La Casa: July 12, 2012 The Beauty of Song and Preparation

The Beauty of Song and Preparation

On this third official day at La Casa, I was at my most ready form for teaching.  Don't get me wrong.  Of course it can get better...way better.  However, I left feeling like I had built upon lessons that I learned, and that felt really satisfying. 

The morning began with breakfast and the circle time, and then the class was mine at 9:30 a.m.  Camille, Sherry, and I were ready this time.  I said that I would need to split the class for the individualized lessons we had planned.  It caught Mrs. Maria slightly off guard, and she had to check to see the availability of a room.  There was time that needed to be filled and I was ready.

I regained the students attention, and I lead them to a round of "If you're happy and you know it...", and they loved it.  I don't know who got more joy out of it, them or me, but it was really moving to hear them excitedly go through the song and shout "Hooray!"  This elation carried into the enthusiasm they had for the water celebration song I shared with them next.  I'm still researching the history of the song, but thus far, I've only found this:

This an ancient Creek Water Blessing. The Creek Indians would often sing this while bathing, washing clothes, or before swimming in the lakes, streams, creeks, rivers, etc. The medicine men/women would sing this when healing the sick or wounded.

I got the kids even more excited about the song because I made the connection that they were going to the lake tomorrow.  We walked in circle while holding hands and singing, "Wichita do ya, do ya, do ya.  Wichita do ya, do ya hey (2X).  Then, still holding hands, we all go to the middle of the circle and raise our hands up and then back out to a full circle while singing a little more loudly, "Wacha teneya hey ya hey ya.  Wacha teneya hey ya hey (2X)"

It was a beautiful moment.  I love how the movements are similar to a splash of water and a concentric ring.  Also, it's amazing how quickly the kids pick it up right away

Following the song, I led my group to the new library area.  ***Note to the designers:  Cars as decorations on shelves that are at child height are very appealing to kindergarten boys and a girl.

Though the room is rather small, I made due and had the kids sit on the floor to prepare for the read aloud.  I was already keen to the fact that having them sit on the couches did not work well.  My anticipatory set was bringing out a newspaper and seeing if they could guess what we were going to do as an activity.  One child made a great guess of painting with the reason that we would need the newspaper so as not to make a mess.

Next I pulled out a bag of seeds, and some kids shouted, "We're going to plant seeds!"  I had a mixed bag of sunflower seeds, corn, pumpkin, and 3 different beans.  Now the kids were hooked as I prepared for a read aloud on a child's experience making a garden at school.  

What I learned from other teachers that I've been practicing is asking the kids what the author and illustrator of a book do.  The kids are getting better at distinguishing the two roles that can be done by one or more people.  

Today, we reviewed who were the characters of previous stories.  We also looked back to see the different types of illustrations in the stories.  The book and materials actually provide a decent, basic foundation for lessons, and the characters in the story are culturally relevant.  

After the read aloud, I gave instructions for the next step(s) to plant seeds that somewhat modeled what was in the book.  The students chose the seeds they were going to plant.  Then they drew a picture on a small piece of paper of what they were planting.  Some drew the plants, while others drew the seeds.  One student asked to use the book as a reference for the corn plant.  Some students drawings were really intentional with bright colors and decorations.  Others were not as colorful but still very cute.  They also wrote their names on them.  

The pictures were taped to small plastic cups, and then the students lined up to scoop out dirt from a ziplock and into a cardboard planting cup.  As this quickly became too slow I dumped soil in the middle of the table and invited anyone who was willing to use their hands instead of a spoon.  Of course there were many takers.

Planting seeds after the read aloud.

The system was set, and as students finished, they needed something to do.  I had a worksheet that came with the financial packet that I gave to the first student to finish his planting, and I gave him instructions on how to complete the worksheet.  I then gave him all of the worksheets and asked if he could explain to other students what to do as they finished planting.  He was up to the task.  

This whole time, I forgot to mention what a great resource Ebony, a high school volunteer, had been with getting different materials and aiding children as directed.  

Angie proudly holds up her activity sheet.

As students were still planting, some were finished the first worksheet, and I had another one that was a double-sided word find with garden terms.  One side was in English, and the other was in Spanish.  This was actually challenging, and it was a blessing.  It really made the students who were finished planting slow down to focus.  As some kids had trouble finding words, I encouraged them to seek help from their peers.

Today I was very cognizant about using the resources available to me in the way of students leaders and volunteers.  It really made the lessons less taxing, more fluid, and left me with an invigorated feeling as I closed the lesson and prepared to leave.  How do you keep a small class of kindergarteners entertained while learning?  I'm still exploring this question, but surely songs and preparation go a long way!