This week was Bat Week in Kindergarten! We spent all week learning about bats and doing bat activities. While I was planning for this week, I decided to skip the story from the basal, Julius. Instead, I decided to stick with the bat theme and read Stellaluna. I still did all the skills from Julius, but just adapted them for Stellalune. I decided to change it up because Julius was not a very fun story and I thought the students would enjoy reading a different story. They all did well with the skills-comparing and contrasting. Stellalune fit in well because we could compare/contrast birds and bats. In math, we started our counting unit. We counted ourselves, our noses, our fingers... It was really fun because it was about us, plus the students did well with it. They understood one to one correspondance - one tally mark for each student, so when we counted the marks that was how many students we had in that class. One to two correspondance was a little tricky for some. We did examples; I had each child hold up both hands. As I went around and tapped each hand, we counted. Then went back and talked about how each person has two hands and if there were 20 students there were twice as many hands. We are starting to worry more and more because more and more students are coming down with the swine flu. It is just another thing to worry about while we are teaching-Are all the kids washing their hands, using sanitizer, does anyone look sick or fevered? Just one more thing... But over all, this week was fun. I am enjoying teaching all day...even though it is so tiring! I feel like I am becoming more confident in myself...the idea of having my own classroom is becoming less and less scary. I'm looking forward to next week, Pumpkin Week! On Thursday we are going to spend the entire afternoon doing math with pumpkins...measuring, counting, weighing, carving! It is going to be messy, but tons of fun.
I am so happy that you got to experience "life outside the basal" It only makes sense to teach thematically. You could still teach the necessary skills that the basal suggested, but in a much more appropriate way. Students learn best when everything is connected.
This week was Bat Week in Kindergarten! We spent all week learning about bats and doing bat activities. While I was planning for this week, I decided to skip the story from the basal, Julius. Instead, I decided to stick with the bat theme and read Stellaluna. I still did all the skills from Julius, but just adapted them for Stellalune. I decided to change it up because Julius was not a very fun story and I thought the students would enjoy reading a different story. They all did well with the skills-comparing and contrasting. Stellalune fit in well because we could compare/contrast birds and bats. In math, we started our counting unit. We counted ourselves, our noses, our fingers... It was really fun because it was about us, plus the students did well with it. They understood one to one correspondance - one tally mark for each student, so when we counted the marks that was how many students we had in that class. One to two correspondance was a little tricky for some. We did examples; I had each child hold up both hands. As I went around and tapped each hand, we counted. Then went back and talked about how each person has two hands and if there were 20 students there were twice as many hands.
ReplyDeleteWe are starting to worry more and more because more and more students are coming down with the swine flu. It is just another thing to worry about while we are teaching-Are all the kids washing their hands, using sanitizer, does anyone look sick or fevered? Just one more thing...
But over all, this week was fun. I am enjoying teaching all day...even though it is so tiring! I feel like I am becoming more confident in myself...the idea of having my own classroom is becoming less and less scary.
I'm looking forward to next week, Pumpkin Week! On Thursday we are going to spend the entire afternoon doing math with pumpkins...measuring, counting, weighing, carving! It is going to be messy, but tons of fun.
I am so happy that you got to experience "life outside the basal" It only makes sense to teach thematically. You could still teach the necessary skills that the basal suggested, but in a much more appropriate way. Students learn best when everything is connected.
ReplyDelete