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.