Oh Mr.Sun~

The students are getting familiar with the warm-up today, they were all singing so well, I'm impressed~

I taught them a new song today, and it's called "Oh Mr.Sun". It goes like this:

Oh Mr.Sun, Sun, Mr.Golden Sun,
Won't you please shine down on me~
Oh Mr.Sun, Sun, Mr.Golden Sun,
Hiding behind the tree~

These little children are asking you,
To please come out so we can play with you!

Oh Mr.Sun, Sun, Mr.Golden Sun,
Won't you please shine down on me~

They picked up the "Oh Mr.Sun" part very quickly, but had trouble with the middle lines. I'm going to write out the lyrics and point to them as I sing with them next time, and hopefully that'll make it easier for them to learn the song.



After singing, I showed them the "Mr.Sun" that I made. I prepared construction papers for them, with the circles already drawn, so they only had to draw the sun's face and cut it out. Then I gave them blank papers to trace their little hands, and then glue them behind the circle so they look like the sun's rays. As they were working, they started singing "Oh Mr.Sun"!! And they kept repeating and repeating~ They told me that they love the song! And then one of the girls asked if we could sing "You Are My Sunshine", so we also sang it while they were drawing and cutting! I feel that I've begun to make a bond with these kids, and that they're expecting me to do something fun with them everyday! A couple of them came to me before snack time and asked me, "What are we making today?" and "Are you staying here?" I'm so touched~ ^-^

After cutting for a while, the students seemed to be a bit tired. It's also because they went to the farm on a field trip in the morning. So I told them that if they're too tired, they could finish it tomorrow, but if they want to continue, they can do that as well. I took out the book "Something From Nothing" by Phoebe Gilman and started reading it to them. I felt that as teachers, we need to be aware of the students' needs and be understanding. When they feel that they have options and their needs are respected, they will in turn show respect for us.

Something that I need to modify next time is that it takes the students a long time to cut out the shape of their hands, and to cut out so many seemed to be a pretty difficult task for them. I think a good idea would be to make a HUGE sun, where each student is responsible for tracing and cutting one or two hands, and then they can put them together. It would be an activity to foster cooperation too!

This is one of the students' work:

Rain, Sunshine & Shakers

I began today's lesson with the solfege body movement warm-up. We went up and down the scale twice~ David was very eager to share his knowledge about solfege with us! After the warm-up, I held up my rainstick and asked them to guess what is inside. I stopped taking answers when they started saying things like pineapples and birds haha~ I told them that it's used in bands, and Eric figured that I brought it in to make music with them AND to get their attention so they can be quiet. =P



Alex kept on trying to get the rainstick off of my hand, but I promised him that I'll pass it around after our lesson. That kept him off for a while. Then we did an activity called "Rain". We sat in a circle. I started rubbing my palms, and Franklin on my left was supposed to follow what I'm doing, and the person on his left would follow him, and so on, until everybody's doing the same thing. Then I started snapping my fingers (which a lot of them couldn't do, and I decided that I'll leave out this part next time). The following motions are clapping hands, patting on the thigh, and then stomping the feet. The purpose is to create the sound of a dripping rain that ends up being a thunderstorm. Then the process was reversed until there's no more "rain". It didn't work out as well as I thought, because all the kids started doing the motions once they saw what I was doing. But I would try it again next time and try to work it out with them!

Then, I told them that we're going to learn the song "You are my Sunshine", and that I want their help with clapping the beats. I explained to them that beats are like heartbeats of a song, and it's very important that they're consistent. I patted the beats on my thigh and asked them to follow me, and then I started singing the song. They didn't know the words, so I went over the song line by line and sang it with them. I'd like to refine it more, but due to the short attention span of the kids, I decided that we'll just sing it a couple of times for now, and we'll come back to the song later and make it sound nicer.

