Exploring Community History

Integrating Language Arts and Social Studies by Melber and Hunter has given me some awesome ideas for the integrated unit we are planning. Today more than at any other time, I believe that children need a since of community both in and out of the classroom.  Connecting to the community can help build citizenship and give children a sense of  belonging.  So often children do not have a personal knowledge about the community in which they live.  I have chosen strategy 6, exploring community history as one of the aspect I would like to investigate with kindergarten children.  Learning about the history of our community ties us to the past as well as the present and the future.  Just looking through the resources about farming in Murfreesboro years ago, can give us some insight as to why we are still a farming community.  It will give us the opportunity to examine how farming was a part of the community in years past and how farming has changed yet, still is apart of our community today.  The resources at our backdoor can offer so much to the children of Hertford County.  One of the activities that I would like to include in our unit is farming photo from the past so that our children can connect to the rich heritage of eastern North Carolina. Another idea is taking pictures around the community and around our school.  There is a large corn field across from our school.  What a wonderful place to see corn harvested this fall.  In fact, I am going tomorrow to make a picture of the corn at its early growth stage.  I will continue to follow the corn all summer so our students can see the stages of growth.  I will plan a trip to the agricultural museum and make some pictures for the children to see before we make the field trip to see all the equipment.  There is a unit in our Social Studes curriculum that will allow me to connect this unit to our current core.