Lesson at Children's Center

For my lesson at the Saint Norbert Children's Center I taught about wind. The students had races blowing on a variety of different objects. First I would ask the students which object they thought would go farther and faster. The student's usually were able to pick the correct object. Two of the objects I used was a large empty water bottle and a full small water bottle. After the students took turns blowing on the objects I transitioned to using a hair dryer. I asked the students if the objects would go farther/faster on low or high. Most of the students chose high. After blowing on the various objects with the blow dryer the students and I went outside to see the effects the wind had on various objects. Luckily this was a very windy day. We walked around outside and discussed what the wind was able to move and what it was not. We also discussed why some things moved and some did not.

children center

At the children's center yesterday I was able to observe the students during a health lesson. There were two students particularly had a hard time paying attention but the rest were very attentive. After the lesson the students were able to choose which center they wanted to go to. The first students that the teacher called on chose the dramatic play area. At the dramatic play are the students were able to dress up, sing songs, and pretend to be a judge. At another area a girl was pretending to be a teacher and read out loud to her pretend class. I went over to see what she was reading and she said she got shy to read in front of teachers. At another area students were to cut out pictures of food from a magazine and paste them to the same color on a rainbow. One boy I was working with was more into cutting out pictures for himself to keep rather than cutting the pictures to paste on the rainbow.

second grade

On Tuesday April 6th I worked worked with second graders at Aldo Elementary for an hour. I worked with a few students for about 20 minutes each. While I was with the students they brought a book to read. One students in particular that I worked with had a difficult time staying on the correct part when reading. Sometime he would skip a line without even realizing it so we would have to go back and re-read the sentence. He often used his finger to help him keep track of what he was reading which helped him.

Childrens Center

While I was at the child's center center for an hour I was able to observe the students learn about bugs. There was an ant farm in the classroom and the students were able to watch the ants as they moved. By just watching the ants the students were having fun, engaged, and learning. In the classroom there was also a table full of plastic bugs. The students played with the bugs and as they were playing the teachers would often ask what the bug was. The students rarely said the wrong type of bug which demonstrated what they knew. There was also bug puzzles in the classroom that many of the students enjoyed playing with. The puzzles consisted of a variety of different bugs. While I was working with one student she kept testing me to see if I knew what the bug was. She enjoyed doing this because it was fun to her but she was also learning at the same time. Apart from learning about bugs I also observed what the students call "preschool idol". During this the students get to dress up and sing as well as have judges on the side. The students has so much fun doing this. They took turns while they were playing which is a skill they will need in the future. It was easy to tell which students watched television or listened to the radio more often because they would know the words for specific songs. The students that did not watch television or listen to the radio as often were able to make up their own words to a song. It was very enjoyable to watch while the students did this!

March 30 at Aldo

While I was at Aldo in the second grade classroom I read individually with a few students. It is easy to distinguish the reading level each student is at. I try to ask questions to the student's to see if they know what is happening during the story. Sometimes I relate the questions to the student individually so they do not feel like they are being tested. As I continue to read with the students I become more aware of what each student needs help with.

children center observation

While I was at the children center for an hour I was able to observe the pre-preschoolers play inside and outside. I observed a few students playing with Lego's. While the students played with Lego's they usually made people and had them do something. One boy and girl made a race car track and had their Lego men race on it. While they were making their track they discussed what they were going to do. Their discussion helped their language without them even realizing it. I also witnessed one girl playing with games on the computer. One game in particular had a song and had the words on the screen. The young girl got out of her seat and sang along with the song and danced. She was very enthusiastic! The boys playing in the block area built the large blocks around their body and then escaped by pushing the blocks out of the way. They took turns making the wall around their bodies. One boy would make the wall while the other stood in the center of the wall. While I was outside I witnessed the children taking turns going down the slide. Many of the boys played catch with the football while the girls and some boys ran around playing tag. The students were very energetic while they were outside and it was clear they were having fun. Although it was some boys just playing with the football the boys and girls were both intertwined with their play.

kindergarten observation

While I was at Aldo in the kindergarten class I worked with male and female students at a station. Most of the students were Caucasian but two were African American and one was Native American. The station I was at, the students were able to relate to a book with a map in it and then make one of their own. They students often made a compass on their map and made the route from their house to the school. Many students were able to tell me which direction their map was going, either north, west, east, or south. One student that I particularly worked with made a map of the route from St. Norberts to Aldo Elementary. I was able to tell them which direction to go and he drew it on his piece of paper. He rarely had to look back on the other map to see the compass.

second grade observation

My second grade observation at Aldo was with a second grade class, consisting of males and females of a Caucasian race. While I was there the teacher had me take some students out into the hallway individually to read a book. The first student that came with me was very intelligent. She was reading a book that was aimed for a third grade level. Before we started reading the book she was able to tell me exactly what had happened in the beginning. After we read for some time together and stopped she was again able to tell me exactly what we read. It was easy to tell that this young girl was an advanced reader. The other two students that came to read with me were reading at a lower level. One of the boys even mentioned to me that he did not like to read, he only enjoyed playing video games at home. This goes to show how play has changed over time. While I was reading with the two boys that were at a lower reading level it was easy to tell they did not receive as much practice reading as the young girl had. They had a hard time pronouncing many words and it was difficult for them to tell me what they read. By experiencing this I was able to realize how differentiation is a must in the classroom because of the different reading levels.

Picocrickets

My group and I made a ballerina dancer picocricket. There was a sensor light attached to the dancer and the dancer spun in a circle. To make the ballerina have a light and spin became quite difficult. It was frusterating to try to make the program work on the computer. At times it would work and others it would not, but figuring out the problem was difficult because we did not know what we were doing wrong. Luckily while showing it to the class it worked. I think this would be a great tool to use in the classroom but in order to use it I would need a lot more instruction. I was not familiar with the tool so making it work was hard for me. I do not think I would want to use this in a lower level (kindergarten and first grade) unless I had other people helping me because I know I would need a lot of help to guide all of my students with it. Although it may be difficult to instruct something like this I think it would be very beneficial and fun to use in the classroom, I would just need to become more familiar with it.

my first observation at Aldo

Today I went to Aldo elementary school in Mrs. Messenger's kindergarten classroom. The student's I observed were male and female and Caucasian race. While I was there I was able to work with the students during centers. The center that I spent most of my time consisted of magnetic letters and white boards. With the letters and white boards, students were able to make words that ended with ing. I found it beneficial for most of the students but some of them were not willing to make a word. One student in particular was not willing to make a word. It seemed like the more I tried to help him to spell out a word, the less he wanted to. I am going to work on helping children like this student to be motivated to want to learn. The students that did want to learn and make out the words were very fun to work with. I helped them come up with different words to put on their board. Sometimes the students would misspell a word and I was then able to help them by sounding out the word and they could come up with the letter they needed to misplace or add to their word. Overall it was a very rewarding experience and I am looking forward to go back next week.

observation sites

I plan to start observing next week (Feb 22) on Tuesday in Dian Rombinshaw's classroom and Friday in Mandy Peruzzi's classroom at Aldo.

What I will do with my blog...

I am going to use my blog to keep track of my observations, keep notes of what I am doing in the elementary school classroom, record what I am learning, and list any questions that may trigger me from my service work.