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Mid-day group again as usual. My lead teacher has been wanting a number line for our math shelf. So I cut out numbers 1-10 and put it on some poster board and laminated it. She was very appreciative. Now the kids are able to do a one-on-one counting exercise. 

Mid-day group went well. Even the kids with speech issues are pronouncing the sound correctly. I wanted another one day after school activity. They really liked the threading worms the other week so I wanted todo another similar project. I decided on necklaces. They like threading and they thoroughly enjoy wearable art. I prepped yarn and found some safe yearn needles that the beads would fit over. They really liked it. The younger ones struggled a bit with the needle, they wanted to treat it like a bead. But they really liked giving it to whoever picked them up. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures. 

I have mid-day group this week. This week our letter is “k.” “Kyle kangaroo goes k, k, k.” All the kids are very good with the k sound. They also love the kick we do with it too. For after school today, I wanted to do a one day project. I decided on a very hungry caterpillar idea. They have the background shape and then they glue on the head, eyes, and pieces of green tissue and crepe paper for the body. For the most part they liked it. The older kids drew mouths on theirs which inspired the littler ones todo so also. They came out really cute. It was nice for the kids to be able to take their work home the day they did it.

After observing the lessons I think that what we do is very effective. I would like to think that we are helping these kids become more independent and confident in themselves. We’re not just a plain daycare, we have lessons, structure, and a fluid movement into a preK setting. I think that the kids are more excited to learn things because they are not forced to. Everything is optional and they see most of it as playing instead of learning. I think we are supportive of families because we are teaching their kids and our hours of operation are conducive to their work schedules. I think we are supportive of diverse cultural contexts and perspectives. We have many bilingual children and many from different cultural backgrounds. These families often reciprocate that support and offer advice and support to help make our classrooms and school more accepting and knowledgeable.

Our sharing person today brought his Spiderman plushie. The same as his last sharing day, and the same book. It’s interesting to notice which kids bring the same stuff every time and which kids bring something completely new. But I had conferences this morning. I sat in for one of the older students and one of my students. The teacher of the older kids talked a lot more about how they give the kids lessons and other things. But the child whose conference I sat in with is suspected of having ASD. The parents do not seem to be open or accepting of that possibility. So the way that his teacher put it was by explaining that once he gets into the public school, they might want to have him tested. But the way she put it, “they might want to have him tested to rule out anything.” to me the way the teacher worded it was her trying to say that there might be nothing wrong with his academic and social functioning. It seemed more as though the teacher should’ve been the only one talking. Whereas the teacher in my class, let the parents talk more. The conference from my class was this family’s first conference. So the parent was asked if she had any concerns or wanted us to know anything. I found myself wanting to speak up more in this one since he’s in my class right now. What was really awesome was that his parents wanted and offered to do specific things with him at home to help with what we do at school. I’ve found that not a lot of parents want to support from home. 

Today, our sharing person was our bilingual child again. He brought a stuffed bee and cupcakes because it was his birthday. Today, I sat in with a bilingual student lesson. I was so impressed and proud of him. He did amazingly well, didn’t even hesitate, knew every sound, and could think of words that started with those sounds. He only speaks Chinese at home and doesn’t take any English classes, so all the English he learns purely from school. So, I’m really impressed that he is doing so well. I sat in with one of the oldest student’s lessons, she didn’t even do what the other kids did because she was already above that level. She is now reading. It was awesome. And what impressed me the most is that she is comprehending what she’s reading. So proud of these kids.  All the kids I sat in with this week used to be in my class, so it’s really awesome to see how much they’ve grown and how smart they’ve become. 

Our sharing person today brought a “Charlie,” a little robotic cat. Although as far as she was concerned it was just a hard stuffed animal.  In after school, all the salt painting was done so it was just the worms. I used hot glue for the googly eyes because I wanted them to be able to take them home that day. It was a success the kids loved them. Even one of the kids who is usually not interested in art wanted to make one, so that was a definite win for me. 

In morning group today, our sharing person brought her Elsa doll. The kids are starting to focus on if the sharing person jumps with their toys. “Do you jump with it?” “Does it jump while you walk with it?” and anything close to that. Anyway, I’ve started sitting in on the older kids’ lessons. The older class, ages 3-5, have more structured lessons and reviews in order to prepare them for kindergarten. The first kid I sat in with wasn’t very confident in himself. Every time he made a choice he would hesitate and look at the teacher. You could see him really think before he made a decision or said a word. He’s usually a crazy kid who’s always running around and getting into trouble, so it was really nice to see him think and correctly identify the beginning sounds in words. Then I sat in on a girl that I’ve always considered very smart and literate. When asked to think of a letter that starts with the “mmm” sound, she thought about it and confidently said “cat.” I see now that just because a child might be literate, does in no way mean that they fully understand the words they know. 

This week I have morning group again. Our sharing person was our little non-verbal girl, so no sharing. (decided by her parents, not us) But she does enjoy checking the weather and putting it on our weather chart. In after school today I knew I had to come up with something more fun for the kids who had already finished their salt paintings. I saw a beaded worm on a pipe cleaner project. I thought that it was just cute enough while also helping with fine motor skills. I gathered a whole bunch of different types of beads and even buttons. While some kids finished their salt art, the others really liked the worm project. A success. They came out super cute. 

Conferences are this coming week. A goal for the coming week is to gain knowledge about how to talk to parents in this type of situation. This is different from public schools because the teachers have explained that they don’t have the freedom to talk about everything that they wish they could. I’m really excited to listen to how the teachers do these conferences. The biggest thing that I struggle with is tackling conversations with parents about their kids. I think this experience will really help me with this struggle.