Sort of Teaching

     Most of my weeks seem pretty short, but this one really flew by!  I woke up Monday not even wanting to go to class, and my the time I had turned around it was Friday night.  If you’ve been reading for any length of time, you’ll know that I am in my last semester of classes before I student teach.  With that comes a lot of time spent in classrooms doing observations and teaching lessons.  One of my favorite classes is kindergarten practicum (K-Prac); I get to spend every Monday morning with the same sweet teacher and the best bunch of kiddies ever!
     Every week we teach a lesson and take over a few more responsibilities in the classroom.  This week I taught my health and safety lesson and introduced my bulletin board (…technically it was a trifold, but you get the idea).  The kids loved both of them, and I really loved seeing how excited they were.
     I try to keep all of my lessons simple and fairly  short since it isn’t my classroom, and I’m a guest.  My health and safety lesson was about dental hygiene, so I thought I would share for all of you teachers, future teachers, or homeschoolers.
     All of our lessons have to incorporate a book; this week I found one on the Internet (not the very best book, but they enjoyed getting to see it on the computer) – What to Do With a Used Toothbrush.  When I first introduced this, I asked what they thought our lesson might be about, and one of them suggested recycling!  I hadn’t even thought of that at all – they really do surprise me with how clever they are.

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I made this before the lesson (two-sided) from a small piece of poster board.

     After we read the book, each table had two magazine pictures (I like to keep the number of pictures small for time reasons and because it lets the kids work together and talk) – one of a healthy food and one unhealthy.
     They were all really eager to talk about the foods they had and why they may or may not be so healthy.  As I’m sure you can guess, we glued the pictures to the tooth:

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You’ll have to forgive the terrible lighting – these were taken after the fact!

     This is one of  my favorite lessons I have done so far, and I know that they got it because when we went to lunch several of them told me that my Chex mix wasn’t good for my teeth (ha!).
     The last thing I wanted to share with you is my bulletin board.  This is another class requirement, but I love doing bulletin boards, so it didn’t feel like a lot of work!

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     Each student gets to draw a number out of the purple pocket.  They count out the correct number of paintbrushes (from the white pocket) and put them in the can.  After they finish, they get to write their name on sentence strip and put it in the middle of the board.  This was obviously done early in the day, but they were all so anxious about getting a turn!
     I know I don’t often post about what I do in the classroom, but I love it more and more each time I go, so I thought I would share with all of you!  Please feel free to “beg, borrow, and steal” (thanks, Harry Wong) any of these ideas (although if you Pin these, please credit it back to me)!
     I have a lot more teacher-related stuff in the works, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.  Be sure to come back tomorrow for the seventh (wow!) week of I Know and I Don’t.

Happy Weekend!Allyson

4 comments

Leah Bud said...

Aww that is such a cute lesson idea! I'm not a teacher but I may homeschool some day :)
This reminds me I need to get my teeth cleaned...not my fave thing :)

-Leah
thecuckoosnestblog.com

Allyson McGuire said...

Thanks so much! I like that it was so simple and we got to talk through it instead of just lecture and practice.

Megan said...

Awww, what a great lesson! How funny that they told you the Chex Mix wasn't good. Haha!! My best friend used to teach (before babies) and I loved hearing about all of her projects and lessons.

Allyson McGuire said...

They surprise me with things like that all the time - so funny! Thanks for stopping by!