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Thematic Unit: Food
Lesson: “Healthy and Unhealthy”

This was the last lesson I had planned, and in general it was very nice. I was feeling a bit distracted that day and somewhat worried that it would be enough. I had many personal problems this year and although I did not transfer them to the classroom, they have prevented me from developing some things as I would have wanted. But everything that happens to us helps us to learn.

I had great expectations for this lesson since I had spent a lot of time preparing a puppet to tell the story. I chose “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” so I made a puppet that on one side was a caterpillar and on the other side was a butterfly.

After circle time I began reading the story to the children while using the puppet. They LOVED it. I think this is also in part because I love reading stories.

I had planned a pretend play activity with caterpillar headbands. When I told the teacher about it she asked me if children could make their own headbands since she realized that they had done few crafts throughout the year. Because of this change, the lesson ended up lasting over than 90 minutes instead of the 60 minutes I had planned.

Moreover, as making the headbands took us longer than expected, some children began to disperse. I gathered them and made them imitate the stages of the caterpillar. This was not in the planning and had nothing to do with the aims of the lesson, but I think it helped to refresh them a bit about what happened in the story so that later they could play with the headbands on. Still, if I had to do this with a different group again, I would give children the headbands already assembled.

In this case, although I still feel that "timing" costs me a lot, I think that if I had given them the headbands already made as I had planned, I would have been able to meet the scheduled times.

Finally, we did a cutting and pasting activity. Children had to sort healthy and unhealthy items from the story and paste them on a healthy and unhealthy caterpillar. Everyone understood the meaning of the activity well and carried it out smoothly.

In the end, I wasn´t entirely satisfied with the whole development of the lesson but overall, it was ok. I always repeat to myself that this is a journey. I need to enjoy it and learn as much as I can from it.

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Thematic Unit: Food

Lesson: Fruit

This time we worked with fruit and likes and dislikes. To introduce the theme of the lesson I made use of realia. I took a bag full of plastic fruits and showed them to the children one by one asking them if they knew what they were. We talked about the shapes and colours too. For each fruit I asked the if they liked them while touching my tummy.

After this, I sang a song about fruits. While singing the song I showed them the fruit that was named in the song. We sang it three times in a row. When planning the lesson, I had thought that after three times the children would learn the song, but once again I had unrealistic expectations. Although they incorporated a lot of the vocabulary used in the song and repeated several of the structures, no one was able to sing the complete song. This is part of my learning process….

When we finished singing the song, we had a great time with a sensory activity. I had asked their teacher if they could all eat fruit, and since she said yes, I blindfolded the children and gave them some fruit to touch, smell and taste (if they wanted to). This was so fun! It amazing to see how through curiosity they use the target language without even realizing it. They were all yelling: “banana, apple, etc…!”.

Many of the children were absent this time because of the flu, so we weren’t more than seven in the class. It was good because we worked very calmly and none of the children present were afraid of being blindfolded. It was a great activity.

Finally, I showed them how to paint with swabs making dots. I gave them a sheet with different fruits to colour. They love painting and they find it very entertaining.

Once again, the lesson took longer than planned. This is something that I clearly must improve.

Anyway, I'm learning not to be so hard on myself. It is true that there is still a lot to improve but it is also true that I am incorporating many new things and that for example my self-confidence regarding teaching is improving.

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Thematic Unit: Animals
Lesson: Animals

Today was the first time that we worked with the same theme of the previous lesson. Once again, we read the ““Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” book. This time with more participation of the children since they were already familiar with the story. I had my doubts about this. I didn´t know if they were going to enjoy reading the same story two times in a row but they did. Some of them said in Spanish that we had already read it, but I just explained to them that we were going to do it differently and that they had to help me.

Throughout these classes I discovered how much my positive comments encourage them. Every time I tell them how well things are done, or how nice a work came out, it shows how their self-esteem grows and they do things with more enthusiasm. I feel like I've been doing this unconsciously with my daughters for years, but now I analyse my actions and find meaning in them.

This time we worked with the concept of different sizes, so for the following activity I gave them big and small flashcards and a big and a small box to sort the flashcards out. All the children understood immediately what they had to do, and the activity flowed naturally.

