Helping in the Classroom

My clinical teacher decided to teach all day. I worked with individual students some of the day. I also helped the teacher assistant get work together for the next couple of weeks. In addition, we started to decorate for Christmas. All the students have Christmas Stockings with their names on them. We put them on the railing of the staircase. The students were excited to see them. The day seemed to go by fast.

Extra Help

My clinical teacher taught for the most part today. While she taught, I worked with individual students. Some of the students need extra help and it does make it easier to do with three teachers in the classroom. Most of the students have improved a lot from the beginning of the school year. It will be interesting to see how much they have progressed at the end of the school year.

Music Class

Music class began today. The students were excited to sing and dance. In order to avoid loosing instructional time, we have music one day a week during our computer time. Our principal thought it would be a good idea so that we the students were not out of the classroom for 80 minutes. During our instructional time, the students did work hard. They are doing a great job with beginning sounds.

Indian Hats

We made Indian hats today for the students to wear. The students decorated sentence strips by drawing pictures on them. We also attached feathers to the strips. The students wore their hats in the classroom as well as to lunch. They enjoyed making the hats; however, it did make them a little rowdy. Mrs. Bennett read books about Thanksgiving and the class talked about the first Thanksgiving.

Turkeys

The students made turkeys using paper plates. They cut their turkey bodies out of construction paper and glued them to the plates. Then they colored the plates to represent the turkey’s feathers. Once they finished, I helped the teacher’s assistant decorate the stair case rail using the students’ turkeys. We also read more books about Thanksgiving.

Teaching

The students were talkative today. I think it has something to with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up. One of the students asked me this morning if I was going to teach. He wanted me to teach all day. I am glad that he enjoys my teaching; however, my clinical teacher is in charge of the classroom. I did teach some of the day and my clinical teacher taught as well.

Columbus Visits

My clinical teacher and I started to transition back to her taking over the classroom. I taught the first half of the day, while Mrs. Bennett taught the last half. When I was not teaching I worked with individual students. In addition, Christopher Columbus visited our classroom today as part of Columbus County’s birthday celebration. The students were excited to see him and talk to him; however, his visit was brief.

Newspaper N

Today we allowed the students to tear off pieces of a newspaper. They glued their pieces to form the letter n. As the students worked, we went over the letter and the sound it makes. The students enjoyed the activity and so did I. We also did their theme skills test. Most of the students were able to identify the beginning /n/ sound.

Onsets and Rimes

I went over onsets and rimes with the students again today. I gave the students the sounds and they had to put them together. I was so proud at how well they done. The majority of the students were able to name the words that I was sounding out. At the end of the lesson, I went over taking the beginning sound off. Some of the students were able to give me the correct answer. It is amazing to see how much they are learning.

Pattern Necklaces

The students seemed talkative today. One student told me that he did not want to do his work; however, I reinforced the rules of the classroom. Afterwards, he completed his assignment and did not say anything else. We made necklaces out of yarn and Fruit Loop Cereal. We used the necklaces to make an AAB pattern. The students enjoyed the activity and it seemed to help them understand patterns.

Testing

We had to do our theme skills test today. It was the first time that we completed the test as a whole group. We moved some of the students to different seats and we moved other students’ desks around. Some of the students scored well, whereas, others did not. One section was where the students had to infer what would happen in the story and that is what brought their scores down.

Pat, Pat, Clap

The students worked hard again today. They are doing a great job recognizing beginning sounds. They are also going good with onsets and rimes. We use a chant in order to break words into parts. Pat, Pat, Clap is our chant. We pat our legs as we go over the sounds and we clap as we say the words. The students like to do the chant.

Bear Hats

We had a great day! The students worked hard and their behavior was good. The new student has been doing so much better this week. I have prayed for him because I know there is a language barrier. It makes it difficult to communicate with him; however, he seems to be picking up a few words. During small group time, we made bear hats. The students cut out blue bear faces and added the facial features. Then we glued them to sentence strips. Next, they wrote the letter b on the strips. We stapled the strips to make hats. The students wore their bear hats about all day.

B is for Bear

The students behaved well today and they worked hard. We began our study on the beginning sound /b/. I used a stuffed bear to help the students remember the letter b and the /b/ sound. During our small group time, the students traced the letter b. They also colored their letter blue, black, or brown. Afterwards, they glued buttons onto their colored letter. We plan to do activities all week that will help them remember the letter b and its sound.