Friday morning I went to Elementary School. Mrs. B let me help with her 1st grade class. I was a little nervous at first but it wasn’t long before I got into the swing of things. Mrs. B introduced me to the class and explained what we were going to be doing while I passed out the Y and Z worksheets. Mrs. B called each kid to her desk one at a time for reading assessments. I went around the room helping the kids with their worksheets. Making sure they were doing them correctly and quizzing them on the Z or Y word that they had to write on the worksheet. The ones who didn’t know the word I helped to sound it out.
Once they were done with the worksheets I passed out kids news and read the cover to them. It was about animals and bugs that blend into there environment. I asked the kids if they could tell me a bug or animal that blends into its environment. Almost every kid raised his hand. They were just so excited to participate and it warmed my heart. I think that is when I fell in love with 1st grade. They gave really good answers; one boy said “a preying mantis”. I thought that was the best answer. Then I had them open up the newspaper and asked them if they could see the animal in the red picture and so on with each color. They got most of them but a few were hard and I helped them find the animal or bug. After we went through the 6 pictures I had them turn to the back page for the matching exercise. They had to match the word color to the color picture. I went around and helped some of them sound out the word colors so they could match up the pictures.
Once they were done I had a contest to see what row could be the quickest and quietest putting their papers into their box. Each child has his own box with his name on it by the door. Then I gave the winning team each one skittle.
I followed that with a story about a man’s winter hat that had blown away. A rabbit found the hat and made his home in it. Then a skunk came along and the rabbit didn’t want to make the skunk mad so he let him move into the hat with him. I asked the kids what happens when a skunk gets mad or scared. They said “Stink.” I said “that’s right skunks spray & stink and no one wants that.” Then a porcupine came along and moved into the hat with the rabbit and skunk and they moved as far back in the hat as they could to avoid the porcupine. I asked the class what porcupines do when you get to close to them. They said “Poke.” I didn’t get to finish the story because it was time for PE.
Mrs. B had them line up at the door and fold their arms. Then we all marched down to the gym. While we waited for the gym teacher we played a little rhythm game called who stole the cookie from the cookie jar. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. When the PE teacher came in we left the kids with her and went back to the classroom to visit for 40 minutes until they were done.
After we brought the kids back to the classroom I passed out a workbook to each kid and explained what we were going to be doing. Then I went around and made sure they were copying the two sentences correctly and once they were done they could start coloring the picture that went with the sentences. I told them the best picture would get one skittle as a prize. Some of the kids tried to start coloring first but I steered them back to following my directions of writing the sentences first. They were so wonderful and obeyed me. I was so proud of them. After that it was lunch time and so I headed home.
I just LOVED it!!! I can’t wait to be a teacher. It was so much fun. I can’t wait until next Friday so I can do back again. It is my only day where I don’t have school and I normally work in the evenings so it is the only day I can volunteer. Mrs. B is a wonderful teacher; I am glad she is mentoring me. Well folks that is all for now. Tootles.
Lanie
