So, we’re nearly one week into the second term (to be highlighted by 11 weeks AND report writing!) and I’ve had a fantastic week so far.
This post is primarily to share one story that happened yesterday, that reinforces why I love teaching: We’ve started exploring 2D shapes as a class, introducing circles/squares/triangles/rectangles with the preps and revising and exploring new shapes with the grade 1s. (I was quite ambitious with my grade 1s – we explored many, many shapes – but they got such a kick out of it and we had lots of hilarious pronunciations of ‘parallelogram’!)
The preps were exploring circles, but using 6 cut-out circles to create a picture. We had ideas of a collection of balloons, a collection of different sports balls, caterpillars, ice-cream, flowers, people and part of the solar system. (I’m hoping to post some photos of their work soon, because they did such a great job!) The grade 1s were matching 2D shapes to their names in their numeracy books. It wasn’t a particularly original lesson, and it involved quite a bit of work at their tables, but about halfway through the session one of my grade 1s stopped me and said: “Miss Galvin, you’re the bestest teacher.” (Which was then followed by a chorus of other children, putting in their two cents!)
After saying the ‘thank you, that’s very kind’ response, I asked the original student why she’d said what she’d said, and she replied, “Because you let us do fun learning.” It was so sweet and genuine – I literally smiled for the rest of the afternoon. It’s great to get that feedback from the students and it lets me know I’m on the right path.
Incidentally, that entire conversation was proceeded by another conversation where the grade 1s and preps tried to trade work with each other! Had I not been in the room I think they probably would have switched seats and worked on each other’s little projects!
Here’s our anchor chart for shapes, and the display – student work to be added later!
(Poster design completely and utterly appropriated from Amy Lemons – because I loved it so! Clip art shapes around the poster are by DJ Inkers.)
And one more picture, our afternoon brainstorm:
I hope everyone else has had a brilliant start to the term!