Day 4: Not as tired anymore!
So I did wake up earlier hoping to go back to bed in case of a snow day. Apparently the school district has amazing snow plowers. No snow day! On my ride there I realized how spoiled I’ve been the past 10 years. SXU was so close, and even though this isn’t much farther, my regular 15min drive turned into 35 almost. Dumb snow and 87th Street .. boo!!
AM session wasn’t awesome either. Because of the snow, only one child showed up. So I spent the morning observing 1st grade classrooms. I picked up on so many teaching strategies. For example, the kids have a word wall that changes up every week. The teacher called one student to the board to spell the word “felt,” but instead of the other kids sitting in their seats waiting for this child to write up a word, they all “silently” practiced tracing the letters on the palm of their hand. The other first grade class wasn’t as beneficial. I came in when they were doing worksheets as the teacher tested a child. Also I got mad because she made them color their snowmen one particular way. Effin disgusting.
The PM session had a few more kids. They have began to interact more which is great! But sometimes they need so much help to share with one another and to speak with one another. Definitely much different from the preschoolers I’ve seen in the past.
Day 5: Please let there be a snow day?
No dice. It was a fun day though. The kids enjoyed listening to a story about The Gingerbread Baby - Jane Brett. In a couple of weeks their parents will be coming for a parent-child day. The kids (from both sessions) will be putting on a play about the story. I wrote a song to the tune of Frere Jacques and they’ll be singing as I play my piano. They are also dressing up as different characters from the book and later their parents will help them make gingerbread houses. I actually made them all yesterday (in case the parents have too much of a hard time). The only thing they’ll have to worry about is the windows, doors and decorating with candy canes.
I also got my weekly review from my cooperative teacher. It was really good. :-)
‘Til Monday!
