Here they are - a collection of photos taken throughout this past week from around the classroom. I have been having parent-teacher conferences each morning and it has been a delight walking into the classroom after the children had already begun their work. Such a hum of activity and general sense of purposeful movement in the environment...
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| Still enjoying our color mixing science activity. |
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| Geography: Sorting images into categories of Land, Air, or Water. |
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| Static Subtraction with the golden beads - here the students are each taking a smaller quantity from the larger quantity on the mat. This give a strong sensorial impression that subtraction requires taking away from another (larger) number and a smaller number remains. |
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| Pink Tower and Brown Stair exploration. |
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| Number writing practice. |
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| Beginning sounds/symbols. |
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| Individual Silence Game. |
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| Counting practice and introduction to odd and even numbers with the Cards and Counters. |
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| Using picture cards to sound out words and write them with the Moveable Alphabet. |
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| Finding all the pumpkins with the letter 'p' and marking them with Do-a-Dot painter. |
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| An extension lesson with the numbers 11-20: Counting stickers to correspond with the number symbol. |
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| Linear counting and number symbol recognition with the Math Step Board. |
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| Exploring the Function of Words: The conjunction lesson with grammar symbols. |
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| Color Tablet Box 1: Matching and naming primary colors. |
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| Sliding a finer against Brown Stair prisms to be sure they are lined up straight. |
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| An variation activity with the Teen Beads - using color coded number cards ( tens are blue; units are green) and making the number with golden beads and colored beads. |
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| Sensorial exploration of the Binomial Cube. |
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| Linear and skip counting with the Short Chain of 8 - "eights sets of eight is 64." |
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| Static Addition with the Golden Beads. |
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| Using labels and farm animals for a conjunction lesson... |
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| ...and symbolizing them with the grammar symbols. |
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| Cursive writing - connecting letters to make words. |
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| Matching various sounds with the Sound Cylinders. |
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| Linear counting and number symbol recognition with the Hundred Board - I really appreciate how this particular material highlights patterns in numbers that the children can discover! |
I hope you don't mind taking a question :) I have been following your blog for a while now and you never cease to inspire me! I have been teaching children's house for 8 years and the opportunity has come along for me to teach and be director of our small school. If you are in this position...how do you do it!? I know that's a huge question. Do you have class hours and 'office hours'? I would appreciate anything you have to say on the topic! Love your blog!
ReplyDeleteAbby
Oh...I ask because I saw in your bio that you started your school, which lead me to think maybe you hold two positions :) thanks again!
ReplyDeleteAbby
Hi Abby, Wow, what a question - and one where I have no idea where to start with an answer! And I don't know "how I do it." I simply do what has to be done - I do not have separate hours as everything typically gets rolled together. Somehow it all works out. I'll be honest and say that my work is never done and I'm always doing something school-related - even at home. This is when I do all of my planning, paperwork, administrative duties, materials making, go through licensing bureaucracy, keep up with email or phone correspondence and even do the classroom's laundry (we use cloth towels for drying hands so we need to do the laundry each day...). Weekends are just as involved with purchasing materials, food for snacks, dropping off items at school (so I don't have to haul in bags on the weekdays...). Really, it never ends - thankfully, I love what I do. Every now and then, I wish I could take a vacation or break, but then I'd just be wishing I was back at school!! Oh, and waking up at 4:45 am each day is only way I can get myself together and organized (and have a cup of coffee) before my kids wake up. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your schedule with me! What you described is pretty much the only model for a director I have really seen because I have always worked for a small private school. So, it's nice to hear consistency with the non stop work haha, at least I know what to expect :) thanks again!
ReplyDeleteAnd, congratulations on receiving the opportunity to become director! I wish you the best of luck in this endeavor and I hope you will keep in touch.
ReplyDelete