Long practicum here I come…

Today was a rushed and a bit of a chaotic kind of day. This was partly because we had a another field trip to go to. Anyways, we started the day by doing our usual word sorts right from the get go. The students have a set routine that has been maintained throughout the year so the beginning of the day always goes flawlessly because the students have a set goal and work hard to complete it. From there we did an activity revolved around a book where the students had to complete a ‘picture walk’. After reading the book together as a class, the students had to go back to their desks and draw a picture that represented the beginning, middle, and end of the story with a sentence to occupancy each picture. The students are working with breaking stories down into chunks and seeing stories as having a beginning part, something that takes place in the middle, and then an ending. After this activity we had recess and after recess I read a story to the class called ‘A walk in the rain with a brain’. I followed the book with a quick discussion about ways that we can keep our brains healthy. This book was a great book to talk about the power of our minds and how the brain works. For next time I would love to revisit this book and do a full lesson with it because I really enjoyed reading the book to the students and its message. We then did a quick readers theatre where students had to practice their parts with their group. As well, we have a new student from Syria who I finally got to meet today. She is shy but that is understandable. I’m looking forward to having her in the class and watching her progress throughout the year. Lunch time came around and then we gathered the class and walked to our field trip. It was at another school to watch ‘The Sound of Music’ the play that the school was putting on. This was a nerve wracking experience because there were two classes of students which equalled 50, walking 20 minutes in the rain on the sidewalk with many cars passing by. It seemed like a daunting task because their safety is in our hands but the students cooperated perfectly and walked beside their partner the entire time. We got to the play just in time. The play was awesome. It was 1 hour and 45 minutes of the kids sitting and the only thing that was going through my mind was… they need a brain break! This must be engrained into my own mind by now because they were sitting for so long and I could tell they were getting a bit restless. However, they were all well behaved and enjoyed the play. The play included singing and acting and was amazing to watch. I could tell so much hard work went into producing it. The play finished, we walked back to the school (thankfully the sun came out) and that ended the day. Next time I will be in the school will be for long practicum. I have so many emotions running through me I can’t even explain it. Looking forward to the experience yet nervous as well. Until next time…