Quelle journée!
Today reinforced two very important understandings for me:
(1) Wherever possible, do not enter a Kindergarten classroom and attempt to teach on only a few hours' sleep;
(2) Even when it seems like the class "has got it down" routine-wise, it is essential to continually remind the students of the appropriate way to follow all classroom procedures.
On the whole, it was a good day, but there were a few more situations in which some students did not make good use of their words, and chose to solve their problems in an unacceptable physical way. :( In each case, I talked individually to all parties involved and we discussed more suitable ways to deal with conflict in the future (e.g., it is important for us to use our words, and to tell someone that we do not like what s/he is doing instead of using our hands or feet to make the problem more complicated).
We began the morning with Literacy centres that included a review of "Bb" through mini books and rainbow writing; felt board story-writing; beading with letter beads, playdoh and letter stamps, and both sequencing and alphabet-ordering puzzles. During this time, I managed to meet with a small number of students to help them practice writing "Bb" in their 'Sons et lettres' books. Unfortunately, time did not permit us all to finish this letter in our books, and so I have kept them at school for us to re-visit on lundi. It took a little longer than usual for the students to clean up their centre areas and meet at the tapis today, for some reason. A few of them were singing "Rangez, ramassez," but didn't appear to be helping to complete either of the actions that they were singing about! Oops! With a few more rounds of the song and a countdown though, the majority of the class was ready for a brief circle time before gym.
We walked down the hallway to get une boire de l'eau a la fontaine ensemble, and then there was an announcement that a "Lockdown Drill" was going to take place in only a few minutes. We returned to class and prepared for this drill by pretending to be les tortues on le tapis. I covered the windows and made sure that the door was locked. I did have to remind the class a few times to remain silent, as this is key during a Lockdown Drill. If the school were ever to go into lockdown mode, we would need to be as quiet as physically possible! Following the Lockdown Drill, we washed our hands for the first nutritional break. I had to cover lunch duty in Room #2 today, and the students were not quite ready in time to head out for la recréation when the bell rang! :S ! On lundi, I told the class that I will set the timer for them, and they will need to take the responsibility to begin packing up their lunches when it rings. The teacher who is supervising in the room will help the children with this until it becomes like second nature for them. :)
After la collation, the students re-entered the classroom and changed into their indoor shoes. We met at le tapis and played a little game of "Je vois" using a giant poster of a treasure chest that is a Nelson Math resource. The students had to choose an object that they saw on the poster and provide a small hint to their classmates, who would then guess what the object was. I drew the students' attention to the fact that there were multiple objects that seemed to share some common attributes. I then had some volunteers come up and point at the objects that they would group together based on something that the objects had in common. We proceeded to sort the contents of a "real" treasure box (thanks, Karla! :)), and discussed different ways that we could sort the treasures (e.g., by colour, by type of treasure - e.g., bijoux, autre chose - taille, etc.). I then sent the kids to the tables, where I had them draw pictures of their own treasures in treasure boxes. I circulated around the room to see if they could tell me something about the contents of the box and whether the treasures were similar, different, or in a specific grouping for a specific reason. When the kids were finished with this task, I gave them some free choice activity time.
Eventually, we cleaned up (again... cleaning up wasn't exactly a hit today!) and met au tapis, where we read un livre about les sentiments (The Way I Feel). We discussed each emotion en français, and I had the kids demonstrate faces that represented each emotion. We also shared a few stories about times when we had personally experienced the emotion that was featured on each page. When the book was finished, it was time to wash our hands before the second Nutritional break.
Following NAB #2, we had a sing-along with my guitar. :) I taught the kids the chorus to "C'est l'halloween," and I let them choose from many different voices (e.g., like une sorcière, un fantome, etc.) and we tried to sing the chorus just like that particular Halloween-ish creature. We also had some requests for a few other songs, and so we sang "Old MacDonald had a farm" (with French animal names), and "L'alphabet" as well as "Twinkle, Twinkle." After singing these songs, I gave the children some quiet time to read a book of their choice. We had a little bit of free time, and then (somewhat!) cleaned up the classroom and I handed out les sacs-en-plastique for them to take home. We were organized and waiting in our bus lines a little early today, and so we played un petit jeu of Mlle Craig dit, and then sang the "tete, épaules, genoux et pieds" song together. :) I dismissed the children when it was time for them to go, and I really hope that they have had a wonderful night with you!
When school was out, I ran to grab a little dinner with one of the other teachers and we went to see the presenter at our school this evening, Michael Reist. What a wonderful speaker! :) I really took a lot away from this presentation, especially in the area of child psychology, and how what our parents have taught us often becomes how we are "programmed" to parent our own children. He has some excellent advice and really sound research-based ideas. If you are interested in learning more about what was presented tonight (about raising emotionally secure children) you can check out his website at: www.michaelreist.ca . His new book is being published at present, and should be available in late December at Chapters/Indigo. I have a feeling that most of what this man writes is definitely worth a read! :)
Bon week-end, les amis! We are going to be reviewing (and perhaps tweaking some of) our classroom rules and procedures beginning on Monday. If you happen to be talking to your child this weekend, perhaps you could discuss the reasons behind why we need to keep our hands and our feet to ourselves at school - even if we are just playing.
Merci!
Mlle Craig
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