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The third activity was the animated video of "The Very Busy Spider". It was short and they were able to compare it to the story and realize there were more animals in the video.

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The Very Busy Spider - Animated Children's Book

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The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle Animated Children's Books is a channel dedicated to bringing everyone's favorite books as a kid to life! If you enjoyed this book please subscribe for future animations! *All material belongs to it's respected owners

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The second activity I planned was a risky one. We were suppose to make a big group web using yarn. I honestly didn't scaffold it very well and the first attempt failed. Children were standing in a circle, got really agitated and distracted. I asked everybody to sit down on the floor and we started again, this time seated. With the help of the coordinator, who was watching my practice, the web started to take form.
That was an important moment for me, because the children were not motivated at the beginning, because they were not understanding the activity. Once they started to pass the yarn around, they realized what was happened and some of them were shouting: "look, it's working!!" "a web!!" "who is the spider?".
They had already seen the web in the story and they were able to work together as a team to build one.

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Overall, I think the students have engaged in the activities and were able to learn new vocabulary, information about bugs and their characteristics. I really enjoyed teaching them and learning with them.
I've got a nice feedback from the teacher in charge:

"Renata! It was great to have you in our class. You have great ideas and the kids really liked you!!! I hope to work together again! All the best! Alice".

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Taking the lead... (fourth lesson - 2nd November)

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Taking the lead... (fourth lesson - 2nd November)

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I planned four activities for my last lesson, being one an extra.
I used the story "The Very Busy Spider" to create a narrative. First, children listened, looked at the pictures and answered questions about the story.

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They had already drawn the legs on their spiders and I asked them to count them.

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They found a spider (right upper corner of the screen)

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They found a spider (right upper corner of the screen)

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One aspect I found really useful of this lesson was planning extra activities.
I thought in advanced that some children would probably be faster than others in finishing their finger bug projects, so I brought some logical games with bug theme.
Children got engaged in the activity, especially one of the troubled kids. He was able to solve the "sudoku" and help his classmates.

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The bug hunt sheet children used to tick their findings

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The bug hunt sheet children used to tick their findings

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I made a mistake of not modeling the activity very well, so children got confused on how to use the sheet. Some ticked the bugs and numbers, other wrote the numbers down.

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An important moment for the children was when they went to the hall to look for the bugs. They were really engaged, taking notes and looking everywhere.

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Taking the lead... (third lesson - 31st October)

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Taking the lead... (third lesson - 31st October)

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In the third lesson, students were able to go on a bug hunt. As there aren't many bugs in Bariloche this time of the year, the idea was to use paper bugs. Unfortunately, the weather didn't help and we couldn't do it outdoors. We used the hall, which is a big room children can around, instead.
In this activity, children were able to look, observe, recognize and count different bugs. I explained the activity first and gave each child a table sheet with numbers and pictures of bugs. They had to tick the bug and the number in the corresponding space.
After the bug hunt, we came back to the classroom and the children finished their finger bug projects.

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The children on the floor were able to analyze Mr. and Misses Cricket using magnifying glasses. The two crickets were in two separate mason jars and they were a bit different. They were able to count their body parts, feed them and observe how they move. They even made then jump. It was really interesting to see how entertained the children were.

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One of the children had a hard time counting the parts and writing the numbers down. He kept saying: "I can't do it, i don't know how to do it". I sat with him and had him go to the wall to look up the numbers. He was able to do some of it, but still struggling.

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Table three worked on counting body parts. I gave them lots of bug pictures and a table sheet with body parts. They had to count how many legs, antennae and wings which bug had and write the number down on the corresponding spaces.

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Tables one and two worked on "finger bugs". They had to use their finger prints and tempera to make the bodies of different bugs. I showed then my finalized project and explained to them how they should do it and that after finishing the finger bugs they would have to let it dry.

