My third grade students and I were over the moon to find out we’d been chosen as recipients of a Walking Classroom grant. Despite our normally warm Mississippi weather getting cooler and sometimes rainy, we have been getting outdoors. We have been enjoying fresh air and great learning opportunities as often as we can.
I am grateful for The Walking Classroom and what it offers to teachers and students. I love the podcast list and the variety of topics that I can use to supplement my curriculum.
As we were studying early Native American communities such as the Navajo and the Cherokee, I was able to use two of the podcasts on our WalkKits. We listened to Sequoyah (Combined-#102, 5-#37) and Trail of Tears (Combined-#105, 5-#40). This enabled us to further explore what we had already been learning in class. My students learned so much from the podcasts that we created informational brochures to showcase our learning about the Cherokee!
This year, I have two students in my classroom with autism. Just this week, we listened to a podcast that was amazing for them, Idioms (Combined-#3, 4-#7, 5-#3). Kids with autism are very literal and sometimes have trouble with figurative language that pops up in texts they are reading.
This podcast led our class to discuss phrases that people use in conversation that may not mean exactly what the text says. What a great lesson for these students who take every word literally! We took this lesson on idioms and were able to talk about how we can incorporate figurative language like this into our writing to make it more interesting.
So . . . although we have only been dubbed a “walking classroom” for a few short weeks, we are loving this new journey of learning! Can’t wait to see what next semester brings as we walk and learn together!
Julie Hammer
3rd Grade Teacher
Pisgah Elementary
I love this!