Way back in the day, when I was a young lass, there was no government requirement of attending kindergarten. So, I missed it. I started first grade as a five year old. Somehow I muddled through ... but today, I went to kindergarten for the very first time. (Okay, well now, that might be stretching it a bit as my oldest son was in public school kindergarten, and I did go to his class...)
I arrived at 9:15 AM. The class was in Relative Arts and were to arrive back shortly. There were 18 of them. Eighteen little heartbeats to sit at their little desks and learn all the important things they will ever know, if one is to believe some books that declare
all you need to know you learned in kindergarten. And, I am volunteering to be a part of this, so I'll be on my best behavior.
While the class was getting settled, I prepared 36 pieces of a napkin type paper that can be recycled, two for each child, to be placed in front of them. These were their imaginary *math mats* with an imaginary line down the middle, of one for the purpose of working out their math problems. (One map would hold their 10 bunny shaped marshmallows, and the other would be for working out the math problems.)
I liked the idea of using manipulatives. Each child worked with ten bunnies.
Mrs. Evans, whom I met and observed last year during the time she was my youngest nephew's tutor (and is now his teacher), is an excellent teacher, in my good opinion.
In this unit of study, she wrote a math problem on the board. When she used the + sign or when she used the - sign, she reinforced what that stood for and what action was being taken. I liked that she allowed the children in her class to call out in discussion. She asked for numbers to add or subtract from, that were not higher than the number 10. The class would then work the problem with their bunnies, and call out the answer when called on. They seemed to know when to raise their hands.
I recall now, yes, it was that she instructed them to put their finger on their noses when they had the answer. I thought this was quiet a brilliant thing to do. Then, they raised their hands and she called on a student to answer. If they were incorrect, Mrs. Evans had very positive ways in her dialogue with them to keep the discussion going without telling any child something that would not keep them thinking in the round.
One other thing Mrs. Evans did during this exercise was to set up each child with a partner. She displayed a way of knowing, very quickly, whom would be a good help for whom. She called out children's names and had a few change seats, not one bit of complaining was done during this time that I recall.
The learning abilities of 18 children are going to ebb and flow. And, no one teacher, in my good opinion, can sustain them all, but if it can be done, she will find a one to try to find the best way to attempt it. She will try to hand each child the baton ~ although, I can see that some of them will not grab for it and go. The reasons for those things are yet to be known, and may very well, never be.
Today was an early release day. Which means that school is out by 12 noon.
We went right from math to journal writing. The children went back to their regular seats for this activity. The group leaders of each little table is responsible for going to a drawer unit at the each of their tables, and fetching the journal books and supplying the pencil needed. The children wait for the book to be handed to them and start writing.
At this point I was on free reign of sorts. Mrs. Evans needed to do some individual testing with each child, and I guess my being there allowed her to do that, so I walked around helping children with their entries.
I am very familiar with phonics and their sounds -- phoneme. My homeschooling background helped me with this. Helping sound out the word "vampire girl" was interesting. I did my best not to cheat and just give someone a word -- I did give one child the
g and
h in night, explaining the *
Mr. gh* rule, because she wanted to write the word *nit* but for night to have a long i sound, then she would have to put an e at the end and have - nite - but I thought, oh well, I'll just go ahead and let her in on the secret of *
Mr gh* because if she knows now then she has forgotten it, and if she doesn't know, it certainly will not hurt her to know (right?).
I continued helping the children with their spelling for their journal writing entries until it was time for recess. After recess was over, while Mrs. Evans read the children a story (and with great animation, I must say; such a fine job she did!), I cut out penguin wings for the next project which they began, but will finish later.
At the end of the day, my little nephew took my hand, and we prepared to leave the classroom together. I then remembered it would be nice to clean up the mess left after the penguin wings cuttings, so he helped me do that. He knew which recycle bin to use.
We were then walking out and he said to me, "Aunt Sasha, are you glad this day is over?" I told him that I thought it was a very fine day, and I enjoyed it very much, "How about you?" I added.
He said, "I've got so much of it still in my head, I feel like it's still going on..." He's 6. Priceless, just priceless.
