Welcome to the Early Childhood Cross-Curricular Page!

Below you will learn about some of the enriching cross-curricular projects that took place over the 2019-2020 school year. These collaborative projects integrated several subject areas at a time, such as social studies, language arts, math, science, technology, art, and writing, to fulfill the grade level expectations in those particular subject areas. These projects sparked creativity, nurtured their curiosity and taught the students about the world around them.

How to Code a Sandcastle

Subject Areas: Language Arts, Art, Math, Technology

The Pre-K students read a book called How to Code a Sandcastle. The book is about how you need to follow steps in order to build a sandcastle just like how you have to follow steps and directions when you code on a computer. The girls made homemade, natural play dough with Pre-K teachers, Lori Kerner and Julia Lavigne. Next, they learned about shapes in math class and determined which shapes they would need to use in order to build their sandcastles. They decided how many they would need to use of each shape. Then, they came up with a set of directions to say which shapes should be used first, second, and so forth to build their creations. They used rolling pins and cookie cutters to cut the correct number of shapes. In art, they water-colored beautiful ocean background scenes. During technology class, the students learned about stop motion animation and how pictures can create a video/moving-like effect. The students learned how to use a stop motion station to take pictures using their iPad to document the step by step process of building their play dough sandcastles. Their photos were uploaded into an app called "iMotion" that created their stop motion videos.

The early stages of Pre-K students learning how to use their camera app and superimposing the image with artwork!

Final Stop Motion Feature

A student uses the stop motion station to capture
her photos.

Below shows Pre-K students having fun practicing the concept of stop motion!

Doll-E 1.0

Subject Areas: Language Arts, Art, Technology, Science

Our Kindergarten Ursuline girls Skyped with author Shanda McCloskey, writer of the book, Doll-E 1.0 in technology class. She read her book to them and also taught them how to draw some of the main characters from the story! The story is about a little girl who is super tech savvy and gets a doll for a present, but doesn't know how to play with it. She wants it to talk, so she installs a voice box and some other supplies to program it how to talk. The Kindergarten girls wrote their very own programs on Scratch Jr., showing a doll moving and talking. In art, the girls were taught how to make paper mache dolls in studio with the Kindergarten students. In technology class, each student coded a program to make their dolls "talk" through a coding software called Scratch. Each doll was made interactive and "touchable" by using Makey Makeys. Makey Makeys are kid invention circuit cords that you plug into the computer which can turn anything into a "button" and "keyboard." When you tap the doll while hooked up to the Makey Makeys, it speaks the program! Below, view the precious dolls that the girls created as well as the recordings that they made on Scratch. To learn more about Makey Makeys click the button below!

Makey Makey: An Invention Kit for Everyone

These dolls were created in art class by using recycled materials, using the paper mache method, and then painted and decorated.

The Kindergarten students made their own programs on Scratch Jr. These programs were centered around their DOLL-E 1.0 project.

By: Adelaide

Click the buttons below to hear what the dolls says when they are touched and hooked up on the Makey Makey circuit cords!

By: Mamie

By: Elisabeth

By: Mabyn

Illustrations completed by the Kindergarten students with the book author during their Skype meeting.

MLK's Big Words

Subject Areas: Social Studies, Writing, Research, Language Arts, Art, Technology

In Kindergarten class with Mallory Martin, Ursuline girls learned about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and completed research on his life. Next, they created paintings and illustrations of him in art. Then, the students animated their illustrations using an app called Chatter Pix to share MLK's "big words." Take a look at the culminating video piece.

Pet Project

Subject Areas: Language Arts, Social Studies, Art

After a few weeks of learning about community helpers, the job of a veterinarian really stuck out to our Toddler 3 Class. The classroom was then set up with stuffed animals, a pet washing station, vet kits, a grooming station and much more for their imaginations to run free. The students really loved puppies, so the decision was made to make their very own puppies. The students sketched their ideas and then were given a variety of materials to create their own puppies.