Celebrating Earth Day

Earth Day was Sunday, April 22 so in the days following my first graders celebrated by learning how to become "planet janitors". The lessons taught the uses and abuses of Earth's natural resources. One activity we did was go on a nature hike and discussed and experienced our local natural resources. The hike was lead by a fourth grade class that taught about erosion that the streams cause, the types of trees, and the safety of hiking.

Within the next few days our class headed out with the other first grade classes to collect trash from around the school property. The students then sorted through the trash and were shocked to learn that most of the "trash" was recyclable. The first graders did many activities that revolved around the reduce, reuse, and recycle movement. I found that during this unit it was extremely important for us teachers to set a good example. There are two links below that I just fell in love with. Enjoy! <3

Making a memory game from recycled bottle caps. This page provides the printable to make an alphabet memory game but I took it one step further and noticed that you could use the idea to create any memory game, for example money coins. Click the following link to check it out: www.artistshelpingchildren.org

Reusable sandwich and snack bags are a great way to set an example for students as well. "...every day, more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfills in the US", we can help cut down that waste. There are a few companies out there but I found lunch skins because another school in the area is selling lunch skins as a fundraiser for their PTO. A family run company that provides fundraising opportunities for schools? - Can't go wrong! Hope you enjoy the following link: www.lunchskins.com

*Remember to be creative with the items that you throw in the recycle ... and remember to pass that creativity onto your students!

The Ongoing Classroom Management

My lead teacher has so many great ideas and tricks in her bag but one of the most valuable one is her ongoing classroom management. She uses a book titled Have You Filled A Bucket Today, by Carol McCloud. It's a book for children that helps them understand when you're nice to others (filling) then it makes you feel good but also shows children that when we are mean to someone (dipping) then it doesn't make you feel very good. I noticed that it helps the students because they now have something tangible to see, the bucket. When students are being mean, disrespectful, or not behaving my lead teacher simply says, "Are you filling a bucket or are you dipping?".

One day the children were struggling to keep it all together. We noticed that there were some mean comments and bad attitudes, it was just before our one week break so students were starting to "loose it". She sat the students on the carpet and re-read them the book. I like the idea of the book and how it is so simple to just have to students sit down and re-read the book to refresh their memories. This is something I plan on using in my classroom!

Valentine's Day Poetry

The first grade poetry section falls right around Valentine's Day so I thought it would be fun to combine the two. The first day we read poetry from the language arts book. The next day I introduced the idea of creating shape poems. The students favorite poem from the text book was about ducks, so as a class we created a duck shape poem. Later that day, in ELA centers the students were asked to create a heart shape poem. The picture below shows their work and also acted as a great decoration for our Valentine's Day party!

Chinese New Year

My wonderful lead teacher expressed to me that if I wanted to get the most out of the student teaching experience then I should jump in full force. This may be the reason why starting in my third week in the classroom she handed me a giant folder filled with lessons and ideas for teaching Chinese new year in the social studies block. I was nervous, of coarse, but more so than anything I was excited that she handed me such an engaging topic and let me have the freedom to plan the next five days of social studies.

Below are the five lesson plans I created. As we all know - the plan always takes a detour but my goal for student teaching is to create some sort of lesson plan for everything I do. This way I can look back and generate new ideas from what worked and even what didn't work. To view the entire lesson plan, click on the light green links beside each day. Enjoy!

Day One: "Bringing In The New Year"

Finished dragons were hung on our makeshift bulletin board just outside our classroom door. The yellow sentence strip displays the NV standard. (Please excuse the fire hydrant!)

Day Two: "Comparing New Year's Traditions"
(Stay tuned for student examples!)

Day Three: "Fortune Cookies"

Recipe that the class read and followed together. My lead teacher tries to do one recipe a month so by the end of the year each student will have a cookbook from first grade. The recipes on chart paper are hung around the room.

Finished fortune cookies, each complete with a student created fortune inside!

Day Four: "Wind Socks"

Day Five: "Brainstorming and Closure"

A New Year Brings New Adventures

It is a new year and a new adventure! I started my student teaching in a first grade classroom and am absolutely loving it. Everyday I am learning something new and I am constantly reminded of how much I love seeing children grow and learn.

I was completely welcomed to the school by my lead teacher, the school staff, and the students. It is such a great environment and I am so lucky to have been placed where I am. There are a handful of other student teachers in the building, which is comforting to know that we are all experiencing our journey together.

As we all know, with every experience there are positive and negative moments. With student teaching being such a major part of the teacher certification process there are also shocking realizations. I had heard it over and over again in classes but could have never been prepared for the vast and varied amount of levels in our one classroom. The first few days I felt overwhelmed with trying to get to know the students and their level and what group they were in and even what assistance they needed individually. Now that a full two weeks have passed I know each student and where they need extra help. It was shocking and overwhelming at first but as time continued I became more comfortable with the levels. I imagine this is what all teachers experience in the first few weeks of each new school year.

As I mentioned above, it has been a full two weeks. When I reflect on my experiences I am really proud of myself for jumping in head first. In the first week my lead teacher felt confident enough to let me lead a literacy center group - reading leveled readers or stories from the first grade text book with small groups. I also helped her complete DRAs and QSIs for her class as well as the enrichment block. I am looking forward to doing the same tests in a few months to actually be able to see the growth in each student. Even the small things such as lunch duty, school wide meetings, grade level meetings and meeting the student's parents have been invaluable experiences.

Next week I will begin taking over the 45 minute Social Studies block, beginning with teaching about the Chinese New Year. I am looking forward to seeing my planning and teaching in action. I am also excited to see how the students respond to each lesson.

Stay in touch and look for updates!