Observation Tomorrow

Hello everyone! The school day on Friday went well. I took girls individually to work on their sounds and breaking up words. I found this practice was extremely helpful to them and in addition I found it helpful for my own experience in teaching phonics to children. This skill is necessary for all children to learn because it is so important for not only reading but spelling as well. I did science as well on Friday and we planted spring flowers. We are learning about the parts of the flower and the cycle of a plant as well as all of the right conditions for a plant to grow. The children are also learning about responsibility by needing to remember to water their plants. I called the children over one by one to plant their seeds because the planting tray was too small for more children. The girls were very excited to see they had their very own spot in tray to plant their flower. We will see how they turn out. I taught art Friday as well. This was very fun and went very smoothly. I decided to add in a little math to my lesson. The girls were to draw an animal of their choice. They were to separate the animal into 6 sections and draw a different line pattern in each section. Then they were to cut out their line patterned animal that was on white paper and glue it to colored paper where they had drawn several contrasting line patterns. This created a wonderful visual effect and used repetition and pattern as well. I was very happy with how this lesson turned out and I think the girls really enjoyed it as well.
As for Friday evening I went with some teachers from school to a birthday party. It was very nice to go out and see a little bit more of Listowel as well and meet more interesting people! The teachers were so nice and thoughtful to include me and i had a great time. Saturday I went to Kilarney which is a town about an hour away from Listowel to meet up with my host sisters and their church group. We were going to hike up a mountain. I was thrilled at this idea and very excited to see more of the landscape of Ireland. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating and we got about 30 minutes into our hike before we had to turn around. The weather was awful the rain had everyone soaked and it was freezing! I did manage to take a few pictures and from what I could see through the fog, it was beautiful scenery! The rest of the weekend I spent relaxing and getting a start on lesson plans for the week. All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend.
This week marks 5 weeks left of teaching! It has gone so fast already! This also means that I am about half way done with my teaching placement and will be getting observed tomorrow. I have prepared a lesson for English teaching the girls about rhyming words through a series of fun activities. I have given my lesson plan to my cooperating teacher as well as my supervisor and am all set to teach tomorrow. So far this week I have taught Science on the topic of light. My lessons have gone well and have just been about the general concept. Light can be a confusing concept to grasp for younger children and my main goal is to give the children many opportunities for learning and new knowledge to be gained. I feel that through my series of short lessons this will be attained. I am also continuing my help with a St. Patrick's Day decoration. This is also turning out beautifully and will be great to see displayed at the Irish festivities and parades. I will continue to prepare for my lesson that will be observed tomorrow and will give my feedback on Thursday. Until then Slan!