With the first week of my long practicum complete I can say that I am in good spirits. It is wonderful to be building stronger relationships with the students and new relationships with those who seemed a little apprehensive in the beginning. This being said, since it is kindergarten, I have gotten a few “Ms. Baker you’re here again?” Since my regular visits correspond with their library time, on Monday I had several students inform me they did not bring their book bag, I informed them that it was fine we wouldn’t be going to the library that day, many still walked away looking perplexed. To make it a little more confusing for them, come Thursday I didn’t go to the library with them (since this is actually a prep block) which resulted in many of them knocking on the office window and waving at me as they walked by.
One of the best and worst things has thankfully happened during this first week. The math lesson I created for Monday did not go as smoothly as I had planned. 
It quickly became clear that the activity was too easy for them and that having each student color in a block on a graph, in relation to the length of their name, resulted in a restless audience. Although this was quite overwhelming on day one it allowed me to review and revise my corresponding math lesson for Thursday which was much more successful (classroom management and student challenge and enjoyment wise).
Wednesday’s in my class are a tricky day for teaching. This is because music class falls right in the middle of their morning, but still ends 15 minutes prior to having their snack; and gym falls in the middle of their afternoon. Although that 15 minutes after music seems like a loss, especially as the students are used to using that for play time, I wanted to incorporate a whole class activity. I haven’t seen many exercises that involve the class working as a group but I like the group/team mentality that develops out of it.
Being that I am new to teaching the students everyday I want to ensure I can be a part of fun activities too in the hopes of building a strong repertoire with the class. 
The activity was simple: first we took a vote on whether we wanted to build a house (had 11) or a tower (had 8), second I placed a block in the middle and then passed one container of blocks to my left and one to my right and said “now it is your turn to add one block to the house.” We did have to stop once as students began to place multiple blocks rather than one, other than that it went fairly well. I didn’t hear anyone complain that they didn’t get the free play time they were used to and at the end I asked if the students enjoyed the activity by round of applause to which most responded by clapping. I plan to continue these small whole class activities throughout the practicum.
Looking ahead I plan to revise my math lessons and try to remember to record more of the student work. My classroom (their teacher or support staff) often photographs the students during their work periods as well as review their product (when applicable). However, I am finding difficulty remembering to keep my phone easily accessible since this usually falls under bad practice. As a final thought, it is very exciting to finally have a unit plan which is being executed.
See Week 1 for more information.