Week 13: Twelfth Day in the Classroom

Week 13: Twelfth Day in the Classroom

Date: Thursday, December 2^nd, 2021

By: Monica Schrank  

This week I got to teach my fifth and final lesson to the students!! I taught the students about the seven continents and oceans of the world. The students were able to look at the classroom map and see the seven continents and oceans. I grabbed the classroom globe and the students were able to see that the globe is a 3D or spherical version of a map, and a map is a "rolled-out" version of a globe. As I was teaching, I kept looking at the clock and realized I was running out of time and would not be able to teach the students about the oceans and get through the activity sheet and continents song. I realized that I had to take out the oceans of the world and move right on to the activity sheet and then teach the students about the continents of the world song. So, I made the quick decision to move right into the activity sheet which is what I had to do when I taught my second lesson. I was very glad that I decided to take out the oceans of the world information because I feel that I would have lost the students’ interest if I taught them about the oceans and tried to have them remember where the continents and oceans are located by labeling them on a map. However, the students truly enjoyed learning the seven continents of the world and singing about them in a song.

During math, the students were learning how to subtract with regrouping using base ten. Last week, the students were introduced the arithmetic and practiced subtracting like how I was taught to add when I was their age. I was actually really surprised at how the students could solve a subtraction problem using arithmetic, which they have never learned prior to last week. Some of the students were asking me if they got the right answer, and I showed them that they could add the part numbers together and see if the answer that they got was the given whole number. The students were really excited to use the arithmetic method which was fun to see that they understood it and used it correctly when subtracting two numbers from each other. I noticed a lot of students were using the base ten and arithmetic method by solving the problem with both methods. This was a great way for the students to understand that no matter what method they use to solve a math problem, as long as they use the method correctly, they will all get to the same answer regardless of what method they used, either the base ten or arithmetic method.   

During guided reading this week, I helped the students finish up their letters that they were writing to Santa. The students learned right in the beginning of the year how to construct a letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature). My MT had the students review the parts of a letter with the “Parts of a letter” song to refresh their memory of how they construct their letters to Santa. The students were constructing their letters so well by making sure that they had a heading (which was what they were writing Santa about), greeting (which was how they addresses Santa) body (which was where they were asking Santa questions about his reindeer, the elves, and what they wanted for Christmas), closing (what they wanted to say to Santa as their last thought) and the signature (which was coming up with a way to say goodbye to Santa at the end of their letter). The students were coming up with so many things that they asked Santa about such as what his favorite reindeer was, how many elves he had at the North Pole, while also providing Santa with so many different toys that they wanted to Christmas. I cannot believe that next week is my last week and I am truly going to miss the kids!