After singing, I passed the rainstick around for the kids to hold it and manipulate it to make slower and faster raining sounds. They really liked that~ Then came the fun part! I showed them the shaker that I made with empty toilet paper rolls, constuction papers, and rice. I showed them how to do it, and then handed out the supplies. Because I couldn't collect enough toilet paper rolls, the alternative was to roll a small piece of construction paper into a roll, and then follow the same procedures. I was surprised that the kids didn't fight over who gets the toilet paper rolls! While I was helping some kids with gluing and stapling, I asked the other kids to put the rice into their shaker, which was a really really bad idea, 'cause I ended up with rice all over the carpet! A reminder to myself: bring a spoon for an activity like that, put a table cloth on the carpet before we pour the rice, or I'll just do it for them~





I'm really happy because the kids were soooo engaged in the activity! When their parents picked them up, some of them refused to go because they wanted to finish it~ When I told little Kayla that she can decorate it tomorrow, she asked, "Are you going to be here tomorrow?" I feel so warm~ ^-^

I learned that with kids that are so young, it is hard for them to focus on one single activity during a lesson, so it's important to be prepared for different activities that'll keep them engaged. I think today's lesson went pretty well, and I'm looking forward to share more of my creativity with the kids and to learn from theirs! =)

Little Owl_first day of teaching

Today is my first official day teaching at Little Owl Preschool and Elementary. I taught a lesson on singing solfege (do re mi fa so la ti do), using body movements. After I told the kids that I'm going to teach them to sing do re mi, one of the boys whined that they have learned it already. So I asked him to be patient with me, because it is probably something different from what he did before, because they get to move!



Upon hearing the word "move", they started getting excited. I showed them a print-out of this picture, and then demonstrated all 8 poses while singing the solfege names. They looked engaged~ They stood up and started following my movements before I asked them to. We went up and down the scale for a couple of times. Then I called out random names and asked them to do the movements. We went from the low do to high do a couple of times, and did it so quickly that made me start sweating! It was fun~ Then I asked each of them to choose a pose, and then we all sang the corresponding solfege names.

After doing that a few times, I gave them a sheet with the solfege positions in random order. I asked them to colour them, and then cut them out. Then they drew a ladder on half a sheet of construction paper, and put the solfege in order. This is the finished work of one of the kids~



It is challenging to teach kids that are under 5 years old, because their attention span is so short, and they are still learning how to behave in a social setting. One of the challenges is that it's summer right now, and they do have a lot of time to play. If they look at this place as a playplace, it is more difficult to get them to take the lessons seriously. Also, I am new to the school, and they're still getting to know me and testing limits. I hope that I'll be able to use music to engage them and have fun with them while learning with them!

Behaviour problems

Today, there were lots of behavioural issues. (But at the beginning of class, 2 students gave me candies that their Chinese teacher gave them. =P They said they saved one for me hehe. ^^) At the end of class, I took 10 minutes to talk to them. I asked them to think silently and try to think about our lesson today -- Why are we so chatty? Why are we distracting others? Then I told them that if it's something that I did or didn't do that makes them difficult to concentrate and pay attention, they can let me know. Is it because they don't like to work in pairs? They don't like their partner? The format of our activity? A few hands raised up~ A girl said that some people might be slow and they might find the word problem activity difficult. So I told her that maybe next time I should explain more and give them more guidance before starting it. One boy said that the activity's different from what he's used to doing. I accepted his response, and said that maybe I should do some warm-up with them before doing the actual activity, so they're more comfortable about it. The "trouble-maker" of the class said that it's boring, so I asked him to tell me what's not boring for him. He pointed to the hands-on manipulatives that I made and played with them for a couple of classes. And some other boys said "Jeopardy!" So I told them that if they love to learn in those ways, I'll plan my lesson so we'll have more fun next week.

I thanked them for their suggestions, and let them know that I'm learning with them, and I might not always know what's best for them. They seem to understand. ^^ Then I added that we don't always get to do what we want to do, and sometimes it's hard to avoid doing something that we think is boring. But that doesn't give us the right to disrespect others and make the classroom disruptive, because other people are trying to learn too.

A boy said that he hopes class is over soon. I asked him if he's tired, and he said yes. So I started asking everyone about what classes are they taking other than Math. Lots of hands went up, and these kids are just tooooo busy. Swimming, skating, art, piano, Taekwondo, Urdu, Mandarin, etc. Some of them even have to go to classes on Sundays. I showed them that I understand how tired they must be. I hope that by doing so, they'll know that I do respect them as individuals, I know how many things they need to do, and that I trust them for behaving and learning in class if I do my part to make the classroom a more comfortable and fun learning environment.

