On Monday, almost as soon as we got there, we went to an assembly on Women in History. It was with all of the early elementary kids, so that was great to experience the assembly mode at Cornerstone. The presenter gave the students a look into important women in history including Amelia Earhart, Clare Burton and as she went through these women figures, she asked the kids questions, brought a few up on stage to do demonstrations, and tried to the best of her ability to keep the kids attentions, though that was very hard, especially for the 1st graders. After the assembly, the students broke up into their reading groups, which two of the groups got to switch, which was very exciting for the students. I sat in with the smaller group, which is technically the lower reading level group, but they aren’t told this. This group is only 4 students, 3 girls and one boy, and the girls are very mean to each other…even their reading teacher told them to not talk to each other because they have nothing nice to say and it just causes distractions. Seeing this group, I can see how 3rd grade is a lot more challenging because the students are older and know how to really make each other mad enough that the tempers flare.
Tuesday was a snow day, so on Wednesday the students did an activity similar to the activity we did in class a while back. They had to draw a creature, anything they could imagine, with color and then describe it as precise as possible because they were going to read their description to another student and have them try to duplicate their creature just by what each student wrote. Some students did incredibly well, while others didn’t do as well, leaving out KEY details of their creature. After this activity the students wen to their reading groups again to discuss what they were reading. Again in the lower level group, I saw the students learning key concepts of words (like cAT, fARm, mAKe, plAY) and they have to match similar sounding words then read through the lists. Then the students try to write 4 of the words and they go over if they missed them or not. Then they got a new book called Grandpa and Gus and they began reading the first chapter and discussing it.
On Thursday, we went back to the science experiment they have been working on for about 2 weeks, but due to the snow days they have yet to complete it. Today was their “build it and see if it works” day so it was really great to see all the different designs that the students came up with. Hilary and I were in charge of the Hallway testing, while Ms. Dillon and a student from Akron University were in the classroom. We found out that Matt (I didn’t catch his last name) will be there Tuesday and Thursdays for awhile, so that will be another interesting variable in our classroom, having a male teacher in there. After the science was wrapped up, the students did a quick write about some sort of travel machine and drew their machine. They had 14 minutes to do both picture and discriptions and then got to read them to their classmates.
It’s really neat to be able to see all the different creatures and travel machines that the students thought of this week. They all had soo many different ideas and everyone had something unique about their creature and machines and that so many were excited to share them with each other and the teachers.
arogers08 Said:
on March 3, 2008 at 2:29 am
I have to agree with you that the children come up with very creative ideas. I would have love to seen the “machines” they built as well as the creatures. I always find it fun to give the students an assignment where they get to express themselves as well as show their creativity.
That should be fun having another person within the classroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Another set of hands should be good for some situations. We have 3 extra students in my classroom with Danielle, a student teacher, and myself. Hope you continue to have good experiences and enjoy your time there!