May 13, 2011; 12-2:45
Today was another pretty low key day in the New London kindergarten. I started the day with some tag and swing pushing at recess. The classroom day started with talking about superstitions because after all it's Friday the 13th. We discussed the fact that most superstitions have some truth to them, but have been embellished to scare people. Students then got washed up for an early snack. After snack, we did some share time. The "star student" of the week shared a stuffed sea horse with us before we all shared a bit of daily news. After daily news, we did some practice for our play, The Enchanted Egg. Students learned where they will sit and how they will march on and off of the stage. Our marching in a line was tested with a long walk to the old middle school gym to see a musician perform. The kids were given clapping, snapping and singing directions and seemed to have a great time. After the performance, Mrs. Fowler's class joined us as our "star student" shared something else with us, her father. He is a profesional story teller, so he read a couple books to end the day.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Week 1: Thursday
May 12, 2011; 12-2:45
Day 4 in New London was a fairly low key day. I started by playing some tag at noon recess with some of the kids from Mrs. James’ class and Mrs. Fowler’s class from next door. The day in the classroom started with a dual class snack because Mrs. Fowler was out sick. It was really fun to get to know a couple more kids. After snack time, the American Legion came to present the history of our American flag and the rules for showing patriotic etiquette when it comes to the flag. As the talk started to wrap up, one of our friends started to struggle with the large group so he took some time to show me the Special Education classroom. He picked out a game of sticking body parts onto the outline of a body, which he was very good at, especially considering the detail of the game. We rejoined the classroom in time to practice saying words that begin with the letter E. Each student was given the task of finding something in the classroom that started with the letter E and then to share with the class. After this, we used our imaginary finger chalk and our friends backs as chalkboards to take turns practicing the motion of writing E. Each student then worked on a worksheet tracing and then writing lower case Es before we walked very quietly up to the multi-purpose room to watch the 4 grade’s spring concert. There were a number of soloists who did a great job, and the kindergarteners were very well behaved. The day ended with a quick fast break.
Day 4 in New London was a fairly low key day. I started by playing some tag at noon recess with some of the kids from Mrs. James’ class and Mrs. Fowler’s class from next door. The day in the classroom started with a dual class snack because Mrs. Fowler was out sick. It was really fun to get to know a couple more kids. After snack time, the American Legion came to present the history of our American flag and the rules for showing patriotic etiquette when it comes to the flag. As the talk started to wrap up, one of our friends started to struggle with the large group so he took some time to show me the Special Education classroom. He picked out a game of sticking body parts onto the outline of a body, which he was very good at, especially considering the detail of the game. We rejoined the classroom in time to practice saying words that begin with the letter E. Each student was given the task of finding something in the classroom that started with the letter E and then to share with the class. After this, we used our imaginary finger chalk and our friends backs as chalkboards to take turns practicing the motion of writing E. Each student then worked on a worksheet tracing and then writing lower case Es before we walked very quietly up to the multi-purpose room to watch the 4 grade’s spring concert. There were a number of soloists who did a great job, and the kindergarteners were very well behaved. The day ended with a quick fast break.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Week 1: Tuesday
Tuesday, May 10, 2011: 11:50-2:45
Day two in the kindergarden started out (after some recess of course) with talking about the date. The class informed me that we say the year as two thousand eleven because if we say two thousand and eleven people might assume we are adding, not telling the year. Next we counted the days on the calendar to determine the number of days in the month of May. We also talked about what day of the week tomorrow is and what month comes next. Once we established that tomorrow is Wednesday and the next month of the year is June, we discussed the tools that students used to figure it out. Some students looked at the calendar, others used songs, and one used a birthday she knew was coming up. it was interesting to see how each student thought differently. We had some quick excitement as it looked like it had started to rain, but when we checked it was just a false alarm. This prompted using the weather chart to document that today was windy and cloudy. After, we talked about syllables vs. sounds. We started by using clapping to split everyones names into the different syllables, and then chopped different body parts into the sounds that make up the word. Then it was time for snack. Durring snack, students took turns watering the bean plants they are growing in the window. A couple have started to sprout which made the kids really happy. At the same time, students were taken one at a time to do quick one minute assessments in the hallway. At the end of snack time, this weeks "star student" did some show and tell. Today she showed us a shell that was a gift from her father and she passed it around so that each child could have a chance to look at it and try to hear the ocean. From show and tell we moved into daily news. Students shared stories about pets, siblings, and what they did after school yesterday. The day ended with some stations. The math station did more modeling of addition using beans while another station used pattern blocks to make new shapes using smaller shapes. A third station had two parts. Part one was writing the letters A and G in both upper and lower case one worksheets. They started with tracing and then moved to writing them on their own. The second part of the station was using letter magnets to write the alphabet and sight words.
I look forward to exploring Springfield Kindergarten tomorrow morning and being able to compare and contrast the two different classrooms.
