Kolb EDUC 461 Fall 2014

Journal Entries: November 5-7

November 5, 2014
Today was the first day, at least for me, to start our unit of the Zoo. We will be learning
about different kinds of animals as well as see them at the zoo in Greenville. Today we learned
about elephants. At first, I showed them a picture of where the elephants that we would talking
about are from Africa. I pulled up a picture of Africa and talked about geography and how some
of our elephants are the same from Africa and how they are different. We used a Chit Chat
reading about elephants and talked about how they are the largest mammals that live on land. I
even related the elephants back to us humans since we are mammals too. The students looked at
me like I grew two heads because I told them we are mammals too. I told them why we are
mammals because we have hair, we live on land, and we have milk to give our babies. After we
talked about elephants, I had the students look at the parts of an elephants and the students would
get to label the parts of an elephant as well. I wrote the labels on the smart board and we did each
one together. For the writing activity, students had to write one fact about elephants. Each
student had a paper with the words The elephant and they had to illustrate an elephant. Ms.
Bolden and myself came around with yellow strips of paper and went to each student and asked
him or her what they learned. After the writing activity, the students came to the carpet where we
did a bubble map of elephants. I introduced the concept of a bubble map which I do not think is a
kindergarten standard but I thought it would be a good idea to introduce a way of organizing
thoughts. We did a bubble map of describing elephants using adjectives.
For Math, we worked on continuing addition sentences. The first part of the lesson, I had
the students get their white boards, markers, and easers. They had to listen to my word problem
and they would write the addition sentence on their white boards. I can honestly say that I can
take credit for it since I have taught them how to make them and what the number sentence says.
For their individual or partner work, the students would use dice and they would roll two
numbers and add the dots together. It was a game for the students and the student that had all of
their leaves colored would win. If they were finished, I had them make addition sentences using
the dice as more practice.

For Social Studies, I talked about the character education word of the month which is
Courtesy or Manners. I mentioned to them how one of the students uses manners all the time and
courtesy towards her peers and adult figures. I gave examples of manners that are commonly
used. I then used a book for manners and courtesy and let the students be part of book as I was
reading it. It was neat to see that some of them had different opinions of what they would rather
do. I then gave the students a scenario to think and I did not realize that they did not know what a
scenario is. I should have used better wording when giving them the scenario and the directions
because some of them did not understand of what I wanted them to say. It was not until the end
of all the pairs that one of the pairs said what I was looking for. The situation or scenario was
what the right thing they should do instead of pushing someone out of the way. I believe overall
the lesson went well except some of the wording used but they gained what I wanted them to
gain out of the lesson.
November 6, 2014
Today was another day where it was just me and Ms. Bolden. I have taken the initiative
to take care of running the paperwork for next week and organize it to help Ms. South since she
will be taking back over. We did another animal that we might see at the zoo which was a lion.
We talked about the mane of the lions and how it is only on male lions as well as some facts
about them. We labeled a lion and wrote one fact about lions.
In math, we did another shape called the rectangle. I showed them a shape of a rectangle
and showed them how many vertices and edges that a rectangle has. I related back to the other
shape that we did with a square. I asked which shape has the same number of vertices and edges
that we talked about and they said a square. I then asked each one if they could find something
besides in the room that is rectangle shaped. The students then made the rectangle man and they
had to fill in how many vertices and edges as well as draw examples of rectangle shaped objects.
During center time and indoor recess, students were able to create their favorite zoo animal with
Ms. Bolden and then I would call them over to write a sentence about their favorite zoo animal. I
wanted the students to continue to work on their handwriting especially since I was either doing
one student or two at a time. It worked better for me because it showed me what each of the
students needed help on when it came to handwriting. Since we used sentence strips, the students
had to their letters to touch the top and bottom line or the middle and bottom line. Students also

needed to work forming their letters better and using spaces between words instead of letters
because some students have done that. The activity also gave me assessment data to see what the
students needed to work on their weaknesses.
November 7, 2014
Today was my last day as being a full time teacher. I was excited of what my teachings
have done for the students because I can tell with what they have accomplished and what they
have worked on. I cannot take all the credit for what they have accomplished but it is exciting to
see that they improved because of what I have been teaching them. We worked more on addition
number sentences and they are getting so much better with the formation of how they are
supposed to be. I believe the only trouble I was having was one of the students who was
advanced in math because he ended up going through it quicker even though I wanted all of us to
stay together because I was more concerned with getting the formation of the number sentence
correct and how they should read it.
For the rest of the math activity, I did another concept of using manipulatives with
adding. I introduced the idea of adding with dominos. I wanted them to play around it and get a
general idea of how to do it. I did show them how to do it by using one domino and making a
number sentence first by counting one side and writing that number then putting the plus. I then
counted the other side and put that number down as well as the equals and I showed them how to
count all of the dots together. This lesson was not on the lesson plan but we went through that
lesson quick so I needed another impromptu lesson to pass the time before they go to centers so
that is where the idea came into play. I have taught addition with dominos before so I thought it
would be another concept to learn as well.
For this lesson, I grouped them by ability when I realized that sometimes mixing them for
new concepts like this is beneficial for the ones that do not understand it the first time. The
students enjoyed this lesson because they were placed all around the room and they were in
partners where they could collaborate and talk through the problem together. I would definitely
do this lesson again.