Clinical+Reflections


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My First Day:** Today was awesome. I am at Kellogg Elementary in Mrs. VanZandt's first grade classroom. The kids were very excited to see me. Today I just observed a little and I played sight word bingo in the reading centers. My teacher was very nice and inviting; she made me feel very at ease and comfortable. I am really looking forward to the rest of the week..

This week I took over the Spelling. Mrs.VanZandt thought it would be a good idea to ease me into taking over the whole reading block. On Monday we did rainbow words; the kids write their spelling words once in pencil and then they go over it twice with thier two favorite colors. This is a good way to get the kids to write their words three times each without them realizing they are doing so. Tuesday and Wednesday we done a couple practice book pages from their spelling practice book; this made me a little nervous because I wasnsn't sure how the students would respond to working in a workbook but they actually enjoyed it. They may have only enjoyed it because it was a word scramble but at least they were not bored with me. On Thursday I gave them a practice spelling test. Whoever passes the spelling test with 10/10 then they do not have to take the test on Friday; I think this gives them motivation to do good on Thursday and to learn their spelling words. All but 2 students passed the test with a 10/10. This made me very excited because I feel like I taught them well. It is the end of my first week; so far so good...
 * Week 1:**

This week I began to work with the students in their guided reading groups. Mrs.VanZandt assigned me a lower level reading group. I had to develop lessons and games around their decoded readers for the week. One of the activities I used was sentence scramble; I used senetences from the stories and wrote them on note cards, the students were asked to put the sentences in the correct order. First each student was given their own sentence. Then I asked them to combine all their words and see if they could come up with one big sentence. The students were very enthusiastic about this particular activity. The next day they asked if we could play the sentence game again, that made me very happy. I also continued with the spelling. One of the spelling activities this week was to write sentences on their white boards using the spelling word I gave them. The students love to share their sentences with me and the class as well. It's the end of my second week and it couldn't be better.
 * Week 2:**

This week I took over the whole reading block. Which included spelling, grammar, guided reading and group reading. On Tuesday we read the book We Help! I had the students take a picture walk before we read the story. I asked them to make up their own story using the pictures. They loved this with every picture they came up with a new scenario. After we read the story they compared their predictions with what really happened. After reading I had the children go through the story and pick out their high frequency words; when they found one I asked them to read the sentence containing the HFW. On Wednesday I used the five finger re-tell; to have the students tell me about the story. I know this is a good activity to use but for some reason the kids weren't very enthusiastic about this activity. We also worked on fluency. I wrote some words on teh board and asked the students to say them as I pointed to them; I gradually sped up the pace. The students enjoyed this activity; the faster it went the more excited they got. My third week is over and it has been wonderful...
 * Week 3:**

This week I read Thump, Quack, Moo by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin. The students loved the book. I have read it to two other first grade classes as well, and they also loved it. The activity that goes along with the book is what really gets them excited. Before I even show the students the book I pass out statue of liberty hats and I ask the students what they think the book is going to be about based on what I just gave them; I get all kinds of different answers. Then I show them the cover of teh book and ask them what they think now; most of their answers change completely. It is hard to get through the story because the students are always talking about it and making comments before I even finish which is great it means they are really engaged in the. I think the hats help to engage them it gives them something to relate the story to. Props are wonderful and teh studenst really love them. I also had them draw me a picture of their favorite part of the book and then write one sentence describing their favorite part. This lesson is my all time favorite lesson and I was so glad I got to share it with my students. Here I am at the end of my fourth week and it has been the best so far...
 * Week 4:**

This week we are working with the short /u/ sound and proper nouns. On Monday and Tuesday I introduced the short /u/. The activity I used was to just write some words on the board and have the students come up and circle the words containing the short u sound. To invovle the students more, I asked them to pick the next person to come to the board. I gave them specifics when asking them who to choose. For example, I would say choose a girl wearing red or choose someone wearing blue sneakers. This takes a little longer but I feel like I am reinforcing skills so the extra time is worth it. When introducing proper nouns I used the same activity. The only difference was I placed the proper nouns in sentences instead of just words on the board. The second day of proper nouns I left them uncapitalized and had the students capitalize them as well. I changed the spelling activity this week to tag along words; the students were asked to write the words three times with no spaces and they can use any three colors they want. They were a little confused at first because it was a change but they finally got the hang of it; I think it went well. Five weeks down and it just keeps getting better....
 * Week 5:**

This week we are working with contractions. To introduce contractions I first showed the students how to change words into contractions. Then I read some words and I had the students raise their hand when they heard a contraction. Next I had the students come to the board and change the given words into contractions. For example, it is ---> it's. The students really caught on to the contractions fast. Our big book story for this week was When You Take a Mouse to School. We read the big book twice on Mondays and Tuesdays. On Monday we read through the book, then we talk about the book. On Tuesday I ask the students to re-tell the book. Then we do an activity relating to the story. The students loved the activity that went along with the book. I had them make their own book; they could choose any animal they wanted. I wrote the words If you take a ________ to school... on the board. The students came up with three different sentences all with the same begginning. They also had to make illustrations. When they were finished they shared them with the class.This was one of my favorite acitivities. My sixth week was a lot of fun....
 * Week 6:**

This week I introduced Days of the week, months, and holidays. To help the students become familiar with the days of the week, I read a story containing the days of the week, the students were asked to clap when they heard a day of the week. At the end of the week I wrote words on the board; the days of teh week, months, and holidays. I had the students come up and circle the one I told them. They always love writing on the board. Our big book for this week was Rap a Tap Tap. We talked about the many types of dances they can do and what kind of dances they like. The students are always eager to tell me something about them; they love to tell stories.
 * Week 7:**

For the read-aloud this week we done the Hokey Pokey; our focus was on fluency. The students were so excited about the read-aloud. As soon as I finished the first part they started to join in. We read the whole song together. After we finished reading, I had the students get in a big circle and do the Hokey Pokey. It got a little loud but they had fun and it is always great to give them something they can relate with the story. They are always more interested when they can take part in the story. My eighth week is over and I only have one week to go, I'm not ready for it to be over...
 * Week 8:**

For my final week Mrs. VanZandt thought it would be best if I went back to just spelling and guided reading. For guided reading we read One Monkey to Many as a group. We also corrected sentences. I wrote sentences on the board and had the students come up and fix what was wrong with the sentences. I was sad to see my time at Kellogg come to an end. I will miss all of my students. It was a great experience...
 * Week 9:**