Ap. 10 – Ap. 14
- MON: Fraser River Park Field Trip!
- We had visited this location back in February and returned to it to look for signs of spring and for it to spark a new inquiry project within each classroom
- Inquiry topics chosen are two groups focusing on rocks/gems/crystals and one group focusing on animals, specifically salamanders to start with the plan to branch out along with student interest
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Student 1: “It’s a flamingo! It’s a flamingo! It’s a flamingo!” Student 2: Walking by, stops, looks and says “Flamingos are purple.” and walks away.
- TUES: Author Study: Nicholas Oldland
- (1) language arts unit plan Lesson 1 author introduction
- Author Study Intro Pres
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It’s a little hard to see, but in this photo two students are working together to take the cap off the glue stick.
- Reflections & Ways to Improve:
- Creating a PowerPoint presentation to introduce the Nicholas Oldland was a last minute idea but I am happy that I did it; it was much easier to tell students about a new topic when they had a visual not only to see but as another way to keep them focused
- This activity was pretty simple however I wanted students to create a personal connection with their own folders – letting them choose where to glue the information was the first start to this
- As students finished the activity they were to look at books, I had placed the five Nicholas Oldland books on the ledge of the whiteboard which many chose to peruse
- Once everyone was finished we gathered back at the carpet and collaborated about common features we saw on the cover pages on each book (words, pictures) and decided what type of title page we should have on our folders
- As a closing activity I did a picture walk with students with one of the books and asked them what the common thing was in all of the pictures in this book (there were more than the one I was specifically looking for which helped in getting various answers)
- Once a student had discovered the little red bird was on most of the pages we examined the other books to see if it was in those books as well (it was in all but one)
- Overall the lesson went smoothly and later during the week a student asked me to look at the Nicholas Oldland books which tells me I have sparked some interest
- Book of Letters Uu
- Uu Book of Letters
- Reflection & Ways to Improve
- Asking students whether Uu was a consonant or vowel before starting the video worked well to stop students from singing consonant to be silly
- There was a little restlessness during this lesson some of which I addressed and some of which I ignored; at this point in the year the students are very familiar with what their role is during this activity
- I asked for different ideas from the students after watching the video and looking at the list of Uu words but with them being a little wiggly it may have been better to send them on their way
- WED: Art Project Completion
- The products from the directed drawing lesson of last week still needed to be finished, the last step being to paint them with water colors. This was a great exercise for myself to pull students from exploring time to complete a different task.
This photo was taken near the end since it was then I remembered I should be recording the activity.- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- I had initially planned to do this in the afternoon (with the exception of a few students who were leaving early that day) because there would be more time. However, music was unfortunately cancelled. Due to this I used the longer time available in the morning to have students complete the project.
- At the beginning it was easy to get students to paint as they had either not begun to play yet or they saw their friends painting and wanted to paint with them
- As the morning wore on it became more difficult to get students to complete their project
- I quickly learned that asking them if they want to is a bad idea, many said no, to which I informed them that was okay but I would be returning later
- A better strategy was telling students it was their turn to paint in a stern voice; some did paint quickly to return to play but other actually really got into their painting and spent longer than expected
- THURS: Story Workshop
- The story workshop lessons are led by the School Advisers (classroom teachers) since it is a new concept they are working to develop in their classrooms. That being said it is interesting to see students interact with materials and create stories.
- This session we were working on creating a story that had a ‘First, Next, Last’ to complete an accompanying worksheet.
- Mathematics: Mesurement – Big, Small, Tall, Short, Long
- (W3) Math Measurement; Length & Height
- Students searching for items (I asked them to find items that were smaller, bigger, taller, longer, and shorter than the animal I provided them with)
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- Writing the animals in a big and small T-chart on the board wasn’t really necessary, it was a nice way to incorporate language arts into math but simply asking the students to identify the small and big items verbally would have sufficed
- It could have incorporated all students better by having them hold their item in air or point to it or by placing them in groups so each group could decide what item to share
- Counting down was effective in keeping students focused and for them to know when to become silent again; 15 seconds was too long, I started with 10 seconds but quickly realized that some students needed reminders during the activity to find a new item over playing with the item; 5 seconds became enough to just count down after a short amount of time
- This was a great exercise to do with students to get them up and moving and to move away from a worksheet activity; it was also good practice for myself as a teacher in stopping and starting students
- End of Day
- A couple days this week students have been requesting a certain book to be read, however it is usually at times when I already have a book to read for the lesson. Today a girl asked if we could read it before going home. I said sure but we will have to remember to clean up quick because it is a little long of a story. Once I rang the clean up bell I announced to the class, while holding the book in the air, that I would like to read the book but they have to clean up really fast because it is a long story. Needless to say, there were a few exciting sound effects and they did clean up way quicker than normal. Another factor was that there were cherry tomatoes for the students to try if they wanted. When the students were at the carpet I asked if they wanted to sit there while I read the story or move to the tables to eat the treat while I read the story, to which they promptly got up and moved to the tables.
- While reading the story I moved around the classroom, since the tables were spread out. Once everyone had finished the extra snack we moved back to the carpet (since they were finished eating they were now moving and standing to follow my movements with the book but some students were blocking others).
- Their interest in the book was obvious due to their extreme silence while I read it. After a quick chat about it being a long weekend and to remember to bring everything home they might need, I dismissed the students by saying ‘anyone with hair can start getting ready to go home’. For whatever reason, they thought this was hilarious. It was a lovely way to end the day.
- Today was also the first day I dismissed them at the door which was a nice experience to see the parents that I had yet to see in the mornings.
Week Three Reflection