My finalized project:

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Taking the lead... (second lesson - 26th October) 

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Taking the lead... (second lesson - 26th October) 

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I think my second lesson was way more successful than the first one. I didn't want to make the same mistake of my first class, which didn't have many different activities.
The strategy I used in my second lesson was "simultaneous activities" and multiple intelligences.
I started the lesson asking with they remembered the characters from the puppet show, especially Mr. Cricket. I then told them I had a surprise, the real Mr. Cricket and her friend, Misses Cricket. I showed them the crickets in a mason jar and told them they were my pets.
The children got really excited about it and asked me lots of questions about the crickets: "Is she his girlfriend?" "Are they real?" "Are they dead?" "Where do they live?"
In my opinion, this was a successful part of the lesson, as it really caught their attention and it helped me to introduce the other activities.
The idea of the lesson was for children to work in three different stations. I used the three rounded tables and the floor in order to set the stations. I scaffolded the activities first (first of the whole group and later for each station) and asked the children to sit around the three tables. I then called four of them to sit on the floor. The idea was for them to turn and participate in all three activities. It worked well because they seemed entertained. Also, children were able to develop logical-mathematical intelligence by counting the parts of an insect, spatial intelligence by creating an artwork, naturalistic intelligence by getting in touch with a real bug, as well as interpersonal intelligence, as they had to share materials.

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Although children were really excited to watch a puppet show and interact with the characters, making then focus was a really difficult job. They got distracted and conflicts arose about who was going to sit closer to the stage. I had to stop the presentation a few times.
The aspects that require change are: the length of the presentation and the diversification of activities. The whole lesson was based on the show, so by the end of the class they were a bit bored. Also, I planned a role play activity, which didn't work because they got the puppets, went behind the stage and just moved the puppets around.

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I've set my alarm to go off as a cricket sound and asked them what the noise was. They loved it. I then taught the world "cricket" and introduced Mr. Cricket, the main character of my puppet show. The story was about a cricket who loses his guitar so he can't chirp anymore. He goes around the field asking different bugs if they've seen his guitar.

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Taking the lead... (first lesson - 24th October)

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Taking the lead... (first lesson - 24th October)

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The day had arrived and I was a bit scared. My first time in front of the group was the 24th of October.

The thematic unit assigned to my four classes was "bugs".

Children were very receptive. They greeted me kindly, with some girls coming to hug me.

I asked them how they were feeling and we sang a song they already knew it.

Hello, hello, I say hello to you.

Hello, hello, how are you today?

I showed them a chart of faces expressing different feelings and they were able to tell me how they were feeling.

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They are a heterogeneous group of 20 five year olds. They are very active and want to be challenged all the time. As they start learning English at the age of 2, they are able to understand pretty much everything the teacher says. The lessons have to be very diverse so they can foster multiple intelligences.

There are a few children who need special attention. There are two girls who are new to the group, a boy that some cognitive issues and two conflictive boys. They have a structured routine, but it’s not the same every day, otherwise, they get bored.

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The second part of the class was at the library. The librarian read them a story called "Little Cloud" and they were able to participate. However, they were very restless and it took Alice and the librarian a long time to calm them down. I was making sure the girls next to me were quiet.

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Place the correct amount of teeth in each mouth

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Place the correct amount of teeth in each mouth

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One of the tables and the shelves with art supplies and some of their projects

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One of the tables and the shelves with art supplies and some of their projects

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Children's artwork and some of their art supplies

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Children's artwork and some of their art supplies

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They are able to get what they need from these shelves.

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The easy to reach blackboard, numbers to scaffold activities and some children's artwork

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The easy to reach blackboard, numbers to scaffold activities and some children's artwork

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Woodville is a bilingual private school located in San Carlos de Bariloche. It was founded in 1961 and it's one of the most traditional schools in Bariloche. English is taught from Kinder 1 to secondary school.

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There are 20 children. They have Spanish classes in the morning, have lunch at school, and English classes from Monday to Thursday from 2 to 4 pm.
The teacher uses English all the time, except when she has to explain a new concept or call their attention.
The classroom is divided into two main areas:

-        the front with the board and room for routine, story time, TPR exercises)

-        the back has four tables (three rounded ones and one rectangle) and a long cupboard with shared materials.

-        a cubby for each student to put their things in each day.

The front wall has two blackboards fitting their height.
The are also frames on the walls with their names on it and their corresponding artworks.

There are stations for toys and for supply material.

There are two doors, big windows and the heater has protection bars.

