Monarchs and Acrobats

Monday
Today was a great day at school!

Math went really well, despite the annoying technological difficulties. The internet was extremely slow this morning. So, even though we usually start with a video clip that describes and 'teaches' the daily lesson, I was forced to rethink the lesson and figure out what to do instead, or in the
meantime.

I basically just ended up switching around two parts of the lesson. It was annoying but little else. It ended up working out just fine. Talk about flexibility, though.

Guided reading was fine. Because the math lesson went a bit longer than usual, guided reading was cut a bit short. I still got to pull three groups, but I would've rather pulled a couple more yet. However, I had grabbed two new books for my top reading group and we started them today. One is a level E book that I'm really excited to try with them. It's so cool to see them pick up the words so quickly. I'm really impressed!

Reading was a lot of fun. We read a nonfiction book about the butterfly cycle. We talked a bit about this topic (basically just a review because we've talked about this before), charted it on the white board and then did an art project on the topic.

The kids really seemed to enjoy it and it wasn't too difficult or easy for them. It was also a nice way to reinforce the idea of the cycle.

Lunch. Calendar. Music. Home.

Tuesday
Today was yet another unusual day. When I walked into the classroom, I noticed that our caterpillars had finally transformed into beautiful butterflies. I knew the kids would be excited about this and I prepared for an enthusiastic morning.

Math went well today. We started off by reviewing the material from yesterday. I wasn't happy about how the students were grasping the material so I made an interactive review on the Pantheon board. The kids really enjoyed this and it helped reinforce the material. The computer was back to

Similar to what a Pantheon board looks like

normal (below average speeds) so we were able to watch a video about the material we were learning today.

Guided reading went okay. The pictures were quite small on the worksheet I had chosen for centers time so the kids had a lot of questions about that. Meanwhile, I was trying to pull groups not only for reading, but also to catch up on some work that kids had missed or done poorly on. I wanted to be sure to review the pages with them, and redo some of it, before sending it home to parents. Overall, this went well. The kids worked hard and we got a lot done.

At ten, we had a Chinese acrobat performance assembly in the gym. The kids absolutely loved this and talked about it for the rest of the day. At one point during the assembly, a student of mine said she needed a kleenex. I asked if she could wait until the end of the show, but she said she couldn't.
So, the kindergarten teacher next to me watched my kids while I went to get some toilet paper from the nearest bathroom. In all my years as a student, I've never imagined myself in the teacher role at an assembly.

Lunch. Calendar. We then did some new word family words. We went over them on the board and used the magnetic letters to tap out the -ug words. The kids practiced them and did book boxes for a bit before gym.

Folders. Park. Home.

Wednesday
I did not teach today. We had a Senior luncheon and class at Trinity today.

Thursday

Today was a good day. Math went well and the kids really seemed to grasp the idea of the order of events. They liked drawing pictures that illustrated when they get up in the morning, go to school, and eat dinner at home.

Guided reading went well too. I've been trying to squeeze in most groups each day so students get some solid reading time daily. My cooperating teacher told me that apparently our kindergarten class had the highest reading scores in the school. Score! Nice.

Reading was fun. We continued our work on butterflies but also spent some time on phonics and phonemic awareness.

Lunch. Computers. Park. Home.

Friday
Today was a really good day! In math, I finally introduced the idea of the clock which means we were learning where the numbers on the clock go. To help with this, I made a template on the Pantheon board where kids could come up and write in the numbers or circle numbers in order to help them become familiar with the order of the clock. The kids really enjoy using the board and they seem to benefit greatly from it.

Guided reading was pretty much the same. I had gotten new books for a few groups, so they enjoyed those.

Reading was great because we are finishing up our unit on butterflies. We read another story (nonfiction) and then made butterfly suncatchers with wax paper. They really liked this and they

turned out nice (well, those who finished). After lunch, along with my cooperating teacher, we took the kids outside to release the butterflies from the nets. The kids loved this and got really excited about it. They kept saying goodbye and adding names to the bugs even though each kid had named each butterfly something different. It was cool to see how excited the kids were about this unit and project.

One more week now!