In our district we have an initiative called World of Work (WoW), which exposes students to various careers that align with specific personality traits, strengths, and interests. RIASEC codes (developed by Dr. Holland) stand for: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. In EAK this year I get the opportunity to introduce students to WoW and begin exploring with them and identifying the codes that best fit their own interests and strengths.
- problem solving
- using science or math to solve problems
- observational and analytical
To best expose my students to these interests and skills, I developed a unit on Doctors and added lessons about germs in the process! Here's what I've included in my unit and a few resources that helped me bring a fun and engaging experience to our little learners.
Doctors use tools: Stethoscopes and X-Ray Machines
My students learned that doctors and nurses use different kinds of tools to do their jobs and to keep us healthy. One of those tools is a stethoscope! They really enjoyed the Doctor Station this week as they pretended to be doctors and patients in our dramatic play center. It was really fun to see and hear them socializing with each other and using the new vocabulary we've been discussing in our lessons!
Also, one of our art projects was creating our own x-rays using white crayons, glue, and q-tips! I introduced them to x-ray machines that they take pictures of our bones. I also shared that dentists are also a type of doctor that helps keep our teeth healthy - they had no idea that our teeth are also bones and that dentists use x-rays to see inside our teeth and gums!
Thank you Amber from ABCs to ACTs preschool blog for this wonderful idea!
Growing Germs
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| photo credit: Playdough to Plato |
Playdough to Plato is a wonderful preschool blog that has so many great ideas. I happened to stumble upon her Growing Germs experiment and I knew my class would love to do this. Sorry I don't have my own photo to share, but our apples turned out very similarly to hers!
We talked every day about what we were observing (which is practicing their Investigative code as well!) on our apples and discussing why the "dirty" apple started growing germs moreso than the other slices. It was really cool to see their interests grow!
Germ Blow Painting
Blow painting is one of the easiest centers to pull together! This week in our Artistic station, or our Maker Station, students created germs by blowing paint! I only had them work with one color and I added water to the paint to help loosen it. I snipped the straws in half so we could make them last and it worked!
It was fun to see the different "germ" people they created and now we get to display them in our classroom! I loved incorporating this idea from Sam over at Simple Everyday Mom blog! There are so many ways to bring this blow painting to life and use it for various lessons or topics.
BrainPop Jr.: Going to the Doctor
I personally love using BrainPop Jr. to enhance any unit and have used Annie and Moby plenty of times as a 2nd grade teacher. I was curious to see if I could find any videos that could be used in our unit about doctors and health. Thankfully, Annie and Moby have a video called: Going to the Doctor.
In this video they explain that doctors are medical professionals that keep our bodies healthy. I love that they shared that we should all go to the doctor for regular health check-ups as well as when we don't feel good. This video was a great way to show my little EAK students that going to the doctor doesn't have to be scary. Throughout the video, Annie walks you through what to expect from when you arrive to why doctors ask the questions they do. She shares about the different tools they use and even talk about why vaccines are important. Best of all, this is all explained in under 5 minutes!
This week was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed seeing my students love their learning about doctors. What fun activities do you share with your students to teach them about doctors and germs?
