Today was HOT! We did some outside recess before class started. When we went inside everyone had a glass of water and used cold compresses to cool down before we started our day. The first thing we did today was talk about vetrans and who we think about on Memorial Day, this became our sharing for the day. When we finished our discussion, we moved into snack. During snack, I helped pull out the supplies for a flag project. At the end of snack instead of pulling out a book, the kids made paper American Flags in honor of Memorial day. They were shown an example, but were to do the project with out help, it was interesting to see where each kid naturally started. One cut all the pieces she would need and then put them together, another just started cutting and pasting. A large part of school is learning about healthy choices and in order to reinforce that, the school focuses on non-food celebrations. In celebration of my last day, we got to spend 10 minutes playing on the big playground. The kids had a lot of fun playing somewhere new and it was good for them to experience the playground they will use next year. From the playground we walked directly to the old middle school gym for the Memorial Day assembly where we said the pledge, sang patriotic songs, and learned about the holiday to end our day.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Week 3: Friday
LAST DAY!
Today was HOT! We did some outside recess before class started. When we went inside everyone had a glass of water and used cold compresses to cool down before we started our day. The first thing we did today was talk about vetrans and who we think about on Memorial Day, this became our sharing for the day. When we finished our discussion, we moved into snack. During snack, I helped pull out the supplies for a flag project. At the end of snack instead of pulling out a book, the kids made paper American Flags in honor of Memorial day. They were shown an example, but were to do the project with out help, it was interesting to see where each kid naturally started. One cut all the pieces she would need and then put them together, another just started cutting and pasting. A large part of school is learning about healthy choices and in order to reinforce that, the school focuses on non-food celebrations. In celebration of my last day, we got to spend 10 minutes playing on the big playground. The kids had a lot of fun playing somewhere new and it was good for them to experience the playground they will use next year. From the playground we walked directly to the old middle school gym for the Memorial Day assembly where we said the pledge, sang patriotic songs, and learned about the holiday to end our day.
Today was HOT! We did some outside recess before class started. When we went inside everyone had a glass of water and used cold compresses to cool down before we started our day. The first thing we did today was talk about vetrans and who we think about on Memorial Day, this became our sharing for the day. When we finished our discussion, we moved into snack. During snack, I helped pull out the supplies for a flag project. At the end of snack instead of pulling out a book, the kids made paper American Flags in honor of Memorial day. They were shown an example, but were to do the project with out help, it was interesting to see where each kid naturally started. One cut all the pieces she would need and then put them together, another just started cutting and pasting. A large part of school is learning about healthy choices and in order to reinforce that, the school focuses on non-food celebrations. In celebration of my last day, we got to spend 10 minutes playing on the big playground. The kids had a lot of fun playing somewhere new and it was good for them to experience the playground they will use next year. From the playground we walked directly to the old middle school gym for the Memorial Day assembly where we said the pledge, sang patriotic songs, and learned about the holiday to end our day.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Week 3: Thursday
Thursday, May 26, 2011: 9:30-11, 11:50-3:15
Finally today was the day of our play! I arrived at Springfield at 9:30 to help with some last minute costume crisises before parents started arriving. I took the kids downstairs while people showed up and read a story out loud. At 10, the play started and at the end we all had cookies and milk. Students were released early with their parents and we cleaned up before heading over to New London.
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| Jasmine, one of the princesses poses for a picture |
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| Fairies Tillie and Savannah recite their poem |
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| Sammy, the duck, and Ethan, the wise old owl, discover the enchanted egg |
| We had a pizza lunch before heading out to New London recess. The kids went inside early to start snack so that they would have plenty of time to prepare for the play. I help Mrs. Cardillo put out the costumes so that they were easy to access. Today as they kids finished snacks instead of reading, they colored programs. Finally it was time to get dressed for our 1:00 dress rehearsal for the 1st graders. It went really well and we were able to work out a couple kinks. When we finished we took some down time to get some water, use the restroom, and relax before parents arrived. When parents started arriving, we took a walk to the water fountains and then went to Mrs. Fowlers room to wait for the que to walk in. The show went fantastic and we finished the day with cookies and milk. Some students left early with their parents and others stuck around to listen to some stories. |
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| The New London cast |
Week 3: Wednesday
