https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs Kindergarten en-us 2022-06-09 00:59:55 UTC 2025-12-09 22:44:19 UTC hello@padlet.com salgadoceleste942 https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs/wish/2254110794 I started my observations in a classroom of 22 three-year-olds. 
I entered the classroom quite calm and I said hello to 19 cheerful kids (3 were absent). The group was with the Spanish teacher, sitting down on chairs in a circle,waiting for the English teacher to come, who was a bit late.  
The Spanish teacher introduced me to the kids and they were very curious to know my name; I said my name was like a color, so, many of them started saying colors in Spanish and other in English. Then I said that I was going to put on my "invisible suit" and sat down. many kids were looking at me very curiously.
At 11.08 the English teacher came and started the class sitting down in the circle and greeting the children. She played the "hello song" and the kids sang the song sitting on the chairs, moving their hands. Immediately, she play a "dancing/ freeze" song to dance. Most of the group were dancing and some of them running.
At 11.15, she told them to follow her in a train around the chairs, singing a "walking, walking" song and got a box of plastic animals. She asked what animal it was and its color. Some of them anwered in Spanish and other in English. 
After that, everyone sat on the chairs and the teacher brought a story of animals. The group got quite noisy, so she asked them to sit on the floor and some of the stood up. During the storytelling, she had to stop and sang different chants to make silence. When she finished the story, she asked some questions such as the colors of the animals, some feelings and the name of those animals.  There was a kid who wandered throughout the classroom and got "bodily" and others that were running. It was funniy that a little one sat down in front of me smiling and looking at me.
At 11.27, she proposed a new game, saying" vamos a jugar a la caja misteriosa" and replicated it in English. She explained in L1 what the game was about ( to put some plastic animals in a beautiful and colorful mistery box, touch the animals without seeing them and guess the name of it). The kids were eager to be the ones chosen to pick up the animals in the box. Five minutes later, the kids became noisy and she told them it was time to say goodbye because she had to leave the class a bit earlier. The class ended singing the bye song at 11.36. 
During the class, the teacher used L2 and translated frequently.
What called my attention was that time flew away! The second point, all the chants the teacher used to make transitions and how children followed her. Thirdly, attention span is short because of their age, so activities must be varied and short too. The children enjoyed a lot the class.
I felt very comfortable.]]> 2022-08-03 12:14:20 UTC https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs/wish/2254110794 salgadoceleste942 https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs/wish/2255093818 Before entering the classroom, the English teacher told me that she has planned revision lessons during my observations' days. 
The class started at 11.05 with the teacher inviting the group to sing the hello song with the same organisation as the previous class. The kids were not as involved as before. She proposed a new song to greet; first she sang it acapella and she played it with the kids dancing. During the song, she took some time to greet every child with a hi-five. The song lyrics said "hello. hello, what's your name?, so the teacher told in Spanish when you meet somebody, you ask what your name is. She asked them the question and every kid could say their names.
At around 11.13, the group became noisy. The teacher sang some chants to ask for silence and to get them sitting down on the chairs. She took some color flashcards and 
asked the children to look for some colours on their clothes in L1.  Then she asked in L2 "Can you find orange, yellow, etc?" The group was quite interested in the activity but once a child ,who is a wanderer, stood up, many children did the same.
At 11.18, the teacher showed a flashcard story of a toad called "Frankie" It was about the family members. It called my attention that every child was paying attention to the story in silence for some minutes. Once finished, she asked some questions about family members and colours.Some of the children answered in L1 and L2. At 11.25, she said in  Spanish she had a surprise and she gave them paper puppets of the story characters. They danced some songs with the puppets and the teacher decided to stop the activity because the group was getting distracted.
The last activity was a game with colored hoops on the floor. She explained it in L1. The kids had to dance or walk while the music was on; when she stopped it, she said "find color blue/red/yellow" and every child had to stand in the hoop of that colour. The group could follow the instructions, although a bunch of kids played their rules, haha. The class ended with the bye song acapella with the children following with their hands.
Personal appreciations:
what called my attention was that the little wanderer is 2 years old (he does not attend the 3-year-old course because there are no vacancies). He has a notably shorter attention span and cannot be sitting down or focused; he runs, wanders,  becomes bodily, plays with other objects.
Other thing is that many children have arguments regarding the places where they sit. This makes me think of any strategy to keep them sat down on the same chairs.
I felt that this time, the teacher spoke more L2 than L1 and I'm little scared of myself abusing L1. 
The teacher, who is very nice and makes me feel comfortable there, told me they can stay focused for about 30 minutes and get distracted the last ten minutes, so.. I have to think a lot of what to do !
I think this record was more enriching and triggered many questions.
Cele]]> 2022-08-04 22:17:33 UTC https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs/wish/2255093818 salgadoceleste942 https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs/wish/2259014759
 The class started at 11.06 with the same dinamic as the previous ones. One little girl was having a tantrum, so the English teacher called the Spanish one to take her out of the classroom to calm down, as she was crrying and shouting.
 The teacher's speaker had no battery, so I was asked to look for one in other classroom.
When I came, the teacher was chanting to ask for silence. Then, with the children sitting down on chairs in a circle, she asked them some questions such as :have you got a head/ a toe/ a neck? with body language. She had a stroy from Eric Carle called :"From head to toe", so I assumed she was doing some kind of pre- teaching activity. The kids sat down on the floor and the teacher showed the book and asked what animal was on the book's cover.  She said " vamos a adivinar que otro animal, te doy una pista: this animal is yellow and it has a looong neck" It called my attention that in this part, she could manage L2 very well. 
11.15 the girl came to the classroom and sat down on a chair. The teacher started the story telling; the children were very interested listening. In a moment, the teacher asked them to move like the animals of the story and they did it inside the circle. 
at around 11.20 the story finished. 
The next activity was to dance a song imitating  the movements of the animals of the story. The song was played twice and this time, the kids did not seem to be involved at all, although she encouraged everyone to do so. Many of them were playing, running, and talking.
At 11.27, the teacher asked to sit down on two big tables and it surprised me that they could do it autonomously. After that, she said they were going to play with animal puppets in a free way and she set the rules in L1.  She handed them out saying " I have a lion, I have a monkey, etc" , As the kids were playing freely, she played a colour song and asked them to look for the colour the song mentioned on the puppets. Some of them followed but the majority was focused on their play. Some children were angry or cried because they wanted a puppet a classmate.
At 11.36, the teacher indicated it was time to say bye bye and to tidy up. She collected the puppets and sang bye bye acapella. Finally, she played a relaxing song so that the children could relaxed doing "almohadita" on the tables, in order to wait for the Spanish teacher. She passed around stroking their faces with a puppet.
The class finished at 11.42
Personal appreciations:
During the class, I could notice that L2 flowed more naturally. I think all of us can "sin" in speaking L1 more than necessary. Still, I'm worried about my performance in my future practicum.
The classroom is spacious and there are a lot of "distracting" materials.
Also, the children behave differently with both teachers. Of course, as it always happens, the Spanish teacher constitutes a stronger authority/ reference figure.
This time, I could interact more with children. I tried to use English. My presence is not unnoticed. ]]> 2022-08-11 12:24:08 UTC https://padlet.com/salgadoceleste942/96a7cka35sfnhshs/wish/2259014759