Kinder Kinder Kindergarten

This past month I have been teaching Kindergarten at a Korean Summer School. The students are really great. They try to teach me Korean. There are 7 of them and I teach them all day. There are a few things I have learned about helping this small group get along- since they are together all day and they play with each other, but are a fairly wide range, from just barely five to almost seven, I have done some problem management, but things are going well and are fun. I also started with 3 and then the class grew as some of the students in Grade 1 moved into my class and new students joined. There's only one girl in the class but one more will be coming this week. .

We have been doing a lot of fun songs, crafts, and activities to keep busy and engaged in learning during these summer months. Here's a picture of the class (when we had 2 girls- one was only doing summer school for a few weeks-) doing a counting and number comparison activity.

Yesterday was our Open House, when the parents came to see more of what their kids have been up to! I snapped a few pictures before it started so I could share a sense of the class with you. It's a 'monkey' theme, so it's fun to call them my 'monkeys' and give them their jobs for the day. One student is the 'filler' or 'monkey' helper.

One activity I'm particularly proud of is when they asked,'what's a cocoon?' They are English Learners, but this is a tricky word anyway. We did a whole lesson about the butterfly life cycle, then had a 'caterpillar' visit (it was plastic)... we examined the food he ate (various leaves) and made observations about the different kinds. Then after lunch the caterpillar went missing!! We went on a treasure hunt around the school, visiting the different teachers and gathering clues, and then ending back in our class where we found the caterpillar making a cocoon (or chrysalis for a butterfly.) It was really fun to set it up on our tree and label it :)

The open house went really well! I enjoy teaching these kids!!