Early morning in Springfield today, and since it's a Wednesday, our day started with some library time. Today Librarian Steve talked about variations, or changes. Last week he told us the story of the 3 little pigs, and today he read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf, the story from the wolfs perspective. When we got back to the classroom we talked for a little while about how our day would go. The kids had a hard time paying complete attention. We got on the topic of vetrans and that lost even more kids. From our meeting we broke for snack time. After snack we did a full run through of tomorrow's play. After the play the plan was to take a field trip to the cemetery to help the American Legion place flags in honor of our veterans. A bus was supposed to come pick us up, so we played number games while we waited, but the bas never came. When a request for a bus has to go through 4 people before the bus can arrive things are bound to go wrong. Transportation misplaced Mrs. James' bus request so as a result no bus, and no field trip. Instead, we had some inside free time before the day ended with outside recess.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Week 3: Tuesday
Tuesday, May 24, 2011: 11:50 - 2:45
Finally some sunshine today, or at least no rain - OUTSIDE recess! When we went inside, we started with some sharing from our two start students. One student shared a bengal tiger stuffed animal from his recent trip to Busch Gardens. The other shared some stories about four wheeling and snowmobiling in his yard. When we finished sharing time, we broke for a working snack. Mrs. James gave me the job of making sure the room stayed quiet by using loud group directions, something I really struggle with doing. I was getting off easy with my task during our working snack. This was the first time I had experienced working snack. Today while the students ate, Mrs. James worked with them on whats the missing number problems on the white board. When the working part of snack was over my job got trickier. As students finish their snack the pull out books. One boy was looking at a book, and needed to share the pictures with his friends and they all ended up crowded around talking very loudly. After a couple of quiet directions Mrs. James had to step in and help me and we moved to silent reading. In an effort to keep things remaining quiet, I read a story out loud to the group. When the story was finished we moved into silent worksheets and students were taken 1 at a time to do math assessments in the hall with Mrs. Phipps and Dr. J. Todays worksheets were all about the letter Y. The first one had a kitten playing with yarn connect the dot and some writing practice. The second was coloring page that when folded made a story about a yak for the kids to read. During this time my job was to write the names of students who were talking on the board and put check marks if they continued to talk. Our work was interrupted by a chance to go and watch the 4th grade watershed play, a play that I even remember doing in 4th grade. When we returned to the room, we continued worksheets. I worked with 3 students individually on reading their new paper books which was really enjoyable.
Finally some sunshine today, or at least no rain - OUTSIDE recess! When we went inside, we started with some sharing from our two start students. One student shared a bengal tiger stuffed animal from his recent trip to Busch Gardens. The other shared some stories about four wheeling and snowmobiling in his yard. When we finished sharing time, we broke for a working snack. Mrs. James gave me the job of making sure the room stayed quiet by using loud group directions, something I really struggle with doing. I was getting off easy with my task during our working snack. This was the first time I had experienced working snack. Today while the students ate, Mrs. James worked with them on whats the missing number problems on the white board. When the working part of snack was over my job got trickier. As students finish their snack the pull out books. One boy was looking at a book, and needed to share the pictures with his friends and they all ended up crowded around talking very loudly. After a couple of quiet directions Mrs. James had to step in and help me and we moved to silent reading. In an effort to keep things remaining quiet, I read a story out loud to the group. When the story was finished we moved into silent worksheets and students were taken 1 at a time to do math assessments in the hall with Mrs. Phipps and Dr. J. Todays worksheets were all about the letter Y. The first one had a kitten playing with yarn connect the dot and some writing practice. The second was coloring page that when folded made a story about a yak for the kids to read. During this time my job was to write the names of students who were talking on the board and put check marks if they continued to talk. Our work was interrupted by a chance to go and watch the 4th grade watershed play, a play that I even remember doing in 4th grade. When we returned to the room, we continued worksheets. I worked with 3 students individually on reading their new paper books which was really enjoyable.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Week 3: Monday
Monday, May 23, 2011: 11:50 - 2:45
IT'S PRODUCTION WEEK!!!
After more than a week of rainy days, we were still inside for recess today. Mrs. James was at meetings for the first part of the day, but the class goes on. Mrs. Cardillo lead some sharing and daily news to start our day. After, I took the milk kids up the the cafeteria to pick up their milk for the week. It was a new experience to be completely on my own with a majority of the kids. I was in charge of making sure they were quiet and polite in the hallway, which we seemed to struggle with on the way back. It was really a new experience for me having to be the strict teacher in the hallway. When we were back from our milk run, we had some snack. Mrs. James joined us just as we were finishing snack clean up and we moved right into some coloring. Each student was given a construction paper egg to design how ever they wanted. Once they were finished designing, Mrs. James and I helped tape pictures of each child onto their egg. These will get put onto a big board for display during the play on Thursday. When they were finished with their egg, they each drew pictures of what they thought the enchanted forrest looked like. During this time, I helped Dinky the Elf, who was out last week on a vacation, make some shoes for her costume. We had a lot of fun putting together green felt, pom poms, and feathers. When we finished with the coloring and crafts, it was time for what else, play practice.
IT'S PRODUCTION WEEK!!!
