Practicum Week 2/13 (Recap)

We are starting our Apple Unit!

The second week of practicum went by really quickly!  I started my apple themed unit and so far so good!  We're still working on routines and one thing that I realized about kindergarten is that they need a lot of bathroom breaks and they easily are tired.  Hence, there are a lot of movements in our class.  We do exercises as little transitional breaks and we are consistently reminding them about rules.  I am working on and also incorporating the green light, yellow light, and red light behaviour chart. I also learned to not talk to them so much when they are struggling because they need to be problem solvers themselves and if they need help, then they need to learn to ask for help.  All in all, we're having fun and there's so much going on!  

A mystery box!  The kinder's loved this!

I created a laminated apple poster with velcro labels to labels the parts of an apple! The inspiration came from a source online but I forgot the link.  Sorry!

Here is how it looks like without the labels.  The dollarstore near my neighbourhood has cheap Velcro's.  (Thank goodness!)

I made apple puzzle pieces where they have to put together an apple!

I am reminded that this is the first time they have ever done any observations and they did a great job!  At the beginning, they need to be guided and shown how to do these step by step!  That's what I am learning.  :) I thought they did a wonderful job!  We are learning about the parts of an apple. 

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Professional Development!

This week I also had an opportunity to attend a workshop by Sharon Wellis on using dry natural materials such as (pinecones, leaves, flower petals, etc...) to create artwork.  It was really interesting and I will be incorporating some elements of this into my kindergarten classroom for my Fall Unit.  Here's what my cohort created... :) It was really amazing!  It makes you appreciate it so much more because after its completion and admiration, we had to clean up the gym it will never be the same again.  This is a great lesson for kids to know that things are never forever and they are constantly changing. 

Yup that's me! :)