I cannot believe that the three weeks have ended, what a whirlwind they have been. This week I got the chance to visit Likely Elementary. They are a small school with only 11 students and approximately a 45 minute drive up the road. The first thing I noticed was how big the school was. I pictured a one room school that was smaller than the one I am currently at. However, I was surprised a see a school with 3 large classrooms, a gym, office, a staff room, large playground, and library. The school use to have a much larger population but in the last 30 years a lot of people have been moving away due to lack of work. I was floored when I first walked into the classroom, it was a dream classroom. They had tons of storage space, numerous white boards, group tables, wobbly chairs, a fort where kids could read on top or play underneath, a full kitchen, and all the centers/ resources you could ever dream of. The students were very kind and were happy to have a guest in their classroom. I helped with reading, library, math activities, and science.
At the end of the day we did a STEM oriented activity which consists of the students being in groups and creating a marble maze. They were challenged with using recycled materials and tape to create a maze that consists of at least 6 turns and one trap. The maze had to be free standing. I loved working with the groups and listening to their thought process. This was a great activity for multi-grade and allowed various age groups to work together towards a common goal. I could use this in my future classroom to accommodate different students by arranging the groups based on different student’s needs.
This CFE has opened my eyes on how you teach multi- grade and accommodate different student’s learning needs. I learned it is better to do activities in groups with rotations so students can get small group/ one on one support from the teacher. They learn best in this setting where they are all constantly challenged and need to use critical thinking skills as well as cooperation to solve problems. I will be using the skills listed above in my future classroom.
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