Today we ran our animal kingdom inquiry first thing. I showed the class how to use a mind-map to organize what they already know about their animal kingdom into categories. They answered my questions and looked interested in creating their own. After my demonstration, we put them into the revised groups we made at the end of the day last week and I drew their assigned animal kingdoms out of a basket because then it would be randomized.

The groups seemed to work much better than last week and everyone participated. They all listened to each other and respected each others ideas as well. At the end of the block, everyone came to the carpet and shared what they knew about their animal kingdom and answered questions from the class. Then, everyone wrote a journal reflection story on the mindmapping process.

I observed another gr. 1-3 classroom after recess and I was amazed as to how different it was from my own practicum classroom. Everyone sat in their own place, was attentive and had a greater sense of independence than the students in my class. The classroom had bigger group tables as well which gave everyone a greater sense of community. I cannot wait for the large tables to come into my classroom.

After lunch I observed a kindergarten class during their Montessori lesson. I watched the teacher present the broad blocks, rubbing, and crowns. It was interesting to watch the presentation because I hadn’t seen one before. All the students sat around the teacher quietly and watched curiously as she demonstrated. Afterwards, they eagerly went to do their independent work. If someone else was using the material they wanted, they would quietly wait for the materials they wanted to use and always remembered to use a mat. It was a large contrast from my practicum classroom and it was nice to see the Montessori lesson and how curious children are at the critical age periods.

I returned to my classroom in the afternoon, and the children had drama class. They were put into their animal kingdom groups and chose animals out of a basket to created a skit with them making sure that their story had a beginning, a middle and an end. Everyone was engaged in it and very creative with their stories. It was great to see how dramatically the group dynamics changed from last week just from a few changes within the groups! I can feel that our class is starting to develop a greater sense of community already.

Since the classroom is still lacking responsibility, accountability and independence, we are going to create a chart with class rules on it so that everyone is aware and remember what they are. We will be creating a class jobs next week as well.