Horizontal Plan Outline for One Year
Kindness & Growth Throughout the Year
I. Kindness Towards Myself & Getting to Know My Peers September/October
A) Me
1. My Body
2. My health & fitness
3. My feelings
4. My Safety
B) Family
1. How we treat our family members
2. How families are similar & different
3. How we treat our home
4. Respecting other families & homes
C) Classmates/Peers/Friends
1. How we treat our friends
2. Expressing our feelings appropriately
3. Classroom limits
4. How we treat our teachers & visitors
5. Getting to know one another
1. My Body
2. My health & fitness
3. My feelings
4. My Safety
B) Family
1. How we treat our family members
2. How families are similar & different
3. How we treat our home
4. Respecting other families & homes
C) Classmates/Peers/Friends
1. How we treat our friends
2. Expressing our feelings appropriately
3. Classroom limits
4. How we treat our teachers & visitors
5. Getting to know one another
II. Changes in the Earth
October/November
A) Changes in the Weather
1. Identifying changes in weather
2. Seasons
3. Colors
4. Growth during these changes (plants, food, animals)
5. How do we grow & change during these times
1. Identifying changes in weather
2. Seasons
3. Colors
4. Growth during these changes (plants, food, animals)
5. How do we grow & change during these times
III. Kindness & Culture
November/December
A) Continue with changes & Discuss Culture
1. Changes in weather, seasons, colors, growth
2. Holidays what they are & what they mean
3. How we communicate kindness during these special days
4. Discuss traditions & types of celebrations all around the world
5. How will we show kindness during this time?
1. Changes in weather, seasons, colors, growth
2. Holidays what they are & what they mean
3. How we communicate kindness during these special days
4. Discuss traditions & types of celebrations all around the world
5. How will we show kindness during this time?
IV. My Senses & Discovering the Growth All Around
January/February
A) My Senses
1. Touch
2. Taste
3. Smell
4. Hear
5. See
6. What they are & how we use them
B) Using Our Senses to Discover our Environment & Learn About New Environments/Living things
1. Indoor
2. Outdoor
3. Experiment
4. Discover
5. Discuss how other creatures/plants use their senses & compare
1. Touch
2. Taste
3. Smell
4. Hear
5. See
6. What they are & how we use them
B) Using Our Senses to Discover our Environment & Learn About New Environments/Living things
1. Indoor
2. Outdoor
3. Experiment
4. Discover
5. Discuss how other creatures/plants use their senses & compare
V. How We Express Kindness in the World
February/March
A) Expressing Kindness (revisited)
1. Towards friends & family
2. Towards Animals (pets, wild, other)
3. Towards Nature
B) People Who Help Express Kindness to the World
1. Adults - Teachers, Jobs (trash men, fire men, police officers, doctors, scientists, etc)
2. Discuss careers & why everyone's job is important
3. How we can make a difference in our every day lives -classroom/home/etc.
1. Towards friends & family
2. Towards Animals (pets, wild, other)
3. Towards Nature
B) People Who Help Express Kindness to the World
1. Adults - Teachers, Jobs (trash men, fire men, police officers, doctors, scientists, etc)
2. Discuss careers & why everyone's job is important
3. How we can make a difference in our every day lives -classroom/home/etc.
VI. How Our Bodies Grow & Change - Animals Too
March/April
A) Human Growth & Change
1. Health & Nutrition
2. Plants/Foods that grow & change
3. Fitness
4. Safety
5. Timeline - Babies to adult! How we change!
B) Animals
1. Baby animals
2. Different types of animals
3. Where they live
4. What they eat
5. How they change
6. Similarities & differences between animals & humans
1. Health & Nutrition
2. Plants/Foods that grow & change
3. Fitness
4. Safety
5. Timeline - Babies to adult! How we change!
B) Animals
1. Baby animals
2. Different types of animals
3. Where they live
4. What they eat
5. How they change
6. Similarities & differences between animals & humans
VII. Changes in the Environment, Kindness to the Earth, & Sharing
April/May
A) Changes in Environment (revisited)
1. Seasons
2. Shapes
3. Colors
4. Weather
5. Flowers & new life in the changing seasons
B) Earth Day
1. What it is
2. Why it's important
3. What we can do to be kind to the Earth
C) Sharing what I learned
1. Recap & revisit everything we learned this year & share with one another!! :-)
1. Seasons
2. Shapes
3. Colors
4. Weather
5. Flowers & new life in the changing seasons
B) Earth Day
1. What it is
2. Why it's important
3. What we can do to be kind to the Earth
C) Sharing what I learned
1. Recap & revisit everything we learned this year & share with one another!! :-)
SUMMARY
My horizontal year plan is based on what I find to be one of the most important lessons in an early childhood student's learning which is kindness (compassion, how we treat others, how we take care of ourselves, the world, etc) & learning/discovering about the world we live in while learning basic early childhood lessons. There is plenty of room to branch out into different topics that the children are interested in because really the whole concept of life, seasons, colors, weather, feelings, sharing, etc. can be reached in any type of science or math lesson when combined properly. For instance in regards to my horizontal plan, if a child is interested in space, you could branch out & teach how Earth is apart of space, discuss different life forms/environments on other planets that scientists have found (dirt, water, weather, etc), shapes (of the planets, stars, etc), & more. All of these topics are relevant & are intertwined with the basic but important lessons of kindness & the Earth.
September/October is the beginning of the school year so the focus is on becoming comfortable in the new classroom setting, appropriate behaviors, & getting to know one another. October/November goes into identification & learning about the changes we see in our every day lives. November/December is when all of the holidays begin so we focus on kindness & culture because it is relevant for the time period & usually of the utmost interest during that time. January/February is more in depth learning about the 5 senses & using them in many ways. February/March is revisiting kindness & discussing people roles. March/April revisits self awareness & also the different ways that other creatures grow in comparison to humans. April/May focuses on changes in the environment again as there are brand new seasons such as Spring & Summer that have different changes then the former Autumn & Winter. We also recap & revisit everything that we learned & share our learning with one another. While these are fairly basic topics for early childhood, they are the foundation to learning new lessons. When the children are learning about these things they will branch out to other topics that were inspired by their current learnings & this plan will leave room for the teacher to explore them with the children but still keep it relevant & educational!
September/October is the beginning of the school year so the focus is on becoming comfortable in the new classroom setting, appropriate behaviors, & getting to know one another. October/November goes into identification & learning about the changes we see in our every day lives. November/December is when all of the holidays begin so we focus on kindness & culture because it is relevant for the time period & usually of the utmost interest during that time. January/February is more in depth learning about the 5 senses & using them in many ways. February/March is revisiting kindness & discussing people roles. March/April revisits self awareness & also the different ways that other creatures grow in comparison to humans. April/May focuses on changes in the environment again as there are brand new seasons such as Spring & Summer that have different changes then the former Autumn & Winter. We also recap & revisit everything that we learned & share our learning with one another. While these are fairly basic topics for early childhood, they are the foundation to learning new lessons. When the children are learning about these things they will branch out to other topics that were inspired by their current learnings & this plan will leave room for the teacher to explore them with the children but still keep it relevant & educational!