Good Morning. It's another deliciously cool morning. As I sit here just after 5:00 a.m., I am thinking about how nice the weather is. The children played out doors a lot yesterday. We initiated a new game - tag. It's amazing how little children know about playing outside! So today we will begin teaching some of the old standards making games our scheme for the day.
Speaking of yesterday, we were working on phonemes yesterday - letter sounds, and I noticed that the attention span was really limited, so I thought, "What's wrong?" and the answer was a visual to go with our audio. Children are not expected to invent or to substitute with their own imaginations, so sometimes to help bring forth something, a teacher must use all the tools she can find. I added our letter cards to the sound making and it went a lot better. My best "phonemer" is Jill. She repeats all the sounds and seems to understand what we are doing. Some of my kids are still silent. We have learned the letter sounds for A, E, I and yesterday we added some of the consonant sounds like M. I am hoping that the alphabet has a richer, deeper meaning than it has in past years.
Amy and I learned all about this method of teaching when we went to the first Department of Education workshop in August. On September 30 and October 1, we will be going to the Reading Readiness W0rkshop in Indy for more of the same thing.
We have changed our report card to a more comprehensive report about the children's academic day. I think it will show who is teaching and how each child is doing. It's important to us that parents know.
My French class is going great guns this year. The children are learning to inquire about one another, to greet each other, to count to 20, to follow body commands and to say the days of the week. We have begun to talk about objects and learn to say "I like that." We have a surprise for you at Grandparents' Tea.
My Theater Class is going great guns. We have all acted. Some children are stronger than others. It's a matter of willingness to express ourselves with gusto, or hold back and dead pan it. Some children are lit on fire for this kind of theater activity. Addie is a real ham. Andrew just loves this kind of thing. India is a natural born actress. Austin tries very hard but can't make the jump from real life to play. Kirsten is a natural but can't get her body under control.
At lunch we are working on good manners. This week, we are washing and going to the table where we put our hands in our laps and wait for everyone to be seated. Then we pray together and begin to explore lunch. Yesterday we all tried baked beans and many children tried them for the first time. We had cheese hot dogs and watermelon and carrots and new dip made with honey. Today we will have a bacon and egg pie with a crust of hash browns.
Miss Amy tells me that in Fine Arts Music the children are listening to classical music and really loving it. In her special way, she has found a way to teach the children through body language and the children are responding brilliantly. They lie down and listen with relaxed bodies - makes the sound a welcoming and relaxing experience.
Miss Kelly is reviewing insects and the stages of insects' development. We are going to the Owensboro botanical gardens on Thursday for the bug exhibit. Science is many children's favorite subject. Yesterday, a spider was living in our teapot and found a rather nasty end landing in a cup of water for tea. Mrs. St. Louis found him, and we shared him with the kids.
More next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment