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This school year in the Sparta School District was truly wonderful.  I have taught kindergarten for many years, and was able to bring something new to Sparta in an academic sense.  The children learned so many things, and I am the proud Mother Bird as they are ready to leave the nest.  I have a great sense of accomplishment as I see the progress of students who could not write their names, never the less hold a pencil, now write me daily journals about whatever they would like to tell me.  As I see little children who didn't know what a title of a book was, now choose to read stories on their own by looking through titles to read what is of most interest to them.  Little students who knew to count to 10, but couldn't identify those numbers now add, subtract, and write to 100....by ones, twos, fives and tens.  They certainly have grown in height, but they have grown in countless ways with knowledge.  I feel very proud to be able to be the first construction worker to build the foundation that the rest of their education apartment will be built upon.  Next year I look forward on expanding some of the themes and areas that I taught this year.  I look forward to seeing my first Sparta students in the hallways in the coming years, listening to the new accomplishments and progress they continue to make, knowing....everything they needed to know in school, they learned the basics in kindergarten.

Role: A kindergarten student in class

Audience:Parents at Field Day

Format:   Observation Narrative

Topic:Cooperative Learning is a fun, efficient, time saving way to learn in kindergarten!

 In March we learned about opposites.  We learned about fun Science things too, like the moon and the sun, which taught us "dark and light", and "day and night".  When we were  learning about things that were opposite, the teacher gave us an Opposite Day.  We also called it an "Inside Out Day".  We all dressed opposite, even the teacher and all my friends!  We wore all different opposite things, like inside out, backwards pants, with pony tails high and low.....We were all so creative and wanted to share with everybody what we did for Opposite Day. We have a lot of kids in our class, so that would take a long time if we told all of our opposites one at a time.  So we did a Cooperative Learning Game called "Inside Outside Circle".  My teacher put all the boys in the middle and they formed a circle facing out.  Then she put all the girls in a circle around the boys, facing at them.  Even the teacher got in the circle so everyone had someone to share with.  The teacher said "Go", and we had to guess the opposites of our friend, and they guessed ours too.  We had time to tell them if they missed something.  Then when the teacher said "Left" we would go to our left to a new partner, and the boys would go to their left which is our right....opposites.  It was fun, in a short time, we all had seen each other, learned more opposites and got to share with our friends, and learn from our friends.  We all liked that Cooperative Learning Game, and we even use it sometimes when we aren't learning about opposites.  In kindergarten, we need to get up and move.  It is called Kinesthetic Learning, that's "teacher talk".  It's fun when you can move, talk with your classmates, and learn.  When we sat down, my teacher asked us questions about what we learned, and who had the same kind of opposite ideas as us.  We made a graph with some of the funny things we did with our clothes.  That's a Graphic Organizer to help us see things we've learned.  We like graphs in kindergarten too.  I hope we have an Opposite Day in kindergarten too.  I can explain to the teacher just what we can do....that's opposite, the student being the teacher! 

The  kindergarten students were to be able to identify the similarities and differences of leaves found on a classroom nature walk.  The students worked in small groups at their tables to compare and classify the leaves on a Venn Diagram.  After classifying the leaves by shape, color, and some groups also classified the leaves by size, the students recorded their work on separate pages.  (See images) In addition during journal writing, the students wrote about what they found in their classifications and comparisons of the leaves.  

The activity was teacher directed in the instruction part of it, but the small groups were able to decide how they wanted to classify the leaves on their  groups' tables.  Each student had a large Venn Diagram to use to classify and compare the leaves.  To extend the lesson of the leaves during our Fall Unit, on a different day the class  made a list on chart paper to compare and classify the leaves.  They chose the categories of size, shape, and color to compare and classify the leaves that they had that particular day.  Student came up individually to circle similarities among their groups of leaves.

The students were observed by me throughout the whole lesson.  I walked around and also asked questions about their findings, to lead the students in a discussion to compare and classify the leaves.  The lesson was very successful.  The students worked well together, and stayed on task to find the similarities and differences of the leaves.  The success, in part, was because the students were able to have a hands-on approach, and enjoyed really enjoyed looking closely at the leaves.  They wanted to share their discoveries with eachother and myself.  Recording it on the separate paper also took the learning to the next level, as they were able to apply what they had done.  They enjoyed looking at the leaves and trying to draw their particular markings that made them similar or different from one another.  I was able to assess the students by walking around to each group and listen to their oral responses as well as their written work.  Later on, during a journal lesson, I was able to read what they had found. The students used higher level thinking in this lesson. 

Grade Level : Kindergarten

Objectives: 

 The students will be able to identify the similarities and differences of leaves found on a classroom nature walk.

The students will be able to record their group's findings on individual Venn Diagrams. 

The students will write about their findings.

Activities:

Teacher Directed.

Using a large Venn Diagram in small groups at their tables,  classify the leaves found at the Nature Walk.  Classification Types: leaf size, leaf shape, leaf color

On  individual  Venn Diagrams, record the findings with illustrations.

 Emergent writing about the findings of groups' leaf classifications. 

 Assessment:  Teacher Observation of group work, students' oral responses, students' writings .