Friday May 21 - Day Five

I showed up in the classroom around 730 for my last day of work and today all there was really to do was get ready for the party that afternoon. There were a few finished art projects from Thursday that i had to distribute into the kids bags but before class I mainly just talked to Ms. Winslow about being a Pre-K teacher, she mentioned that this week was a rough week to come and shadow because the kids are not obedient due to their focus on summer break. Its funny how even preschoolers who have so much fun at school are so eager for summer as well I don't remember anticipating summer how they do when I was their age. The kids came in and I observed how aggressive they had become today with the toys and how the concept of sharing was a hard one for the day, there were a lot of crying children today and i hadn't witnessed that problem. Whenever a child wouldn't share Ms. Winslow or Mrs. Escobar would simply try to have them work it out themselves, I had never seen this before typically the teacher tries to solve the conflict itself but by making the children solve it themselves it helps it not happen as much in the future. We only had a short time to play inside after chapel and then we went on the playground where I learned something not even related to my project but I thought it was good to know, drying sheets repel mosquitoes so the teachers use them when its a cloudy day outside and when the mosquitoes seem to be biting more, it was interesting! We went back inside to clean up the room for the party and then went to finally see Mr.Willy preform, the kids LOVED it. He was actually pretty entertaining for the adults as well and it was so fun to watch the kids interact in the songs and laugh at the randomness of his lyrics. When Mr. Willy ended we went back to the classroom where the parents had set out little plates for each of the kids and then Ms. Winslow spoke about the year and everyone began to take pictures. A couple of the parents came up to me and mentioned how at first they were confused when their kid came home from school and told them how they had three teachers in class that day but they understood when they saw how i was helping out. I think overall the project not only helped me feel the experience of a preschool teacher but the kids were so excited to have a "big campus kid" with them all day. I left around noon because there wasn't much to do for the rest of the day.

Thursday May 20 - Day Four

I showed up at the lower campus at regular time, 730 A.M. today and went to the library with Ms. Winslow after i checked in at the front office. We returned books that we had read this week and then went to the teacher's work room to grab some construction paper so that she could create some thank you letters for the room parents. After we were back at the classroom i started on taking off the artwork in the hall off of the wall and while i was dong that all the students came into the room and began playing at their centers. I had to stop removing the artwork to go to Chapel in which i sat in the end and had trouble with two of the boys not listening to me. I think sometimes that wearing my uniform may be good because it helps the kids recognize that i am an older student at the "big kid campus" but sometimes they have hard listening to me because I'm not the real teacher. I think tomorrow I'm going to wear something other than my uniform and see how it works out. Anyways after chapel i went back to clearing off the artwork on the walls and when i finally finished i distributed them into each of the kids individuals bags. This project took about two ours in the morning but i finished after the kids special of the day, music, and then they were heading out to recess so i was able to spend the rest of the morning with them. We all came back in and some of the girls started working on their puzzles while we rounded up some of the other kids who hadn't completed their door hangers from yesterday. Today seemed to go by faster than ever for some reason. Ms. Winslow told me that it seems to happen that way the more you see the class daily. Tomorrow is both Pre-K and Kindergarten's last day of school so the kids have been anticipating Friday's activities all week, everyday i have to tell them how many days it is until "Mr. Willy", a singer, will be preforming for them. They were so happy and excited today i cant wait to see how they will react when Mr. Willy starts to sing tomorrow!

Meet The Class!

Here are the fourteen kids of Ms. Winslow & Mrs. Escobars class that i am so blessed to work with this week!

Wednesday May 19 - Day Three

After today I honestly can't imagine not having a career working with children in the future. It's only the third day and i am having so much fun helping Ms. Winslow and her assistant Mrs. Escobar, who has been absent the last two days. Today i arrived at 7:30 A.M. as usual and helped Ms. Winslow set up the activity centers and then i got right to work on the Memory Books-- I finally finished them today YAY. Today was pretty low key activity wise because the kids only had one special class, because we only had one special the kids were in the classroom all morning and became a little rambunctious throughout the day. When all the kids showed up to the classroom we had a quick circle time and then headed to Chapel, it was hard for them to pay attention today because they are all so excited for summer break and our end of the year party on Friday. After chapel we returned to circle time and all examined the cloud paintings that they made yesterday and tried to come up with what each individuals paintings looked like. One of the boys made the cutest comment that his only looked like a cloud and it was adorable the way he could just laugh it off but we ended up finding something that it resembled. Today seemed to go by a lot faster than yesterday, not only was i able to finish making the books but i helped Mrs. Escobar and Ms. Escobar take down all the artwork in the room and put them in a bag for each of the kids- the room was so bare! Everything went smoothly today and normal I did assist some of the girls making door hangers for their bedrooms at home. While i was cleaning up after making the door hangers Ms. Winslow read a story about summer and then Conrad presented his transformers car and his mini basketball from the sharebag he brought to school and then i left with the kids around carpool time at about 11:35 because i had done the work that needed to be done early today. It was a short but eventful day.

