Week 7: October 24th-28th

 

Monday, October 24th

➽Activity of the Day: Free Read

     This week is centered around preparing for conferences next Monday, so I took a couple of students off the teacher's hands and had a free reading. These students are on-track or ahead for where they need to be at this part of the year. I let the kids pick the book they wanted to read (both were Halloween-themed) and sat quietly as they read aloud. I only stopped them if they read a word incorrectly which messed up the flow of the sentence, or if they asked me a question. 

    I was able to see the progression from the students I typically work with to the ones I was with today. The students I typically work with sound out letters when I don't say a word. These two from today use chunks, similar words, or the context clues from the sentence to figure out a word they don't know.

Tuesday, October 25th

➽Activity of the day: Crossword puzzle

    In the continuation of preparing for conferences, the teacher sent me with four students to work on a crossword puzzle. The kids had been learning about bats in science class, and this puzzle used glossary words from what they had been learning. This crossword allowed the kids to combine English with logic. That said, these words were tricky. I think I learned more than them! Did you know an insectivore was a thing?

    Going out to recess today, the teacher had a meeting so I was line-leader. I assume it's easier for me to get the student's attention than the teacher because I'm not a constant, but it was quite fun! I stopped them twice in the hallway and held up my hand with my two middle fingers touching my thumb- symbolizing the age-old "Quiet Coyote". The students got the hint, grew quiet and joined me.

    A quick note- it's been about a month since I last played 4-square with the kids at recess. Have they had a 4-square bootcamp since the last time I had been there? In September, it took skill not to get them out. Today I was working up a sweat trying to stay in!

https://share.icloud.com/photos/01bIUWteFo1TN7HEp3eyffs1w 

Thursday, October 27th

➽Activity of the day: Preparing for conferences

    With conferences on Monday, students were writing reflections over their school year so far. I helped a kid brainstorm the highlights of these past couple months. We determined that his favorite subject is math, because it is the subject that interests him. He loves mathematical concepts. He was less excited to talk about the story he is being "forced" to show his parents. We determined that a fair description of his attitude is "what you see is what you get". He has no shame in being upfront with other kids, but works to be kind.

Friday, October 28th

➽Activity of the day: Halloween bingo

    In a celebration of all the kids accomplished this year, we played Halloween bingo. The spaces had nothing to do with what they'd been learning this year- just good old-fashioned bingo. There is something about this game that seriously excites the kids. There were tantrums from those who were close to a bingo, but another student won first. This was actually a great learning opportunity towards patience and learning what is socially-acceptable to get upset about, versus the things we just need to let go.