I was hoping for a peaceful lesson this morning 'cause I was so tired. Although it didn't turn out that way, I wasn't feeling frustrated. I'm actually pretty happy and satisfied that I got to have that talk with my students, because it's a learning experience for both them and me. =)

Bonding

When it was 5 minutes until class ends, my student Rina said that she's going to watch < Twilight > tomorrow. I told her that I want to watch it too~ And then she started writing her address and phone number on a piece of paper, and said that I can call her and maybe we can go together haha~ Soooooo cute!! So I told her, I'm gonna read the book first, but she can let me know next week if it's a good movie or not. =P

When I was asking them what they're doing this weekend, Andrew was so excited that he kept grabbing my hands and telling me that he's going to his friend Alfred's house to play, and they have lots of toys, and he loves his Transformer hehe~ And his excited face looks soooooooo adorable~~

Nicholas is the "trouble maker" in the class. Every class, I had to call his name many many times to stop whatever he's doing that's disturbing to others. And I moved him to another seat last week. When he causes trouble, I'd ask him if he knows why I'm saying what I'm saying to him, if he understands why what he's doing is not acceptable. He'd nod most of the time. I believe that he really does know. But kids sometimes just can't control themselves, and we just need to give them reminders once in a while. ^^ Today, when I saw him after school, he came and said hi to me~ I was like...awwwww......

We did a hands-on activity today~ They worked in pairs and 3-somes, making pairs of numbers that add up to a bigger number. Then I'd ask them questions, using the work that they've done as a visual. I think it worked pretty well, but I wish we had more time!

Today, I just realized that L1B doesn't have to stack their chairs 'cause there's another class after them. But Ben is so used to helping me stack the chairs now, I couldn't stop him when he was helping me today hahahaha, he just kept stacking and stacking when I said he doesn't have to hahah~

I really love my 2 classes, but I only have 3 more weeks with them. I'm gonna miss them soooooo much!

Group work

I played Jeopardy with my Gr.1s again today. They like the game a lot! When I told them we're going to play, some kids were so excited, and they came up and screamed, "Yes! Yes! Yes! I love that game!!" So cute~~

There's only 5 students in my second class. The 2 boys are in a group, and last week they had trouble agreeing on what questions to pick and their answers, so I asked them to use Rock Paper Scissors to decide who gives me the answers. This week, they actually worked together! I said to them, "Wow! You're finally agreeing with each other. Good job!" And I find that in both classes, the groups worked better together this week~ I think that students need time to learn to work with and cooperate with each other, especially when they are young and still at their self-centered stage. I really believe that working in groups give them a chance to learn with and learn from each other, to respect each other, and to have fun at the same time. I'll give them more chances to work together for the next couple of weeks! =)

Agape Learning Center

I've been supplying for Gr.1 Math on Saturdays for a couple of weeks now, I like it so far! Getting to know my 2 classes of Gr.1s is very rewarding. They can be pretty loud at times, especially when we're playing Math-related games. Their excitement is understandable, and afterall, they're just kids who want to express their feelings as they feel it! But I let them know that there are other classes having their lessons, so we can't be too noisy. Last week, I took away points from the Boys' group when we played Jeopardy because they were screaming and some of them couldn't stay in their seats 'cause they were too excited. And then I started talking to them in whispers, and it worked~ If I yelled over them, they're just going to be louder and louder. But when I whispered, they actually did calm down a little, and we were able to go on with the game without disturbing other classes. =)

Today, I went to another location to supply for a Gr.3 class. When I took the attendance, I told them that although I'm only here for today, I might bump into them again later, so I want to get to know them. I told them a little about myself, and then asked each student to tell me one thing about themselves. I think I'm feeling more and more comfortable around children now, and it feels so natural to get to know them and make connections with them. After I reviewed a few questions with them, I handed out the test. While they were working on it, I marked their homework. After everybody was done, I took up a few more difficult questions with them. At the end, we still had 10 minutes left, so we played "2 Truths and a Lie"~ I'm glad that they enjoyed the game! Before I left, one student asked me if I'm going to be here next week. Awwww......^^