This was also the first time I made use of the ELA and of free play. I guided some of the children to an area of the classroom where I had placed all the materials that had been used before, including the ones from the previous lesson. While some of the children were playing in this area, another group was working at their tables making a book with the sequence of the story. Then they switched places. The ones that had been playing went to make their books and the ones that had been making their books went to the ELA.

Sometimes one has certain expectations that may not be so realistic. In my mind I had imagined the children at the ELA using all the vocabulary they had learned in English, but it was not the case. Most of them used their mother tongue when playing.  Occasionally, they would say one or two words in English I would approach the group and congratulate them by repeating the words in English. Since I have no previous experience in this, I don't know if this is what is expected or not. But I think it's okay... it's something progressive. Maybe I’m a bit anxious sometimes.

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Thematic Unit: Animals
Lesson: Animals

I just love that the children are really looking forward to playing with me. I think they are enjoying doing things different from what they are used to. They usually work on their books with their teacher, and this makes you realize how much they enjoy doing creative activities and working with different materials.

Sometimes I feel that lesson planning isn’t something that comes natural to me. I mean that I really have to think about the sequence of activities, and it takes me a very long time to plan one lesson. I hope this is because I have just started my steps as a teacher and with time and experience it will become easier for me. However, I can say that this time invested is paying off. Even though I sometimes I feel a bit stiff in class, trying not to forget any of the planned steps, I love working with children. I like it that they are so easily surprised by things….

Today I worked with “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”. I took two brown stuffed bears. A giant one and a smaller one. They loved it! However, it was a bit difficult for me to return to the activity because all the children got excited about the stuffed animals and wanted to climb on top of them, hug them, etc. In this sense, I can see that I still have to work on my classroom management strategies. I don´t know…. Maybe it is ok that this happens, and I just have to let them play for a while, release their emotions and then get back to the activity.

While reading the story to them I drew their attention to every animal that appeared in the story by asking them questions about them (Is it big/small?, How many legs does it have?, Where are the eyes/mouth?, etc) The activity that followed was about re-enacting the sequence of the story. I gave each child a flashcard with one of the animals from the story and I looked at the child holding the brown bear flashcard and asked him/her: “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” and I helped him/her reply. To do this I pointed at my ayes while saying “I see a……” and then pointed at the flashcard with the animal that followed in the sequence. I did this with every child since it was difficult for them to do it by themselves. Even though they all did it, I feel that maybe it wasn’t the best activity for them. Specially since we did it only in one lesson. I think that this type of activity requires more time and probably more lessons.

After this activity, I gave them some home made playdough. I had prepared yellow, red, green, blue, and brown playdough so they could make some of the animals in the story. They really enjoyed doing this and so did I!

This time the timing was quite good. The activities I had planned lasted approximately what I had thought they would.

I can say that there were things to improve, like the activity with the flashcards, but overall it was a good class.

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Thematic Unit: Animals
Lesson: Pets

I started this 4th lesson feeling more confident than the previous ones. I was looking forward to working with this thematic unit. I feel most of the kid love animals and they engage quickly with the theme. This was a very entertaining class for them and for me as well.

After circle time, I showed them a mystery bag with a dog inside. They tried to guess what was in it and once they saw it, we started talking about dogs. Then I played a video of me and my daughters taking care of our pets. This was a great resource to introduce the topic of pets and start working with the target vocabulary. When the video was over all of the children wanted to tell me something about their pets. After the video we talked about pets, I used flashcards for this. Everyone talked about how many pets they have got. When they had finished telling me about their pets we played a game where they had to imitate the different movements of some pets (the ones from the flashcards).

The following activity was painting a house for the dog in the mystery bag. I gave them a house made of cardboard and they all had to paint it. We all enjoyed this activity very much.

I loved it because in addition to working with what was planned for the lesson, they began to talk about colours, to mix different colours and they were amazed by their combinations. Also, when we were painting, the school caretaker was walking his dog and all the children ran excited to see him shouting "a pet, a dog!". This was so great… it made me feel so good!

However, I have to say that painting the house took us over than 40 minutes as I had to put the aprons on all the kids and then help them wash their hands that were covered in paint.

I know that I still have a problem regarding timing. I also feel that I have to improve my classroom management strategies.

