Spatial Awareness
All the learning goals and strategies used throughout this unit provide opportunities for students to strengthen their spatial awareness. “Spatial awareness is the ability to be aware of oneself in space. It is an organized knowledge of objects in relation to oneself in that given space. Spatial awareness also involves understanding the relationship of these objects when there is a change of position.”25 By using different types of manipulatives such as square tiles, rulers, and pentominoes my students will get to explore the given space in terms of objects. Furthermore, when the students are gardening they will be able to comprehend the spatial relationship between the walkways and the plants that will be surrounding them. Finally, when exploring the pentominoes students will get to experience how the space changes if a pentomino changes positions, is flipped, or rotated.
Many students explore spatial awareness in dance classes or at sports practice. Due to the nature of my students neighborhoods and living situations, not many of them participate in these types of extracurricular activities. All the activities in my unit give my students the opportunity to explore our classroom, our courtyard, manipulatives, and themselves in terms of spatial awareness. Since they may not be developing this awareness anywhere else, I am particularly pleased they will be able to develop it in my curriculum.
Comments: