I have completed my last week of full-time teaching! I still remember how overwhelmed and anxious the thought of a 10-week practicum sounded back in March, but it also feels like it went by within a blink of an eye. Lots of collaborative activities occurred this week. Continue reading to learn more!
Unit of Inquiry:
For our fairy tale of the week, we focused on Little Red Riding Hood. On Tuesday, I read the original fairy tale and Lon Po Po, a Chinese version of it. Students got to listen to the same fairy tale, but were written from two different cultures. After reading both stories, we engaged in a Venn Diagram on the white board. I organized a Think/Pair/Share as students paired up and got to share the similarities and differences between the two stories. This was a great example to demonstrate to students that traditional stories (fairy tales and legends) have been told for hundreds of years in every culture. This was the Big Idea for our current Unit of Inquiry.
*Reading the words in the picture, I now see a spelling mistake. It should say 3 children, not 3 child. Teachers make mistakes, too!
On Wednesday we played with our creativity and imagination. Students were required to create their own Map that started from Little Red Riding Hood’s home to Grandma’s home. However, they also had to develop at least 2 tools/gadgets that would help keep the wolf away from Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma’s home. I drew an example to show the students. On my map, I created 3 tools/gadgets:
- A poisonous cookie to give to the wolf that would make him fall asleep.
- If the wolf woke up and met Little Red Riding Hood later on down the trail, there would be a poster hammered to the trees in the forest. The poster would be an illustration of a false map to Grandma’s house!
- A fingerprint scanner on Grandma’s door that only Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma know the code to.
The students were ready to create their own map after seeing my example. After they were given ~20 minutes to make their map and tools/gadgets, students got to pair up and present their work. Many of the students’ creativity exploded which is evident in their drawings. I definitely wouldn’t want to be the wolf in their story!
On Thursday the students engaged in a STEM activity connected to Little Red Riding Hood. Students had to work with their table group to create one object that would help get the basket of goods from Little Red Riding Hood’s home to Grandma and avoid the wolf. My example for the students was a flying robot. The robot stored the basket of goods in one of its compartment. There was also a button, if pressed, that releases a stinky odor and would make the wolf run the other way. I was very impressed at how engaged the students were. At the end, we sat in a community circle and each table group presented their creation.
From the top left (clockwise): zip line, teleport and a back up robot (right below it), rainbow slide and catapult, flying dog with a leash (and Little Red Riding Hood), and a flying dragon with wings to fend off the wolf!
On Friday I shared two Coast Salish legends that were from Strong Nations, written by Celestine Aleck. They are called The Great Trade and The Great Blanket of Moss. After reading each story, students turned to a neighbour and discussed the beginning (characters and setting), middle (problem), and end (solution). We also shared the different messages and lessons that we interpreted from both stories.
Art:
Students have been engaged with the Firefly Project, a program through the Presentation House Theatre that some primary classes got a grant from, for a few weeks now. Manami, Director of Applied Theatre Arts, works with each student one on one to create their own story. Each of their story will get printed and published and a copy of it will be taken home to them while a class book will be made for the teacher. Manami also organizes and leads two drama classes to each participating class. As well, Liz, an artist, leads two visual art classes. We had our visual art classes this week and the student used watercolour to illustrate their story cover on cardstock paper.
As my practicum in the classroom begins to wind down, I look forward to my community field experience opportunity within the next few weeks. I will be shadowing and helping the VP as a Learning Support Teacher (LST) to provide support to students. I will also be visiting other classrooms gathering insight in to how other teachers teach and create and maintain their classroom environment.
-Ms. Mah