Click on the circles for more details.
Parent Leaders shared their knowledge of the local neighborhood by mapping routes for teachers to follow. On these neighborhood walks, teachers took photographs of the buildings, physical environments, and natural landscapes that were familiar to children. Connections were then made to a variety of crosscutting concepts including stability and change, patterns, as well as systems and system models.
Bilingual books written by parents and family engagement staff were also created as a way to learn about children’s familiar knowledge and everyday experiences. Since everyday activities are cultural in nature, these storybooks were an excellent means for teachers to gain insight into the important routines in children’s lives that might have relevance for building culturally inclusive STE curriculum. The books also include guides for teachers for HSC and STE integration.
Teachers can send sheets home to learn more about children’s daily lives and routines. You will find several examples to use in your classroom in our Professional Materials section.
During a unit on plants, Classroom 3 took a walk to a neighborhood community garden. They made observations of plants, homes and other items of interest as well as explored the community garden. A month later, Classroom 3 went on the same walk. They made new observations around what was the same and what changed from their last walk. Both walks were documented as classroom books, allowing the children an opportunity to revisit their experience through photos and make further comparisons. Click on the book covers below to view the full stories.
These books were created jointly by Head Start parents, staff, and the RISE team, to represent familiar family activities, routines, objects or cultural events. When children see something familiar to them (e.g., familiar routines, home languages, stories from home), they connect more readily to the topic at hand, and t feel a sense of belonging as a member of the classroom community.
At the end of each book is a guide for teachers to use to connect home and community information to
STE frameworks to support connected, deepened, and extended STE learning experiences.
Class enjoys a walk at a local community garden
A culturally-rooted story sharing the preparation of a traditional family dish
A map representing locations that families and children explored together within their community
A culturally-rooted story sharing how a community supports one another during times of need
