Elementary Observation

Setting:
It was the 8 o’clock in the morning on Friday, November 15th, and it was cloudy outside but the sun was peeking through the clouds. I walked through the front office of Oak Creek Elementary School and greeted the staff as they pointed me in the direction of the kindergarten classroom I would be observing. As I approached the classroom, I noticed that the school had a very warm environment and the staff was friendly and welcoming. The teacher, Mrs. Smith, and her full time aide welcomed me at the door and I felt accepted. The class had 12 children of many different ethnicities because it was a sheltered English immersion class where the students were beginning English language learners. I entered the classroom and immediately my eyes were drawn to the walls. Every wall was covered with bright, colored posters and was kept very busy. There was so much going on that I had to take a couple minutes to take it all in. The room was set up in a certain way by the teacher that was geared towards education and creating a warm environment.
The first wall that was seen when I walked in the classroom was the whiteboard. The whiteboard had the activities for the day put up, which were Indian headbands and necklaces. The whiteboard also had a focus board which listed what the focus concepts were for the week. Also, there were a lot of fun pictures lining the whiteboard. The teacher tied the school’s mascot, the owl, into her decorations by pasting the children’s faces onto the owls’ so that the children were “wise owls.” To the right of the whiteboard was the most important wall of the classroom. There was a rug placed in front of that wall for the children to sit down and learn. On that wall, there was the alphabet and numbers runni...

... middle of paper ...

...bel’s idea of gifts and occupations once again, the children used the manipulatives to count and build numbers and patterns. When practicing counting, the children practiced pointing to each number which mimicked Jean Piaget’s idea of one to one correspondence. This is where the child learns that each item has a number or name and it can only be given that number once when counting. The children worked quietly making patterns, counting, and building numbers until the teacher said it was time to clean up and line up for recess.
I learned a lot from observing Mrs. Smith’s kindergarten class about teaching and interactions between students and teachers, as well. I was excited to see what we were learning in our own class being applied to the children in her kindergarten class. I look forward to being able to apply what I have learned to my own classroom.