1. TALLER DE PRÁCTICA DOCENTE 2016
Trainee’s Name: Gabriela Lema
Practicum level: First Nivel inicial
Group: 4 year old children
Date:May 3 rd
, 2016
Observation 1
Last Tuesday I observed the group for the first time. As I am observing a class in the school where I
work every day (but in primary level), most of the teachers and some of the kids know who I am.
I had entered their classroom before they arrived because the teacher brought them from a special class
(I think they were having Music ). So, the teacher introduced me and some of them told me “sos la miss
de mi hermana” and comments like that. Then, Cecilia, their teacher, began to sing “make a circle,
make a circle, with my friends, with my friends ” (to the tune of Fray Santiago ), and then she said
“everybody sitting down, like an Indian” and she immediately began to sing “one little Indian” song.
Once all the kids were sitting on the floor, making a circle, Cecilia used the CD player that was placed
behind her (she was also sitting on the floor) to play the “Hello song” that says “welcome friends,
welcome friends, it´s nice to see you again ” . All the kids recognized the song but only some of them
were able sing it.
The song finished and Ceci began to sing another song “What´s the weather like today , what´s the
weather like today”? then she interrupted the song, picked up a flashcard with a rainy cloud from a little
box she had on her lap and, pointing at the window, she asked “is it a rainy day?” the kids answered
“nooooo” and Ceci continued mixing parts of the song with oral questions always using her flashcards
and encouraging the kids to participate (they knew perfectly well what they were expected to do, this
was part of their routine). She left the flashcard with the sunny day until the end and, as it was a sunny
day, they all finished the activity singing “today is sunny, today is sunny, today is a sunny day”.
Right after the “Weather song”, the teacher asked one of the boys “ Manu, are you a boy or a girl?” .
Manu seemed to understand the question but he refused to answer, so Ceci continued without forcing
him “we are going to sing the song of boys and girls” and she asked a girl “count the girls on their
heads ”. The girl stood up and counted the girls by touching their heads and saying “one, two, three,…”
she counted eight girls and Ceci encouraged her to go to the board to point at the number on a chart with
numbers that was already hanging there. Instead of pointing at number eight directly, the girl pointed at
all the numbers from one to eight and she (and some of the other kids helped and encouraged by the
teacher) repeated the numbers aloud (I noticed this was part of a routine too). Finally, with the teachers’
support, most of them sang “we are eight, we are eight, we are eight girls today”.
The girl sat down and a boy did exactly the same but counting boys. When the boy finished they sang
“we are ten, we are ten , we are ten boys today”. Next, Ceci asked another boy to count all the children,
and, of course, the boy counted eighteen and was encouraged to do the same process of pointing at the
numbers and saying them (from one o eighteen). They finished the activity singing “we are eighteen, we
are eighteen, we are eighteen children today”.
Then Ceci picked up a tablet she had near her and showed the picture I included below to the kids:
2.
She played the video (which was produced to teach and/or practise colours) and used it by playing and
pausing it in order to create interaction between the pictures and her students (for example , she asked
“what is this” –pointing at the balloon and one of the boys said “red”, so Ceci helped them “its colour is
red but what is it?” . A girl said “a balloon” and the teacher asked the previous boy “and what color is it
”, “red” ,“yes, it is a red balloon”). Once she could get the interaction she was trying to achieve she
played the whole video in order to finish this activity.
Finally, she left the tablet and picked up the box again and began to take some manipulatives with faces
showing different feelings (angry, sad, happy, etc). She covered her face with the faces painted on the
cardboard and told the kids… “look at my face” and the kids immediately said “scared”, “sad”. Ceci
showed the scared picture and the sad picture in order to help them to make a distinction between them.
Then , using the CD player again, she played the song “ If a monkey is feeling happy, he has a happy
face” and she used the different manipulatives to cover her face according to the lyrics. Unfortunately
she was the only person who had manipulatives, it would have been a good idea to provide each student
with his/her own set of faces.
When the song finished, Ceci sang a short goodbye song “this is the way we say goodbye….”
And asked the children “make two trains, one for girls, one for boys” and they left the classroom and
went to their gym class.
I enjoyed observing the group very much. I left the place wondering if it was really necessary to teach
every single thing by singing it. And I noticed that, as I have always worked in primary, I spent the
whole period waiting for an individual, not exactly “written” because they do not write yet but an
activity in which the kids were expected to draw, or match, or identify and color something. But it did
not happen!
Observation 2
The group enters the classroom , Ceci sings “make a circle, make a circle, with your friends,”… some of
the kids sing with her, all of them understand that they are expected to sit down making a circle.
