1st Grade

The student teacher is still with this class, but she's teaching fewer of the subjects, so I got to teach a little more: religion, one math class, music, and handwriting.

All went well. Music was actually my favorite class to teach. They have an online curriculum with short videos of songs to learn/rhythm games/music games to play. So I just had to click buttons and lead them. Catchy songs. Fun game.

Handwriting- Since it's the beginning of the month, they're doing some "see how much I've improved" handwriting exercises. One is an alphabet race. They have two minutes to write the alphabet, both upper and lowercase letters. If they finish before the timer, they do it again and see how many times they can write the alphabet. Then they wrote their full name on a paper. Most of the papers I saw didn't have too much variance in the handwriting (or some looked a little messier!).

They had an English test. A few of them asked for an 'office', a cardboard trifold that sets on top of their desk to block others' views and keeps their attention focused on their own papers. Such a cute way to phrase it!

It's teacher appreciation week at Mt. Olive. The school is decorated with road-signs and traveling themed displays. Each teacher has a suitcase sitting open outside his/her classroom door. Parents and others can bring in treats and gifts and favorite things for them. Another cute idea!

Other fun things today... someone brought donuts for the staff (which I was invited to partake as well) and a parent monitored lunch, so I was able to eat lunch in the classroom with the student teacher and have some adult conversation.

A grandma came in as a mystery reader and read a book to the class. She hung out with us the rest of the day and helped when the kids needed help. Our last activity was making David and Goliath bags, basically a foam purse to hold foam stones. They had to use yarn to sew the bags together. I had the idea to put tape on the end of the yarn to help it go through the tiny holes. That was the best idea I've had all day! Way smoother execution. The kids loved the bags and some wore them the rest of the day. The only downside are all the little blue foam dots littering the floor...