MissSwansonsBlog

This was the fifth lesson that Grace and I taught together. This week, we focused on Japanese culture. We began the lesson with a Blooket review, which the students responded to very well—they were highly engaged throughout the activity. After finishing the Blooket questions, we transitioned into introducing new vocabulary words related to the topic of culture. We handed out the vocabulary cards for students to add to their key rings. Each student took a turn reading a term and its definition aloud. Next, we read a folktale titled The Star Festival by Moni Ritchie Hadley and Mizuho Fujisawa, taking turns as readers. To continue exploring the theme of culture, we had the students watch a short video on their Chromebooks with headphones. If any students finished early, they were instructed to take notes on anything new they learned from the video. Afterward, we moved into our “Needs, Wants, and Culture” picture sort activity. For this, I held up pictures representing elements of Japanes...

This was the fourth lesson Grace and I taught about Japan, and this week we taught economics. We started this lesson by having the students partake in another blooket review. The students really enjoy this activity because of how interactive the website is. The students were able to review the previous week's key terms to refresh their memory. After the students reviewed the previous week's key terms, we taught them twelve new vocabulary words. We taught these words by giving them another key term sheet that they could add to their key ring, and doing a matching game. After the students took some time to arrange the words, definitions, and corresponding pictures to each other, we moved on to the picture sort activity. The picture sort activity was extremely interactive and all of the students were engaged. We instructed all of the students to go to the rug before we started the activity. For this picture sort activity, we had the students perform a movement game to make it more...

This was the third lesson that Grace and I taught about Japan. This week, we taught the students about the civics of Japan. Before we got into the new content, we had them play a quick game of blooket to review the last two weeks. The students have a really good time doing this, and it is a great way to get their minds warmed up. Next, we introduced the topic of civics with our vocabulary words. This week, we had eight words that pertained to the topic of civics. We introduced these vocabulary words by giving the students a new set of words to put on their key ring. The students took turns reading out a definition. To make the vocabulary instruction more interactive, we had the students play a quick matching game. They matched the words to their corresponding definitions, and glued it into their notebooks. Our next activity was a KWL chart. KWL stands for “I know, I want to know, I want to learn.” Before we taught the students about the U.S. and Japanese government, we asked the studen...

This was the second lesson that Grace and I taught together, and this time we taught the history of Japan. The lesson started with a quick review of last week's lesson. Last week, we taught about the geography of Japan. Students used their chromebooks to partake in a Blooket activity. Blooket is a website that takes study questions and makes it into an interactive question and answer game. The students did well with this review, and asked questions when they had a hard time thinking of an answer. After students finished the review activity, we then went over how to differentiate a primary source from a secondary source. We used explicit instructions for explaining the difference between the two. After, the students were given a flash card with an example of it that they had to determine if it was either a primary or secondary source. The students did extremely well with this activity and got all of them correct, with the proper reasoning. Students were also given a vocabulary card ...

This was the first lesson that Grace and I taught at Hennessey Elementary School, and it went very well. As soon as we walked into the room, the students were already sitting at their tables in the correct groups, ready to learn. We were introduced to our students, and they were very excited. A few of the students were very enthusiastic about the topic of Japan. We started our lesson off by introducing ourselves and asking the students what their names are. Once we learned their names and gave them nametags, we went right into our ice breaker. Our ice breaker was a quick game of  “ Would you Rather .” The students were very engaged in this ice breaker. They all gave their answers, and some of them got very creative. The first question was, “Would you rather eat ice cream or cake every day?” One of the students answered, “ice cream cake!” This answer was very creative, and I appreciated how the students were really thinking about these answers. After the ice breaker, we transitioned...

My goal is to teach a fifth-grade class in the future. Students at that age are learning to analyze documents and data, which works perfectly with primary sources. I want to inspire students to want to learn. I can do this by providing interactive learning. I am still in the works on incorporating primary sources into my teaching. My plan is to use the Library of Congress website to gather my sources. Primary sources cultivate wonder, curiosity, and inquiry-based learning in a variety of ways. By looking at primary sources such as maps, journal entries, and historical documents, students can catch a glimpse of how life was back in the time they are learning about. Looking at these sources can raise questions as well that the students may have. Primary sources foster historical thinking because they provide students with a direct source of information about what they are learning about. Students are seeing firsthand the documents that are from history, rather than a secondary source. Pr...