Finally, we did some collars for our pets. The lesson ended up lasting over than 90 minutes and I had planned a lesson of 60 minutes. Still, the most important thing for me this time is that we had a lot of fun!

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Thematic Unit: The Body
Lesson: The Mouth

I felt more confident for this third lesson. I believe that the previous two lessons and their corrections made me build awareness of how to meaningfully integrate the activities. Having this feedback before starting the lesson also made me feel more confident of my capacity.

In this lesson we worked on the parts of the mouth and how to take care of our teeth. To begin I showed them the picture book we had made on the first lesson. They really liked to see their wors and everybody was asking me to show theirs. After showing them all of the faces they had made I started pointing at the parts of the face to revise the vocabulary and then we specifically focused on the teeth. Having used the picture book they had made was very helpful to engage them with the activity.

After that I showed them a different monster I had taken. This monster was laminated, and I had drawn black marks on his teeth with a whiteboard marker. This was perfect to talk about brushing their teeth. I told them that I knew some monsters that could teach us how to brush our teeth. I projected a video from youtube where some monsters sing a song about brushing their teeth. They liked watching the video and most of them performed the actions but not many were able to learn the lyrics of the song. I guess that for this to happen they have to sing it many more times in different lessons.

When we finished dancing the song, I gave them a laminated monster with dirty teeth and a swab so they could brush the monster teeth. They all liked doing this. Some of them wanted to do it over and over again, but some did it just once and started to walk around the classroom. I couldn’t think of what to do with them because they didn’t want to keep doing the activity so I just let them wander.

To wrap up the lesson they had to paste good food on a healthy tooth and bad food on an unhealthy tooth. They caught up this activity super-fast. I’m sure that this was thanks to using the flashcards throughout the lesson.

Even though in this lesson I also had some children who ended up getting distracted in one or another activity, I think that overall, it was a good class.

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Thematic Unit: The Body
Lesson: Parts of the Body

I started this second lesson with the same routine activity as the previous lesson. This worked out well and I could notice that they understood routine activities with me were not going to be exactly the same as with their teacher.

After that, I read a story to them. This time I chose a different monster story than the previous lesson as the one from the first time only showed parts of the face. I have to say that they really enjoy storytelling, and they were definitely engaged. Although this story was not as interesting as the previous one, it allowed us to work a lot with the target vocabulary. For this I used flashcards with images from the book and pointed out the different parts of the body. Most of them did the activity and repeated structures like "He has big knees/head/ears, etc"

Again, some of the children got distracted and started to walk around the classroom. Their teacher was very sweet and told me not to worry as this is something normal but anyway, I don’t feel good when this happens. I feel this as a failure. And then I think…. Is it a failure or do I have to be less demanding with myself?

Then, we danced to the tunes of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. When I submitted my lesson plan Ceci told me that there was no connection for this activity and she suggested I told the children that monsters love exercising, and they had brought a song to sing and play. They liked this and it helped me connect the activities. Most of them knew the song in Spanish and talked about having listened to it because of Peppa Pig. It was a bit hard for them to sing it in English. We sang it slowly at first and then we did it faster. This is what was difficult for them as there were many difficult new words for them and it wasn´t easy to tell them all together. I think that it is not a song to do in only one lesson.

Following this activity, we played “Monster Says” again. This time with parts of the body. They really like this kind of activities. They like moving and being active. Playing this game, they incorporate the target vocabulary without even noticing it.

To wrap up the lesson children were asked to create their own monster puppet by gluing small body parts on a paper bag. They really enjoyed it, although I have to say they made quite a mess.

I leave this second class with the feeling that I have to work on my self-confidence and let things flow a little more. Children had fun and so did I.

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Thematic Unit: The Body
Lesson: Parts of the Face

Before entering the classroom, I was very nervous and with little confidence in my ability to lead the class.

Although my anxiety disappeared when the children received me so warmly, at some moments in the lesson I was invaded by a certain insecurity. Specially when children got distracted or when I was asking for silence and things didn’t happen as I had expected.

This insecurity made me forget at times of my classroom management strategies and made me feel quite overwhelmed.

