So the past 6 school days I’ve been working on my lesson
plan. We started out by reading “The Three Little Pigs and other Stories” like
I mentioned in my earlier post.
Day one of the lesson we read the story then started acting
it out with our voices and bodies. We were out in the hall so the kids were
able to move around a bit more. One of the groups with the higher reading level
had the Three Little Pigs. This group has the three girls and two boys; it was
a battle to be whichever pig they thought was cooler. And this version of the
story was a little gruesome, the first two pigs were eaten and the wolf was
boiled to death in a vat. Well…we changed the story a bit haha. The girls
didn’t want to die and the wolf wanted to be friends in the end so we somewhat
adjusted the plot. Oops. The second group had the Little Red Hen. They each
loved the character they got in this story, which cut me a break thank
goodness. The third group had Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Unfortunately
this group had 4 boys and there was nooo way one of them was going to be Mommy
bear, so we changed it to brother bear. And I’m not sure if they ever realized
Goldilocks was a girl cause they fought to be her…
Day two I had them color in puppets I had drawn for them. They
colored them in really well, I mean we had a green bear but he was a
good-looking green bear! This took up the whole rotation time but we had some
extra time where I threw together an old box to make a puppet stage.
Day three we acted out the puppets with the stage. I reread
the story to them to remind them of how it went and they then acted the story
out the way it went, then I let them change the story. Wow. I could not believe
some of the plots these kiddos were coming up with. The Three Pigs group had
Ali who was the man who sold straw, sticks, and bricks. (I had to add this
character so there were enough parts for people). He would say, “Give me all your
money!” Every time someone asked him if they could buy something. He also
decided to run from house to house warning the pigs the wolf was coming. The
pigs fought back and the wolf whimpered but then Maria Cecilia, the little
drama queen she is, was the wolf and had a whole dramatic scene where the wolf
died then came back to life as an angel. The Little Red Hen group cracked me up
too, the boys in this group have somewhat of a language barrier and instead of
saying, “Not I!” they would shout, “Me no!” “Me no!” and then “Me yes!” Hahaha
I’m going to miss these accents so much back in Amurica. Goldilocks group had a
great time acting out the different voices like Daddy’s big voice, and the
baby’s voice. They actually stuck to the plot really well until the bears came
home and ate Goldilocks. She got what was coming.
Also Thursday was the Crowning of
Mary ceremony. All the kids brought in a flower to place near the statue of
Mary and they all had practiced songs to sing for the ceremony. It was
precious. EC 1 and 2 (3 and 4 year olds) and Kindergarten all did the ceremony
together. Here are some pictures! The songs are still stuck in my head…
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| Most of the group in front of Mary's statue, Preschoolers and Kindergarten! |
The fourth day we practiced the plays again then actually
performed them for the class! My teacher took videos and I will get them as
soon as I can and hopefully post them on here. I was helping the kids on the
side if they forgot any part of the plot but they had it down, they were
fantastic! We used a table instead of the stage because the stage got in the
way as the kids were fighting over it. They’re all divas fighting for stage
time. When practicing I reminded them to take turns speaking and I made sure
they could identify the beginning middle and end of the story. I really think
my teacher was impressed by how well they did and that made me feel so proud.
The fifth day we started a writing prompt where they were to
retell the story in writing rather than puppets. They each had a different part
of the story and had to write 1 or 2 sentences (depending on which group it
was) and draw a picture to go with it. Kyle came in to observe me teaching this
lesson. Thankfully, he got to see my highest group who are angels. With every
other group there’s so much behavioral management that goes into everything. We
had a debriefing afterwards and he said I did really well! Now that my lessons
over it really feels like this trip is almost over.
Today I really had to put my foot down with the kids. I have
recess duty two times a week and lunch duty once and a day off. Well today was
recess duty and they seriously are the most touchy feely bunch and when I was
trying to get them to line up they were pushing all over the place,
climbing on playground equipment, yelling
across the playground, kissing, you name it, it happened. I rang the chime (one
of the management techniques) and they did nothing. I raised my voice, which I
really try not to do but they weren’t listening. I finally wrangled them into a
line and we started walking inside. As soon as we reached the hallway all the
high schoolers were walking through the hall…it was chaos. I lost all the
youngins in the bunch and had to stop and wait for them. As soon as the high
schoolers passed I whipped those kids into shape. I was calling the kids out
who weren’t lined up. I rang the chime, I told them they would have to put
their head down on their desks when they got inside (which always works like a
charm) and I started giving them the talk that they were almost 1st
graders and they had to act like 1st graders and respect the teacher
and themselves. When we got to the room you could hear a pin drop. I gave them
another little talk then asked why we were sitting with our heads down. They
all gave the right answers and were eager to respond. I then asked what they
could have done better next time and they all groaned, “Listennnn”. Well I
think I did my job for the day. I really don't plan on teaching kindergarten haha.
We're heading to Elba this weekend and I'll definitely have updates about the island soon!
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