Vibrant Kindergarten Learning Environment

1. Mrs. Scully’s Kindergarten class @ Wendell L. Cross School1255 Hamilton Ave. Waterbury CT By: Allison Beardsworth

2. Classroom Environment • There were 19 children in total. • 11 were girls and 8 were boys • There were 4 big tables with 5 kids at each, except for one, which had 4 children. • The room was very colorful with many educational posters and artwork created by the children. • There was also one corner of the room, filled with toys and activities.

3. The lesson objectives had two parts. The first objective was learning color patterns by three and four. The second part was counting to 100. Lesson Objectives

4. Student Grouping • They started out at the big tables of 5 each. • During the time they were learning, they sat down on a colored rug as a group heterogeniously. They were seated boy/girl and the teacher directed them to sit “Indian style”.

5. Materials Used in Lesson • The students used materials such as worksheets, manipulatives (colored blocks for patterns) and crayons. • The teacher used a chalkboard and a poster of number 1 to 100. She also used pictures of colored crayons on the wall for teaching colors. • There was no use of technology during the class, however, there were TV’s in the room.

6. Classroom Discourse • Teacher-student—The teacher would work on the problems with the whole class as a group, then have them do it for themselves and she would check on them after each example. • Student-student—The students would ask each other questions when they didn’t know the answer. When they would get a little loud she would clap her hands 3 times and they would quiet down.

7. Assessing Student Learning • The teacher would walk around the room as the students answered the questions she assigned. She would make sure they had used the color she had said to use and if the students were doing something wrong, she would make sure she allotted more time for those questions.

8. Modifying the Lesson • The teacher did not modify the lesson at all because it was things they had previously learned and were just going over. She did walk around and make sure everyone was participating and she moved a few students around who were misbehaving.

9. Results • With this experience, I realized the limited number of activities you can do at the kindergarten age. It showed me that you need to do most things in groups because the kids will get off track if they are left alone. • I also learned that if you turn learning activities into games, they become more involved.