Elementary
Education
by Ann Gale
Chicago Department on Aging and Disabilities
Contents
Goals
Children in the primary grades today will enjoy an unprecedented
longevity stretching for eighty or more years. Moreover, when
they are sixty five, about 20% of the population will be 65
or older. So it is essential for them to develop positive attitudes
toward older people, toward aging, and toward planning for their
long lives.
A curriculum on aging for elementary school children needs
to provide information about the aging process and to offer
experiences with older people. Fifteen to twenty years from
now, these experiences will help the children, who have become
adults, relate effectively to older persons. The intergenerational
contact now will also assist students with their own continuous
aging. We know that adults of tomorrow will have many contacts
with older adults, for over one fourth of the population will
become fifty-five or older by 2010.
The nine year elementary school period encompasses a time of
such rapid growth that most schools break it into three groups:
primary, from kindergarten through grade two; intermediate,
grades three through five; and upper, grades, six through eight.
While information on aging can be included in the curriculum
at every grade level, there are many experiences with older
persons that need to be shared. For example, children need to
experience the change from a protective attitude older persons
show for kindergarten children to the free give-and-take in
the exchange between older children and senior citizens. Such
encounters are necessary for children to understand changes
in relationships with age.
The goals of preschool education on aging are:
- To develop the understanding that aging is a natural, continuous
life process ending in death
- To help children realize that biological, intellectual,
and social growth continues throughout life
- To develop the understanding that fostering good health
is essential throughout life
- To enable children to realize that older persons are valuable
members of their family, their community, and the world
- To offer situations where children can enjoy the friendship
of older persons and can offer services when it is appropriate
to do so
- To give children information about the services their government
offers to seniors
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Curriculum
Topics for elementary education are divided into
- the aging process
- fostering good health and
- interaction between generations.
Included are suggestions for lesson plans using activities
in language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science appropriate
for three grade levels: K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. The curriculum concludes
with suggestions for creative arts
Aging Process
Children should be made aware that all living things are aging.
Pictures, vocabulary words, stories, films, charts, etc. may
be used to reinforce the concept.
Following are some parts of the main concept:
- Parents, grandparents, and all the people children know
are aging.
- Life-spans vary among species.
- Responsibilities toward other persons change as one ages.
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Fostering Good Health
The idea that good health is a lifetime responsibility
should be introduced in kindergarten and constantly reinforced.
Other important concepts are:
- Good health is the foundation for each person's growth
in other areas.
- Maintaining personal good health is also a community and
a national responsibility.
- There are processes to monitor health, such as regular
medical and dental checkups, immunization, preventive medicine.
- Each person has a responsibility to maintain good health
habits, that include good nutrition and exercise.
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Interaction between Generations
Contact with older people is the best way to develop
an appreciation for them. Literature and films in which older
persons play an important part are helpful in extending the
range of ideas about older people.
- Older people in the family can help children to understand
the links between generations--to see their family as a historically
evolving unit.
- Older persons can describe historical events they witnessed.
- Older persons can teach crafts and skills they know and
give information about their work.
- Often grandparents or older friends are more effective
confidantes for children than their parents.
- Grandparents should be invited to the class each year--more
if possible. Graduation and special occasions should bring
grandparents to the school as essential participants.
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Kindergarten Through Grade Two
A. Language Arts
1. Read stories about older people.
2. Introduce simple words describing the aging process.
3. Use the following worksheet for a group discussion until
the children can print.
Sharing Activities
I help my parents by_______________________________.
I help my grandparents by ___________________________.
My parents help me by______________________________.
My grandparents help me by__________________________.
I with my grandmother. knit, cook, garden, go
to store
I with my grandfather. repair, auto, play ball,
cut grass, talk
I with my mother.
I_____________________ with my father.
B. Mathematics
1. Make a time line on the wall. List the ages of people children
see every day. Invite older visitors to enter their ages on
the time line.
2. Use the following worksheet to think about age as numbers.
How Old Are You?
I am years old.
My father is years old.
My grandmother is years old.
My great-grandmother is .
My teacher is about years old.
Our bus driver is about years old.
Our lunchroom manager is about .
Our library teacher is about .
Our custodian is about years old.
The oldest person I know is
My grandmother is older than
C. Social Science
1. Locate a retirement home to shows residents Halloween costumes,
springtime hats, or to sing Christmas carols and share games.
2. Make a chart showing students' visits to grandparents or
other older persons in the last two weeks.
PLANS
When I am in 8th grade I will know how
to
When I am in high school I will learn to
By I plan to learn how to
I plan to practice to get better at
In the next weeks I plan to learn to
D. Science
1. Post photos of students when they were babies, and as they
look now; show similar photos of family members.
2. Compare the different ages of animals as they age.
HOW OLD IS
OLD?
(ALSO CALLED OLD, OLDER OLDEST)
by LEONORE KLEIN
A mayfly is old when it
is three days old!
A mouse is old at the age of four!
A squirrel is old when it is eight years old!