Then Ceci sings the Quiet Down Song [i] to ask for silence. After that, she plays the Hello song [ii] in a
CD player (the same song she played during the previous class).
I`m sitting on the floor too, the kids –spontaneously left some room for me (the first time I sat on a little
chair outside their circle.
After the Hello song (provided by the Cd player and followed by Ceci and most of the kids) , Ceci picks
up a box with flashcards for the different weather conditions (the same she used last time) and she starts
singing the weather song by following the same process developed during the last class (Ceci sings
“ What´s the weather like today , what´s the weather like today”? then she interrupted the song, picked
4. Class 1
Last Tuesday (May 17th) I had my first experience as a practitioner!
The positive aspects I observed are:
● The kids behaved really well
● They seemed to enjoy the activities very much
● They also loved the idea of taking a “new friend” (puppet) home
● The teacher told me that she loved the lesson too and she was happy decorating the
classroom with the big puppets I had created.
Things I will try to improve next time :
● I´ll make an effort to incorporate songs (although I had incorporated songs in the
planning I did not find it “natural” to sing, perhaps because we were getting to know each
other and , of course, I admit that being a primary teacher I usually incorporate songs in
my classes but I don't sing alone in front my students, so I need training…)
Class 2
A few minutes ago I had my second experience as a practitioner in kinder. I felt glad to know
that the kids were happy the last time I “visited” them (their teacher, Ceci, told me that).
I could cover all the activities I had planned and, by the end of the lesson I asked the kids to be
“my teachers” and help me to learn the goodbye song they usually sing (pretending I did not
know it). Of course, Ceci helped them. Next time I will incorporate it in my class.
Class 3
During my third experience as a practitioner in Kinder I felt glad to see that the kids were happy to
see me, most of them remembered my name and greeted my spontaneously.
I could develop all the activities I had planned. Although I noticed that they were a little bit
complicated I don't think I should have done something different... I think that It may happen that
you ask Ss questions, and you finally answer for them and all you can obtain is their repetition of
the words you are saying. I think it is part of the process and that´s why kinder teachers need to
do the same thing a lot of times until, eventually, the kids incorporate not only the vocabulary or
functions but also the routine that is needed in order to develop the activity.
![She played the video (which was produced to teach and/or practise colours) and used it by playing and
pausing it in order to create interaction between the pictures and her students (for example , she asked
“what is this” –pointing at the balloon and one of the boys said “red”, so Ceci helped them “its colour is
red but what is it?” . A girl said “a balloon” and the teacher asked the previous boy “and what color is it
”, “red” ,“yes, it is a red balloon”). Once she could get the interaction she was trying to achieve she
played the whole video in order to finish this activity.
Finally, she left the tablet and picked up the box again and began to take some manipulatives with faces
showing different feelings (angry, sad, happy, etc). She covered her face with the faces painted on the
cardboard and told the kids… “look at my face” and the kids immediately said “scared”, “sad”. Ceci
showed the scared picture and the sad picture in order to help them to make a distinction between them.
Then , using the CD player again, she played the song “ If a monkey is feeling happy, he has a happy
face” and she used the different manipulatives to cover her face according to the lyrics. Unfortunately
she was the only person who had manipulatives, it would have been a good idea to provide each student
with his/her own set of faces.
When the song finished, Ceci sang a short goodbye song “this is the way we say goodbye….”
And asked the children “make two trains, one for girls, one for boys” and they left the classroom and
went to their gym class.
I enjoyed observing the group very much. I left the place wondering if it was really necessary to teach
every single thing by singing it. And I noticed that, as I have always worked in primary, I spent the
whole period waiting for an individual, not exactly “written” because they do not write yet but an
activity in which the kids were expected to draw, or match, or identify and color something. But it did
not happen!
Observation 2
The group enters the classroom , Ceci sings “make a circle, make a circle, with your friends,”… some of
the kids sing with her, all of them understand that they are expected to sit down making a circle.
Then Ceci sings the Quiet Down Song [i] to ask for silence. After that, she plays the Hello song [ii] in a
CD player (the same song she played during the previous class).
I`m sitting on the floor too, the kids –spontaneously left some room for me (the first time I sat on a little
chair outside their circle.
After the Hello song (provided by the Cd player and followed by Ceci and most of the kids) , Ceci picks
up a box with flashcards for the different weather conditions (the same she used last time) and she starts
singing the weather song by following the same process developed during the last class (Ceci sings
“ What´s the weather like today , what´s the weather like today”? then she interrupted the song, picked](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)