One of the things that makes my day is walking into three separate classrooms and finding real learning going on. We focus on the five year olds more than the other ages because the fives are giving back what they learned. The fours are learning to learn from the fives and the threes are putting together a learning plan while they do most of the watching. It’s a remarkable group effort and never ceases to amaze me how demonstrative five year old children are and how much the others learn from them!
Today, I was amazed by our threes, however, who were playing sight word bingo and really getting it. Miss Amy has taught the children their letters and sounds well, so that they can put two and two together and actually play a game with nine little sight words.
The fours were busy with math…in fact, they were so busy, there was not a single noise. I marveled at the quiet. They were busy figuring out and sorting by coloring. It was a fabulously interesting problem, and Miss Dayna was holding a remarkable court!
As I walked into Miss Lisa’s class, the fives were inventing a story about Mr. Terry. This is early creative writing. The mental juices were really flowing, and the children couldn’t get enough of being next to “tell.”
Our children get a fast and crazy thirty minutes of three subjects every morning…reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s a fast paced program that keeps things moving. Teachers have only a short time to impart the day’s lesson and then it’s on to the next thing. Not an easy, leisurely pace, surly, but certainly geared for very young children.
Today’s general lesson was North America and how we are part of a three country team. We talked about being “the UNITED STATES” as a group activity. We asked the children if they have ever heard of places like Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, and Florida. “How about California?” Many of the children had heard of Hawaii, and Texas. We explained how these places, called states, all made up the “United States.” Some of the kindergarteners will take home a map from one of the states to enjoy at home. It’s to be brought back tomorrow, and another map will go home.
These cold, indoor days need a lot of zest, a lot of thinking and a lot of teacher plans. This P.M., as it was reported, was filled with finishing our relief maps. I was told they are adorable with trees, and rocks and a boat and gummy bear and whale crackers…
A great day!