citizenship that they should preserve the environment for the creatures
responsibility, and acting autonomously in their world?
living in the world.

Adaptive Dimension:
●I will induce students' learning by asking numerous productive questions related
Have I made purposeful adjustments to the curriculum content (not outcomes),
to not only the content of what they are learning but the ways by which they are
instructional practices, and/or the learning environment to meet the learning
learning so that I can tier the instruction styles and contents in order to maximize
needs of all my students?
their learning.
●I will make sure that students benefit from learning centers.
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Instructional Approaches:
Do I use a variety of teacher directed and student-centered instructional
approaches?
Student Evaluation:
Have I included formative and summative assessments reflective of student
needs and interests based on curricular outcomes?
Resource Based Learning:
Do the students have access to various resources on an ongoing basis?
Content and Perspectives/Gender Equity/Multicultural Education:
Have I nurtured and promoted diversity while honoring each child’s identity?
Adapted from: Wiggins, Grant and J. McTighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
I will make sure that the content of learning is related to students' own lives and let
them make choices in terms of the content and way of learning. I will design and
introduce activities during which students can make their own plans.
Students will be continuously assessed formatively before and during the classes.
At the end of the unit, I will conduct a summative assessment during which
students will demonstrate their cognitive, language, psychomotor, and social skills
related to what they have learned throughout the unit.
Students will have an access to the classroom library where they can read the
books related to the rain throughout the unit. Also, the learning centers will always
have enough materials that students can choose to use.
●I will introduce how people react to the rain in different ways. For example, in
some countries, it's very common for people to use umbrellas even during the light
rain whereas people in other countries tend not to use umbrellas until the heavy
rain.
●Also, I will mention that in some religions, the rain is considered to be God's
wrath.
●Moreover, I will share the stories of different gods of rain with students.