Tuesday May 18 - Day Two

Today i arrived at the lower campus around 7:30 AM again and helped set up the classroom for the days activities. Before the kids arrived around 8:10 i started my work helping Ms. Winslow make the "Memory Books" for each of the children. The books consist of all the artwork of each individual kid and pictures of the class. When all the kids checked in we had circle time and went over the "Daily News" and the helpers of the day. We walked to Chapel at 8:45 and after chapel ended we headed back to the classroom to finish circle time. Today's activities went along with yesterdays on the topic of clouds so as a class we worked on an art project where students painted their own clouds by pressing two pieces of paper together and spreading a glob of white paint around using their hands, it got a little messy but over all it was fun to watch the kids reactions to what they thought their cloud looked like. The kids were allowed to play after making their cloud and a majority of them created "lassos" with pipe cleaners. There was only one problem during clean up when the kids would not stop playing with the pipe cleaners. After cleaning up we went to the playground to eat Popsicles and play. When the kids headed to their afternoon specials the Library and Spanish class, the substitute assistant and I headed to the work room to continue working on the memory books, we laminated and cut out all the drawings and we met with Ms. Winslow, after she got the kids from Spanish class, in the classroom. It was Annabel's day to present her "share bag" and she brought some souvenirs she had got while she was in Disney World. The kids were allowed to ask some questions but we ended up running out of time because it was already Carpool time! Apparently time really does fly when your having fun.

Monday May 17 - Day One

The first day of shadowing was a little intimidating, i showed up not really knowing my authority in the classroom but after a couple hours i became so much more comfortable with my position. I showed up at 7:30 A.M. and met with Ms. Paula Winslow at the lower campus, we started off the day by preparing the classroom for the days activities by putting the chairs at each activity station, going to the library to check out a book for story time, and finalizing the kids progress reports. The fourteen children all arrived around eight ten and while waiting for everyone to get to school one of the boys, Nick, taught me how to make origami hats. The hats seemed to be a big hit throughout the day because a couple of the kids thought it would be fun to make and decorate them so we could wear them to the "end of the year" party on Friday. After all the kids showed up to the classroom we headed to Chapel and then returned again to Ms. Winslows room and had circle time. During circle time the kids sit at their assigned seats and at the beginning Ms. Winslow leads the discussion by having the kids participate when instructed such as prompting how to spell the word "May" with a capital letter or the word "Monday" as well. Circle time is also the period of time that the kids notice their duties of the day such as the door holder or prayer leader etc. After circle time the kids went to Music and then Motor Lab. While they were at their classes I helped Ms. Winslow sort out all the art work of the twelve kids and put them together so later this week we will be able to make a booklet of their favorite memories that they have had this year. Later we went and picked up the kids and went outside for a snack and recess. When we came in from recess we proceeded to make our hats and some of the kids showed me the "Science Center" and all the projects that had fascinated them. The kids cleaned up and then Mrs. Reiter red them the book Ms. Winslow picked out that morning "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" and we then as a class discussed clouds. The day went by so quickly, by the time carpool came around it didn't feel as though it had even been an hour but in reality it had been five hours. I stayed about thirty minutes after the some of the class left and helped Ms. Winslow rally up the afternoon "explorers" group. But due to their little activity they have going on in the afternoons, Ms. Winslow decided that the morning classes would be enough to get the feel of a preschool teacher. Few problems came up today and the little that did involved mainly sharing conflicts, and some of the attention deficits that the kids had during story time. Today overall was a blast but I'm hoping that as I become even more comfortable in the classroom ill be able to help Ms. Winslow with more of the activities.