Day two in the kindergarden started out (after some recess of course) with talking about the date. The class informed me that we say the year as two thousand eleven because if we say two thousand and eleven people might assume we are adding, not telling the year. Next we counted the days on the calendar to determine the number of days in the month of May. We also talked about what day of the week tomorrow is and what month comes next. Once we established that tomorrow is Wednesday and the next month of the year is June, we discussed the tools that students used to figure it out. Some students looked at the calendar, others used songs, and one used a birthday she knew was coming up. it was interesting to see how each student thought differently. We had some quick excitement as it looked like it had started to rain, but when we checked it was just a false alarm. This prompted using the weather chart to document that today was windy and cloudy. After, we talked about syllables vs. sounds. We started by using clapping to split everyones names into the different syllables, and then chopped different body parts into the sounds that make up the word. Then it was time for snack. Durring snack, students took turns watering the bean plants they are growing in the window. A couple have started to sprout which made the kids really happy. At the same time, students were taken one at a time to do quick one minute assessments in the hallway. At the end of snack time, this weeks "star student" did some show and tell. Today she showed us a shell that was a gift from her father and she passed it around so that each child could have a chance to look at it and try to hear the ocean. From show and tell we moved into daily news. Students shared stories about pets, siblings, and what they did after school yesterday. The day ended with some stations. The math station did more modeling of addition using beans while another station used pattern blocks to make new shapes using smaller shapes. A third station had two parts. Part one was writing the letters A and G in both upper and lower case one worksheets. They started with tracing and then moved to writing them on their own. The second part of the station was using letter magnets to write the alphabet and sight words.
I look forward to exploring Springfield Kindergarten tomorrow morning and being able to compare and contrast the two different classrooms.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Week 1: Monday
Monday, May 9, 2011; 12-2:50pm
Today was the first day of my internship in Laura James' kindergarden classroom at Kearsarge Regional Elementary School - New London. New London has three kindergarden classes. One is held in the mornings and two take place starting at 12:15 in the afternoon. As the best place to start to learn is through observation, i spent most of today's time observing and taking in my surroundings. The students in the afternoon start off their day with recess while everyone arrives. At 12:15 they come inside and say the pledge of allegiance, have a brief moment of silence and sing a couple of patriotic songs. Afterwards, we did some introductions with names and favorite colors and heard a piece of daily news from each student. This activity was followed by a discussion about letters, which were the hardest to say ond hear and which were the hardest to write. The discussion of letters was followed by washing up for snack, which was interrupted by a chance to watch the kindergarden class across the hall's dry run of their upcoming play, The Little Red Hen. Then it was back to snack time. Durring snack the class talked about their own play with will happen a little later on in May. Snack got a little rowdy, so Mrs. James used a 60 second silence to calm the class down. When snack was finished, a student took her turn at show and tell. She showed us a stuffed animal of hers and told us why it was special to her. Three students were picked at random to ask questions. This was followed by a split into three stations: math, language arts, and some floor play. This class has students of all abilities so each group had a slightly different activity at each station.I started by observing and helping with the Math station with the strongest of the three groups. We used beans to model addition problems. Next, I helped with the language arts station helping three students with their alphabet. We used different hand motions as we said the alphabet up to G. After this, we worked to put an alphabet caterpillar puzzel together. Once the puzzel was together it was time for me to leave. I enjoyed my day in the classroom and am looking forward to day 2, and then next couple of weeks.
Today was the first day of my internship in Laura James' kindergarden classroom at Kearsarge Regional Elementary School - New London. New London has three kindergarden classes. One is held in the mornings and two take place starting at 12:15 in the afternoon. As the best place to start to learn is through observation, i spent most of today's time observing and taking in my surroundings. The students in the afternoon start off their day with recess while everyone arrives. At 12:15 they come inside and say the pledge of allegiance, have a brief moment of silence and sing a couple of patriotic songs. Afterwards, we did some introductions with names and favorite colors and heard a piece of daily news from each student. This activity was followed by a discussion about letters, which were the hardest to say ond hear and which were the hardest to write. The discussion of letters was followed by washing up for snack, which was interrupted by a chance to watch the kindergarden class across the hall's dry run of their upcoming play, The Little Red Hen. Then it was back to snack time. Durring snack the class talked about their own play with will happen a little later on in May. Snack got a little rowdy, so Mrs. James used a 60 second silence to calm the class down. When snack was finished, a student took her turn at show and tell. She showed us a stuffed animal of hers and told us why it was special to her. Three students were picked at random to ask questions. This was followed by a split into three stations: math, language arts, and some floor play. This class has students of all abilities so each group had a slightly different activity at each station.I started by observing and helping with the Math station with the strongest of the three groups. We used beans to model addition problems. Next, I helped with the language arts station helping three students with their alphabet. We used different hand motions as we said the alphabet up to G. After this, we worked to put an alphabet caterpillar puzzel together. Once the puzzel was together it was time for me to leave. I enjoyed my day in the classroom and am looking forward to day 2, and then next couple of weeks.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)