This week during pre-internship, our cooperating teacher was away so she had arranged for my teaching partner and I to spend the day with the Grade 1 class next door. I was a little nervous going into the week, unsure of what their class would be like and how they behave during my lesson.

As it turns out, my lesson went great, maybe even my best one yet! I read the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and taught the Grade 1 class how to make text to self connections through a think aloud. Afterwards, we had sharetime to talk about what connections the kids could make to their own life and then I asked them to draw a picture and write a sentence with the prompt “I felt like Alexander when…”.

The Grade 1s did a great job with this. A couple of students made surface level connections such as “I felt like Alexander when I was sad”. While others were able to think of deep connections to their personal lives when things didn’t go their way. One student shared a heartbreaking story that they felt upset when no one is there for them and drew a very specific picture (and described to me in detail) about how her Mom is always on her cell phone during her dance recitals. Nothing gets past these kids! They are so perceptive at this age.

We visited the school’s music teacher where the Grade 1s excitedly started working on their Christmas Concert songs followed by French class with another teacher where they sang more songs. I’m impressed by how much French these students know already. Their teacher does a good job incorporating songs and games into their short time together.

In the afternoon we spent time with teacher in the Grade 5 Math class and got to pick her brain while her class went on to Music.  I’m glad we experienced that, I learned a lot from her and she turned out to be somewhat of a math guru. I need all the help I can get in that area!

It was a great day of new experiences. I loved being able to compare the two different Grade 1 classes. This age group changes so quickly and soak up knowledge like a sponge. Next week will be our last week in the classroom this semester, I’m looking forward to being back with our class.