This weeks Field Notes

Patrick Rainville
EDU-3265
Field Notes and Exploration 4
10/31/12

Today's Schedule: Explore, Snack, Literacy Centers, Recess, Math Groups, Movement Break, Morning Meeting, Read Aloud, Lunch, Quiet Time, Math Stations, Recess, Literacy Groups, P.E, Guidance, Dismissal.

Explore- helped students paint ghosts.  All of the explore choices were halloween themed.


Literacy Centers- Mrs. Gresham reads the class a book about halloween, "Big Pumpkin", that featured rhyme and student interaction/acting.  After having read the book once, Mrs. Gresham then gave props out to students to act out the book while reading it a second time.  Discussion followed about how teamwork helps get things done.


 Mrs. Gresham has students view the calendar, then uses the Adams Family theme song with the days of the week.  Review of the months in the year, specifically the one that follows October takes place.


Math Groups: working with intervention group today.  The students work on a number line.  The students take turns rolling the dice.  The number they roll is the number they frog jump to on the number line.  The students then write the number on the designated spot on the number line.  Mrs. Gresham facilitates the activity by asking students questions to answer, like what number should we start at on the number line.


-Students learn about four new numbers today and how to represent them using base ten blocks.  The numbers 14, 15, 16, and 17 are the new numbers and students take turns representing them with the blocks.  Many students are eager to have a chance to show the class how to represent these numbers.


-Students are paired with a partner and take turns rolling dice.  One partner rolls the dice, and the number landed on is represented by the other partner using base ten and one blocks.  The dice have the numbers focused on in today's lesson (14-17, two of which are repeated to total the six sides of the dice).

-Mrs. Gresham explains to me that the teens numbers are the hardest for the students to grasp concept wise.  Once they have this concept mastered the students will have little trouble counting and recognizing numbers all the way up to the hundreds.  Mrs. Gresham also indicates that the numbers 11, 12, 13, 15 do not sound like the numbers that represent the quantity.


Movement Break: the students move around the classroom like different halloween characters.

Morning Meeting: Student greet each other with spooky halloween voices.  They definitely enjoy this.

-Students have a short moment to share whether they will be going trick or treating tonight.

-One student reads the morning message to the class, and the class repeats it aloud.  The same student circles the sight and popcorn words written in the morning message.

-The class then plays an halloween sequencing game.  "I went into a haunted house and saw.....a goblin."  Each student adds to the game by stating what they witnessed.  Each student must restate what has been said before them and then end with what they saw in the haunted house.

-The class listens to a story about raccoons and talk about the characters or the "who?" and the setting or the "where?"


Quiet Time: Students play with different color base blocks and listen to soft music.  Mrs. Gresham uses this time to assess a few students on number recognition.


Math Stations:

-Workstation #1 --> Students work on recognizing shapes.

-Workstation #2 --> Students work on measurement through the "Pumpkin Report."  Students take various measurements of the pumpkin.

-Workstation #3 --> Students work on coloring Charlie Brown pumpkins, and then cut them out.  They then place them in sequence on a sheet of green paper.


Literacy Groups: I worked with the intervention group today.  We worked on letter recognition and the sounds of letters.  We then read a book called "I see."

Math: Helped students count candy corns.  They had to place ten into a circle.  At the end all the students had to see how many groups of ten candy corns we had.








5 Good Questions:

Why is recess time being cut back, especially when physical activity has a positive effect on our cognitive thinking?
Should teachers incorporate more movement in their lesson plans?
Should current events be talked about in Kindergarten?
How do early education teachers figure out the appropriate pace to instruct when students enter school and many different levels in comparison to their peers?
Why do schools in America offer far less time for lunch than other school systems throughout the world?  Is it the focus on standardized testing that cuts lunch and physical activity time in American schools?