It seems that every year teachers have more and more demands placed on them yet no more time added to the school day. We must integrate certain aspects of our day in order to 'get it all in' in the time we are given and even then it is difficult. Use these links to download some ideas for ways to integrate the subject areas and consider the following ideas:
Your shared reading time can be combined with your science or social studies time. Read together with children from Big Books or from textbooks. As long as
each child can see the text, this is considered 'shared reading'. Incorporate several shared reading strategies when you are able to read from big books.
Get involved in your textbook adoptions. Write a waiver if the program does not meet your needs. If you need more big books and guided reading books, consider going with a company that meets your needs instead of you changing your entire routine to fit the needs of the company.
Consider combining your snack time with you independent reading time. Children may choose spot in the room to take their books and snacks to read quietly. It makes this time very desirable and children begin to associate good feelings about reading as well.
Take a LONG hard look at morning work and think of the purpose of what you have children do at the beginning of their day. Do you feel like children are learning as soon as they walk in the door, or are you just keeping them busy? You may want to have this time be your independent writing time, or allow children to read books from book baskets. Morning work can be time consuming and when you really look at it, not very effective.
Centers are a great tool for integration. If you need children to have more time to practice independent work in math, add a math center. If children need more time to write independently, add a writing center. If more time is needed for science or social studies exploration, add it to your centers.
Basically you need to thoroughly evaluate everything you do and try to incorporate as much as possible. The old saying 'kill two birds with one stone' needs to be put to use in our classrooms.
Flat Stanley Project
Gordon's Ladder
It Looks Like Play
Letter Language Number Rymes
Letter Language - Large Print (Microsoft Word required to view)
SDE - Integrating the Subject Areas
SDE - Shared Reading
Writing across the Content Areas |