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Taking the lead...(first practice 23rd October)

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Taking the lead...(first practice 23rd October)

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Children were very happy to see me.

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An aspect that required change was the way I handled one of the many conflicts that arose this day. After the break, two children didn't want to pick up their toys from the park, and worse, didn't want to come to the class. Alice left the park with the other children and I stayed with the other two, trying to get them to come to the class. It took me a long time to convince then and I realized the strategy I used was not effective.

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An aspect of this lesson I considered successful was the integration of skills. They were able to use linguistic intelligence (talking about the vocabulary and listening to a story), bodly-kinesthetic (acting out a nursing rhyme and imitating bugs), musical (singing the nursing rhyme), spatial (coloring a photocopy and looking at the pictures in a story)

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Getting involved...(first and second assistantship 19th October)

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Getting involved...(first and second assistantship 19th October)

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During the two classes of assistantship, I was able to get involved in behavioral issues. My role was to help Alice in making sure everything run smoothly. I called their attention when needed, help them put their jackets and tie their shoe laces.
The main theme of the lesson was the /p/ sound and one of the activities was to color the objects that started with the /p/ sound in a photocopy. Some students were having problems in completing the task, so I was able to help.

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A strategy I found useful was giving children a short activity to move around. They tend to be impatient when they stay seated for a long time, so the teacher always have "bodly-kinesthetic activities", which function both as a break from the sitting down activities and a transition to other activities. For this lesson, she asked one of the boys to get the "exercise flashcards" and choose one exercise. He chose "push-ups", so everybody got down on the floor to do and count their push-ups.

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I got to the classroom before 2 pm and the children were playing freely with different toys. I could observe that girls were basically playing with dolls and scarfs, and boys with wooden blocks and cars.
Alice, the teacher, invited me to sit with the children on the semi circle, as she did in the first two observations. Children got really excited and there were "fighting" over me.

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Observing... (second observation 12th October)

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Observing... (second observation 12th October)

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It was a beautiful day out. The children were finishing their flower pots, which were made with recycled material. After the vocabulary lesson about planting, they went outside to plant their own seeds. The strategy used by the teacher is known as "learning by doing". According to Piaget, children construct their own knowledge when engaged in meaningful and authentic problem-based learning. (Beloglovsky M. & Daly L.  2015).

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Children playing "The bug puzzle"
The puzzle allows children to develop logical-mathematical intelligence by having to connect the pieces and count the numbers (each piece has a number and they are suppose to follow the sequence). The teacher opts not to give them the traditional sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…. They might start 6, 7, 8, 9… or 11, 12, 13, 14… so they can think about the numbers, not just memorize the sequence and repeat it.

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A few activities from the observation classes

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A few activities from the observation classes

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Children playing "roll a face"

In this game, children are able  to develop different skills:
logical-mathematical intelligence (by counting the number on the dice); visual (by looking at the  flashcard to discover what to draw); interpersonal (by working in groups); spatial (by drawing) and linguistic (by working with vocabulary from parts of the body).

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The structure lessons and the active role children play during some activities, take principles of the Behaviorist and the Constructivis theories and guide the children in their learning processes.

The central themes were nature related: plants and bugs.

There were encounter, engage and exploit activities which fostered the integration of skills. Children were able to learn and use new vocabulary, make an artwork, plant a seed, play board games and have lots of fun! There were a lot of visual aid as well!

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Observing the classroom, the children and their interaction with the teacher was essential for planning my own lessons.
There is a quotation from an unknown author I found on the internet, that summarizes my experience regarding the three observations.

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As soon as I opened the door and saw all of those curious eyes looking at me and those smiles greeting me, I felt welcome. That was an important moment I keep from my very first day because it made me feel confident. After that, during circle time, some of the girls wanted to sit next to me and hold my hands to go to the park.

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Observing... (first observation 12th October)

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Observing... (first observation 12th October)

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I got to the school a few minutes before 2 pm. With a notebook and a pen in my hands, an apprehensive look on my face, and questions marks in my head, I entered the Kinder 5 classroom.
It felt I was entering a dark room, not knowing what I would find inside and hoping to be able to open the windows to direct some light into it.