Teaching Day

Last Friday was my day to plan and teach at the ODU Child Study Center for a classroom of 4, 5, and 6 year old children. I had to plan and prepare for each of the centers as well as plan and teach the lesson and read the stories during their circle times. The unit for the week (which the head teacher had already chosen) was Olivia, a series of children's books about a pig. I chose to read the books "Olivia Saves the Circus" and "Olivia and the School Carnival" so my theme for the day was Circus!

 

 For my math center I found an idea online; jumping off of that idea I created math snow cones (or ice cream cones) by cutting out triangular shapes as well as circles out of construction paper. On the "cones" I wrote various math problems, and on the ice (or ice cream), aka the circular shapes, I wrote solutions. The students' job was to match the math problem to the correct answer. They had little pigs as well as mini animal shaped erasures available to use as counters if the needed/wanted them.

 For the fine motor center, the students created finger puppets by cutting out circus characters and coloring them. The teacher working with that table taped the strips of paper on the back to create the loop to put their fingers in.

For the language center I had created a word search using some various circus and carnival related words which the students had to find and circle.

For the art center (not pictured) the student used markers to draw/color a clown. I had strips of paper which said "Clowns are part of the circus" for them to glue onto their drawing.

For the first (and longest) circle time I talked to them about the circus showing them some pictures and various toys as visuals. We sang a "Let's Go to the Circus" song towards the very beginning. I also read "Olivia Saves the Circus." The students got to walk a "tightrope" (tape on the carpet), count horses, participate in talking about the circus, etc. All this and more was part of the first circle time.

At the last circle time at the end of the day I asked about what each of our 5 senses might find at the circus (What might you see/smell/taste/feel/hear at the circus?). I showed them the book we were going to read ("Olivia and the School Carnival") and briefly stated some differences and similarities between a circus and a carnival before reading the book. We then attempted to play a circus themed Simon Says (without including the "Simon says..." part) and changed to a charades sort of game, but this did not work out quite well as the kids were somewhat distracted and many were being picked up by this time.

All in all, I think that the day went pretty well. The students are so sweet, and it is neat to see how much they enjoy learning and contributing their own thoughts, ideas, memories, etc. I have two more teaching days that I have to do at the Child Study Center. I will try to remember to take and post some pictures of those centers as well.