Real World Learning

At Doniphan, we believe in providing real world opportunities to ALL students including our littles in Kindergarten. Here are some some ways we bring the real world to the class room in Kindergarten. 

• Kindergarten is does a  veggie soup project. In this activity, students will be make veggie soup and plan things they will need for a feast/party.
• Students participate in a Cityscapes LMC project. In this project, Kindergarteners research jobs and then create a building that they would work in if they had that job.  Turn the buildings into a city.

1st grade is full of real world learning opportunities including some of the following:

• After the 1st grade field trip to the apple orchard, students make applesauce! Parents are invited come in to help students peel, cut, measure, and cook applesauce. Students event get to take orders from school staff and then delivered their applesauce type. 

• 1st graders  engage in an SEL unit on gratitude to connect to community helpers and showing gratitude. In this unit, students make cards and signs to show thanks - police and fire. They also collect goodies to stock their break rooms! To top off the unit, students go to the Fire Station to deliver our gratitude donations/cards and learn about a community helper.

Our 2nd grade loves coming up with innovative ideas each year to helps students grow real world skills! Here are some ways we do just that:

• 2nd grade is went to the Nelson Atkins Art museum to the Beyond the Buffalo program! Students then work hard to transform our 2nd grade hallway into their very own museum in which students create artificats and present their findings to the school community. 
• Battle of the Brains  in another program in which students can gain Real World Learning experience.  This past year, one 2nd grade class created 6 exhibits around the science objective of Matter.

3rd grade loves getting students out and involved in the community in real world learning!

• 3rd grade takes field trip to Harvesters. In addition, a speaker from City Union Mission came to talk with 3rd graders. After these experiences, 3rd graders participate in Project Based Learning (PBL) over hunger in our community.
• Students also join hands with South Valley Middle Schools IMACT Team members to make a change and build positive mentorship relationships.

In 4th Grade, students have the opportunity to build skills they will use in the real world and engage with people out in the real world to bring their standards to life!

• Map reading and navigation... what a necessary skill for the real world! Fourth graders use geometric shapes and spatial relationships while using maps to find directions. (points, lines, and angles as they navigate through a map). 
• Students have the opportunity to hear from a guest speaker ( Law Student ) to help 4th graders better understand the Bill of Rights and see why it's relevant to their lives!

Our oldest students at Doniphan have ample opportunities to bring learning to life. As they prepare to leave for middle school, these students take their learning a step further with many activities and projects!

• 5th graders had pen pals with students from Liberty Oaks. They then took a field trip to that school to meet their pen pal. While on the trip, they got to Zoom with a person who actually worked on the Mars rover after we are done our read aloud. 
• The Kansas City Water Water Department comes out to do a lesson on litter and debris in water from runoff!
• 5th grade is participates in School of Economy where they have the real world experience of applying for jobs, working, setting prices, selling goods etc.
• 5th grade is participates in career fair in which they teach the students of Alexander Doniphan about different career opportunities out there!