Below highlights on some of the things I did this week as an Educator in Residence at GSB.
Special Olympics with Lifeskills
I was so excited when I was asked to help with the Special Olympics program at GSB. On Monday mornings, a group of students go to the Wiscasset Community Center to practice swimming. This week was the first practice for the spring season. This program consists of students from grades 1 - 6. This week, I worked with one student in particular. I was surprised at how many laps she swam as a tiny little first grader! I was impressed and proud of each of the students for their hard work Monday morning. They will have a meet held at Bates and Bowdoin college in late April.
Outdoor Education - 1st grade at HVNC
The goal of the outdoor education program for the month of March is to teach students ways that they can help in the outdoors as well as to teach them the basic principles of Leave no trace.
On Tuesday, we took the 1st grade class to Hidden Valley Nature Center. Upon our arrival, we walked on the snowy footpath to the barn. At the barn, the students enjoyed their snack while Jill Davis, the guidance counselor, went over Leave No Trace principles. Afterwards, we had a special task. The first graders worked together while dispersing rotten wood that was stacked in a pile to the forest floor. HVNC could no longer use this wood for burning or building purposes, so they decided to have it spread around the woods to provide homes for the critters. The students worked so well together, helping each other carry logs. They also created forts and fairy homes. :)
YOGA - 7th & 8th grade elective
This week I led another yoga class at the YMCA during the 7th/8th grade study hall elective period. On Tuesday, I had many new faces and hope that the students are able to enjoy another session next week.
TLS curriculum with the 5th grade - WELDED ANKLES
This week for my TLS activity, I chose Welded Ankles. This activity is a lot like stepping stones and also quite a bit different. Once we were outside, I split them into two teams then explained the directions. The students were to stay in a line, with their feet connected to the person in front and behind them while moving towards their goal (an opening about 100 feet ahead). Both groups thought that the overall idea was simple and they would go far fast, but they quickly realized that it would take some creative thinking, communication, and teamwork.
For Ms. K's room, there was an obvious winner. We discussed why one team finished successfully and the other team did not. We talked about that we could do better and also what worked well.
In Ms. Jackson's room the win was not as apparent. It was less than an inch of difference and each student had his or her own idea of what happened. We discussed the goal of the game, competition, what worked well, what didnt, and how we could improve. With many students upset about who did or didnt win, I decided to take a vote on the winner. We all agreed to call it even and to move on because being successful was about how well we worked together not at being off by less than an inch!
Afterschool program - SLIME
With no school last Thursday, I only had my Tuesday afterschool group. This week we made slime. I had them get into groups of two and each group created their own type of slime. We made fluffy unicorn slime. It was a very messy project! Each groups slime came out differently, some better than others
No comments:
Post a Comment