My Lessons and Reflections Weeks 5-7

Week 5:
Objective: Students will be able to identify their five senses by name and characteristics and the organs associated with each.
Materials: Large flashcards with pictures of the organ on the front and the sense on the back, one small item (i.e. candy) for each student.
Activity: Start by asking the students if they know about their five senses. If not, explain that they observe the world five ways: by looking, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. Explain the organs associated with each sense using the large flash cards and pointing to them on your body. Ask the students for things that they smell, taste, etc. and create a lists on the board. Pass out the candy, but tell the students not to eat it. First tell them to look at it and describe it. Go through all of the senses, ending with taste. If time permits, play a game with the flash cards. Have all the students stand up, and hold up a picture. The first student who yells out the sense associated with the organ can sit down. Continue until the students are all sitting. The flashcards can also be reversed so that the teacher holds up the name of sense and the students have the yell out the organ.
Reflection: The students did not know what their five senses were, so I was glad to have done this lesson. I tried to explain the importance of each sense by picking one thing off their list and saying how you can't use another sense for it. For example for listening they would say "music." I would say something like, "Can you see music? Can you touch music?" and all the students would go, "nooooooo." Then, I would explain that our sense of sound is important because it does things the other senses can not. I did that for each sense.
       They all of course loved the candy. I played the game successfully with my first two classes, but the third class just did not understand the directions, such as who was supposed to stand up or sit down. After that, I dropped that game and played another game instead. I took the flashcards off the board and had the students come up and put the flash cards on the right column based on the lists they had made. Each time it got harder. First they had to do it with the picture, then with the name of the organ, then with the name of the sense. I think it worked out well. One thing that happened this week was that I heard students using vocabulary I had taught them in the previous weeks, such as "dairy," "seafood," and "drinks." That made me happy!

Week 6:
Objective: The students will learn parts of their body (feet, hands, knees, stomach, back, shoulders, elbows, fingers, and toes, arms, and legs ) as well as distinguish between left and right.
Materials: Large outline of a person, large flash cards of names of body parts, magnets, 1/2 a sheet of paper for each student
Activity: Point to the different parts of your body to see what the students already know. Distinguish between right and left. Put up the large outline of the person on the board. Use magnets to label the different parts using the large flash cards. Play "Desk top Challenge." Ask all of the students to stand up. They have to place whatever body part you call out on top of their desks. For example, you can call "right elbow" and they place their right elbow on the desk. If they are good, make it more challenging by calling out two body parts. Afterward, pass out paper to each students. Have students draw themselves and label as many body parts as they can, reminding them of the ones they learned last week.
Reflection: Other than the first week, this was probably my worst lesson so far. There were just so many random things that didn't go right. The first day, with my first class, I realized the words I had picked were way to easy. The students already knew all of them. The only words they had trouble with were stomach and knee. For the next lesson, I decided to add more parts. I added neck, wrist, and ankle.
     Another thing that didn't work out was the game. Students found it very confusing, so I just played a simple "Simon Says" instead. Also, the some of the classes did not get as excited about coming to the board and labeling the parts as they had last week when I had them put the senses in the right column. I had also forgotten to bring paper on Thursday. Luckily, I had some at my office, but it wasn't enough to give each student a 1/2 sheet. I had to cut them half and give each student a 1/4 sheet. The lesson wasn't a failure, but I'm not as satisfied as I have been in the last few weeks. I guess I'll have to come up with something great for next week!

Week 7
Objective: The students will learn the meaning of and how to express different emotions (silly, grumpy, angry, joyful, confused, excited, lonely, happy, and sad).
Materials: Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis, Strips of paper with emotions written on them
Activity: Start by reading Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis. Only read the pages with the emotions for silly, grumpy, angry, joyful, confused, excited, lonely, happy, and sad. Focus on over-emphasizing the emotions on each page. After reading the book, write all of the emotions on the board, act that emotion out. Encourage students to join in. Let the students know that they are going to now practice the emotions. Write the following simple dialogue on the board:
A: Hello.
B: Hello.
A: Nice to meet you. How are you?
B: I am fine, thank you. How are you?
A: I am ok. Good bye.
B: See you later. Good bye.
Have the students practice the dialogue over and over again until they seem to have a good grasp of it. Hand out the paper with the emotions to pairs of students and tell them they will have to say that dialogue with that emotion. Act out a few examples. Give students time to practice, and then ask for volunteers to go up and “perform” the dialogue. Have the rest of the class guess the emotion. Continue until time is up. Review emotions once more with the class, again acting out the emotion. This time, encourage students to join in.
Reflection: I had two very different reactions to this lesson by my Grade 3 student and my Grade 4 students.
     The Grade 3 students struggled a little. Some of them really didn't understand how to portray the emotion, and I had a hard time keeping the rest of the class quiet while students were in front of the class performing. None of my Grade 3 classes got a square filled in for the week. They were all really disappointed, but they were bad! They were just not listening. I tried my best to act out and explain the emotions to them, but they were just not having it. I told one of my Grade three classes that I was sad that they were talking so much, and my favorite two students were so cute about it. They said, "You are sad because we are not listening?" It touched my heart.
     On the other hand, the Grade 4 students loved it! They really got into the acting and portraying the emotions. One of the classes got a little too into it, but that's ok. They enjoyed coming up in front of the class and saying the dialogue. Of course, angry and excited was a favorite because those can be over exaggerated. They liked listening to the book and seeing the pictures. All of my Grade 4 classes had a square filled in this week.
     I'm not sure why there was such a disconnect between the two grade levels. This has never happened with my lessons before. I don't feel as though the content was too high, the Grade three students aren't too shy. Maybe it has to do with their attention span - they just aren't mature enough to want to sit and listen to their peers perform the dialogue?