Week 5 reflection

Senses Unit/Action Research

This week I finished up my senses unit with my students. On Monday, we learned about the importance of tasting. I brought in lemons, skittles, pretzels/crackers, and unsweetened ice tea for the students to try. We talked about the terms bitter, salty, sweet, and sour. I learned that bitter and sour are hard for the students to understand the difference.

The students made a senses book for open house. They had to write about something that they could see, smell, hear, taste, and feel. They did a wonderful job coming up with an object to draw. A couple of my students drew the same objects as the person sitting next to them. I during my told my students to write their name on the line and then realized that they could not read the world "Name". Each and every day I learn something new. Meadow came to observe me on Tuesday and it was great having her in our class. She was able to point out some things that I did not even realize that I do (spelling out words for the students, behavior managment strategies, etc.). It was a beneficial experience. :)

I started briefly talking about shapes for my action research project. I introduced the square and rectangle today. The students seemed to really enjoy the book and activity (we used model magic to construct our own squares and rectangles). It was a perfect lesson. The students, even one that gives me some trouble, all paid attention so that they could participate. I was thrilled!

I look forward to teaching more about shapes next week!