Cats and dogs are old when they are about thirteen years old!
A horse is old at twenty-eight!
An elephant is old at fifty!
A parrot is old at sixty-five!
A man and woman are old at eighty!
A giant tortoise is old at one hundred fifty years old!.
3. Discuss the ways that hearing, vision, and speech are necessary
for communication, and the need for checkups at all ages. Discuss
the changes as people age that may change the way they communicate.
4. Act out a visit to the doctor for a checkup or an immunization;
to the dentist for a checkup; and to the nurse for an injury.
5 Use the following work sheet to explore growth and changes.
How I Am Growing?
Fill out at beginning
of year - then five months later
month I start school in Now it is
My height is Now it is
My weight is Now it is
I can write Now I can
write
primer, 1st reader I can read Now I can read
add, subtract, multiply, divide I can Now I can
jump, skip, run, dance, swing I can Now I can
play baseball, jump rope, swim I can Now I can
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Grade Three through Grade Five
Language Arts
- Have students make a family tree. Locate the family's origins
on a map. Ask children to write stories about their older
relatives.
- Discuss typical activities of children. Ask them to find
out activities grandparents enjoyed when they were children.
- Discuss activities that both older and younger people enjoy.
Mathematics
- Figure the daily cost of food for one person and compare
it with the cost for a family.
- Draw a life-span chart on the blackboard. Locate the important
events in each period. List family members in the appropriate
section according to age. What special events can each one
look forward to experiencing?
Social Science
- Select an older person who has made a contribution to the
community or nation and give details about his/her work in
an oral or written report.
- Invite older persons from the community or from a retirement
home to be interviewed by members of the class. Formulate
questions about their trip to this country, the differences
between their childhood and yours, the difficulties they have
experienced in this country, and how people helped them.
Science
- For a month check on absence rates in school and in a local
business. What are the causes? What is the effect on the school,
or the local business?
- List the different methods of communicating and the dates
of their invention and of their common use.
- Invite a doctor or nurse to class to discuss immunization,
checkups, and other important health practices.
- Study the four food groups and prepare a list of foods
for each meal for two days.
- Discuss the importance of exercising all muscles. Prepare
a program of exercise for a week.
- Invite an appropriate guest speaker to discuss the most
valuable
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Grade
Six through Grade Eight
During this period students are beginning to evaluate their
abilities, plan for their careers, and explore their place in
the social world
Language Arts
- Introduce fiction and nonfiction books on aging.
- Develop a large vocabulary on aging.
- Write a character sketch of an older person.
- Conduct an interview with an older person from the community.
If possible, explore his/her ideas on an important and controversial
community issue. Contrast the ideas of the older person with
those of students in the class. Does age make a difference
in a person's point of view?
- Write a story for the school newspaper about some local
event involving an older person.
Mathematics
- Figure the expenses of a person aged seventy, receiving
Social Security, a small pension, and interest on investments
for one week. Figure the expenses of a person aged twenty-two
receiving the average wage and nothing else. Compare the expenses.
- Invite an insurance representative to explain health insurance.
- Invite a representative from Medicare and Medicaid to explain
the health coverage for disabled, disadvantaged, and older
persons
- Invite a representative from Social Security to explain
the system
- Study a Census Bureau table showing the projected growth
of the population sixty and older. Make a chart showing the
changes in percentage of this population over the next fifty
years.
Social Studies
- Make a list of community organizations and institutions
that serve people over sixty. Invite representatives from
these groups to visit and describe their programs.
- Review the legislation on aging. What need was met by each
piece of legislation?
- Plan a career day. Invite older people to describe the requirements,
levels of work, and satisfactions in their jobs.
- Survey media presentations of older persons and evaluate
their accuracy and value.
- With the help from Health Services prepare a list of careers
in the field together with requirements for entry
- Invite grandparents or older persons to graduation events.
Science
- Make a life-span chart of human, cats, dogs, horses, birds,
trees, plants. What can affect these life-spans?
- Make a bulletin board on food chains and discuss the balance
of nature. Discuss ecosystems
- Compare life expectancy in the United States with that
in other countries.
- . Request students to develop a personal health and exercise
plan.
Teaching Aging through Creative Arts
Many concepts on aging can be taught by using creative arts
such as art, drama, dance art, and music.
Acting is an effective way of vicariously experiencing another
person's emotions. Drawing, painting, and sculpting also can
give expressions to ideas in line, color, and form not possible
with words. Stories, poems, and plays can clarify ideas by
using words. Music, song, and dance can express ideas and
emotions difficult to portray through other media. All of
the activities can be adapted for use by children of varying
grade levels.
- Dance: Learn the "Mexican Old Man's Dance".
Create a square dance by using canes.
- Mime: Use a section of some story about older persons
and have the class mime while the teacher or another student
reads the story.
- Music: Write a song about something one of the students'
older family members does, or find historic songs about
older people that can be sung by children.
- Art: Draw or model heads of older people with clay. Make
a mural showing outstanding older people in many fields.
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