I started the lesson with a routine activity a little bit shorter than the one I had observed during my observations and assistantships. This worked out well as they were already familiar with the structure. Nevertheless, However, I could see that some were a little puzzled because I wasn’t respecting the whole structure of their routine.

After that, I read a story to them. This was the favourite moment of the lesson for all of us. When reading stories, I feel very confident of myself because I love reading aloud and doing different voices. I think that when one is really enjoying an activity, this feeling is transferred to the whole group and makes everything flow naturally. I was going to use flashcards for this, but instead I ended up using the images from the book. When I finished reading the story, we revised the parts of the face pointing at the images from the book. This worked out for most of the group, although some of the children got distracted and started to walk around the classroom. When this happened, it made me feel somewhat insecure about myself.

Then, I gave them an activity about assembling faces. I gave them parts of different faces so they could combine them freely and make funny faces. I think this activity was too much. Ceci had pointed out to me in my planning that the activity lacked context and connection to the rest of the lesson, but I thought it might be fun. After this I realized the importance of planning the activities well in relation to our objectives. This activity did not achieve what I expected.

Following this activity, we played “Monster Says” with parts of the face. This was great, children loved playing the game and they were really engaged. I was able to observe how this activity helped them with their vocabulary and listening skills.

To wrap up the lesson children were asked to create their own monster faces with parts of the face taken from the book. Most of them understood the instructions well and carried out the activity without problems. It took me longer than expected to be able to end the activity of "Monster Says" to put them to work at their tables.

I leave this first class with the feeling that although there were many good moments, I still have a lot to improve.

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I entered the room after the children's lunch. At first I was a bit nervous as I didn't know what to expect. The teacher was very warm and had specially prepared a place for me so that I could observe the class without interrupting it.
The class began with a circle time that lasted more than an hour. Most of the time the teacher asked questions to the children and then the children had to ask each other the same questions. (What´s your name?, What's your favourite colour?, Where do you live? , etc.)
The teacher used flashcards and made use of gestures and mimic.
At times I felt that the circle time was a bit long since children began to get distracted and looked a bit anxious.
There was no movement activity.
She didn't read any stories to them.
After circle time, she asked everyone to go to their desks and handed out the books they work with.
My perception was that the vocabulary she introduced in the class lacked context.
Once they finished their activities on the book they went out for a break.

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Today I wasn't as nervous as the other day.
I entered the room after the children's lunch and sat down at the same place of my first observation.
Children were happy that I came back and they all said hello to me.
The class was exactly like the previous one: it began with a circle time(again quite long). She didn't read any stories to them.
After circle time, she asked everyone to go to their desks and handed out the books they work with and they children went outside to play.
This time the children seemed more tired and with less attention than the previous time. I asked the teacher and she told me that they had been rehearsing for art day in the morning and that was probably why they were more tired.

I think that perhaps it it too much to be working in another language when they have already been in school for several hours.

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Today I wasn't nervous at all, although I did feel nervous about what was about to come (assistantships and classes)
I entered the room at the same time as the previous days and sat down at the same place of my last observations.
Children were screaming my name when I entered the room.  I find that very funny because I haven´t interacted with them so far.
I could observe that the teacher follows the same pattern every class and she introduces new vocabulary mainly with the workbook.

I tried to focus on classroom management. What the teacher does to ask for silence, to end an activity, etc.
What was different about this class is that she played a video for the children to watch. The content of the video wasn't related at all with the aims of that lesson. I found it out of context and unnecessary.
My perception is that the teacher just wanted them to be quiet for a while.

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Today was my last assistantship. I think that they were a good transition before beginning with my lessons. Children got to know more (and I got to know them more as well!) They helped me gain a little more confidence, although I still feel nervous about teaching my own class. I have mixed feelings because on the one hand I really like teaching and I love children but on the other one, I find it very challenging to teach such young children. It is not the age range with which I feel most comfortable to teach, perhaps because of my lack of experience.
During these assistantships I helped the teacher with many things but I never led any activity. My main tasks were handing children the different materials and I also helped them with the activities from the book.
The circle time was always conducted by the teacher and I stayed by her side repeating her movements.
I found that the classes were always very structured, there was no variation and the teacher never used valuable resources such as storytelling. However, she is a very approachable person and is open to me planning my classes with my ideas.