Unit Guide

Connect to Our World: Building a Global Community of Learners

Quazonia J. Quarles

The purpose of this curriculum unit is to teach kindergarten students to appreciate and understand people from diverse cultures and ethnicities. The process in teaching children about others has been scaffolded into topics that build a base of appreciation for self, their families, community, country and then globally. This curriculum unit will require approximately four months of teaching during 45 minutes of social studies blocks. Teaching strategies include reading children’s literature, asking and answering questions, graphic organizers, drawing responses to questions and home/school connection activities. Through literature, students will analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text. Students will use this literature to discuss culture and how people are alike and different. After reading, the various text, students will discuss the cultures represented as well as use the globe and world map to identify the areas of these cultures. Students will have opportunities to make connections from text to self as well as text to world by comparing their way of life to others represented in the literature. In addition, students will compare text to world by using graphic organizers and discussion to compare two different cultures.