After more than a week of rainy days, we were still inside for recess today. Mrs. James was at meetings for the first part of the day, but the class goes on. Mrs. Cardillo lead some sharing and daily news to start our day. After, I took the milk kids up the the cafeteria to pick up their milk for the week. It was a new experience to be completely on my own with a majority of the kids. I was in charge of making sure they were quiet and polite in the hallway, which we seemed to struggle with on the way back. It was really a new experience for me having to be the strict teacher in the hallway. When we were back from our milk run, we had some snack. Mrs. James joined us just as we were finishing snack clean up and we moved right into some coloring. Each student was given a construction paper egg to design how ever they wanted. Once they were finished designing, Mrs. James and I helped tape pictures of each child onto their egg. These will get put onto a big board for display during the play on Thursday. When they were finished with their egg, they each drew pictures of what they thought the enchanted forrest looked like. During this time, I helped Dinky the Elf, who was out last week on a vacation, make some shoes for her costume. We had a lot of fun putting together green felt, pom poms, and feathers. When we finished with the coloring and crafts, it was time for what else, play practice.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Week 2: Reflection
This week I again spent 4 days in New London and 1 day in Springfield. At the beginning of the week we talked a lot about families. Not just our families, but word families as well. There was some recess, snack, stations, arts and crafts, lots of sharing, starting subtraction, building with blocks, and even an assembly.
This week what I learned built of last weeks lesson on every child learning at different speeds. The most prevalent thing I learned about this week was differentiated learning. When we work in stations, the groups are established by where the kids are in the learning process. While each group is working with the same general concept, wether it be math, language arts, or spatial reasoning, the activity varies slightly for each group. This week I spent station time working on pattern recognition and spatial reasoning using colored cubes. With the most advanced group I was having them copy 3d stacked designs with hidden blocks. I even had a hard time coming up with patterns that would be hard enough. In the next group we did stacked patterns, but hidden blocks were a bit of a struggle. In the third group, we did line patterns and wrote our names using the blocks. The activity needed to be tailored so that each group would get the most out of it as possible.
In addition this week, one of the best words of wisdom I heard was from Dr. Johnson. One student was really struggling to be a good friend so I joined Mrs. James and him on a trip to the principal. We talked about what had happened and events and consequences from the past to discuss a solution that might have a better effect. I got to observe Mrs. James and Dr. J as they talked with the boy. They showed him respect and maintained a conversation feel to the meeting, rather than an angry feel. At the end of the meeting Dr. J told the boy it is easier to be a good friend than a bad friend. If you are a good friend, people will want to be around you and all you have to do is be kind. If you are a bad friend you wil have to work really hard to be friends and end up doing a lot of work.
My favorite parts of the week were costume workshop in Springfield on Wednesday, and scenery painting in New London on Friday. These arts and craft times really allowed me to learn about who the kids are creatively. Who has a huge imagination, and who might need to remember to turn their imagination on. These activities also gave me a time to talk to and play with the kids to learn more about them.
Overall, I really enjoyed this week in the kindergarten with Mrs. James. Next week I look forward to sharing my lesson on symmetry. I am thinking about using cut outs of the letters for the students to fold as I teach the lesson. I am not sure wether it will become a station or not, but in a station I would start with having the students use paint to trace half of one letter and then fold it to create the other half. After that, I would have them looking at one half draw the other. Next week is also production week for our play the Enchanted Egg, which will be a lot of fun.
This week what I learned built of last weeks lesson on every child learning at different speeds. The most prevalent thing I learned about this week was differentiated learning. When we work in stations, the groups are established by where the kids are in the learning process. While each group is working with the same general concept, wether it be math, language arts, or spatial reasoning, the activity varies slightly for each group. This week I spent station time working on pattern recognition and spatial reasoning using colored cubes. With the most advanced group I was having them copy 3d stacked designs with hidden blocks. I even had a hard time coming up with patterns that would be hard enough. In the next group we did stacked patterns, but hidden blocks were a bit of a struggle. In the third group, we did line patterns and wrote our names using the blocks. The activity needed to be tailored so that each group would get the most out of it as possible.
In addition this week, one of the best words of wisdom I heard was from Dr. Johnson. One student was really struggling to be a good friend so I joined Mrs. James and him on a trip to the principal. We talked about what had happened and events and consequences from the past to discuss a solution that might have a better effect. I got to observe Mrs. James and Dr. J as they talked with the boy. They showed him respect and maintained a conversation feel to the meeting, rather than an angry feel. At the end of the meeting Dr. J told the boy it is easier to be a good friend than a bad friend. If you are a good friend, people will want to be around you and all you have to do is be kind. If you are a bad friend you wil have to work really hard to be friends and end up doing a lot of work.
My favorite parts of the week were costume workshop in Springfield on Wednesday, and scenery painting in New London on Friday. These arts and craft times really allowed me to learn about who the kids are creatively. Who has a huge imagination, and who might need to remember to turn their imagination on. These activities also gave me a time to talk to and play with the kids to learn more about them.
Overall, I really enjoyed this week in the kindergarten with Mrs. James. Next week I look forward to sharing my lesson on symmetry. I am thinking about using cut outs of the letters for the students to fold as I teach the lesson. I am not sure wether it will become a station or not, but in a station I would start with having the students use paint to trace half of one letter and then fold it to create the other half. After that, I would have them looking at one half draw the other. Next week is also production week for our play the Enchanted Egg, which will be a lot of fun.
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