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Running head: FIELD EXPERIENCE ASSIGNMENT

Field Experience Assignment

Grier Bethea

Green Sea Head Start

3, 4, and 5-year old’s

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FIELD EXPERIENCE ASSIGNMENT
Classroom Transitions

1. Drop-off to classwork: Students enter the room, find a seat at the table, and begin tracing

their names with expo markers while waiting for the other students to arrive.

2. Classwork to breakfast: When it is time for breakfast, the teacher invites the students to

line up according to the color of their shirt. For example, she would say, “If you have a

red shirt on, please line up.” Students push their chairs under and line up on the place

markers on the floor. They walk down the hallway as a class to breakfast, singing nursery

rhymes to maintain the children’s attention while waiting in line. Children get their

breakfast from the cafeteria one-by-one, using both hands to hold their tray and carefully

walk to their seats.

3. Breakfast to class: As children finish their breakfast, the teacher cleans their trays, one

student collects the forks and another student wipes the table. Children stay seated in

their chairs until the teacher directs them to stand. The teacher will tell one side of the

table to stand, push their chairs under and line up. When everyone from that side is in

line, the teacher will ask the other side to stand and go through the same procedures.

When everyone is in a line and ready to go, the class will proceed down the hallway to

the classroom.

4. Classroom to instruction: When the students enter the room, they each go to the

bathroom, wash their hands, and brush their teeth. The teacher plays a tooth brushing

song as they are brushing. After students are done brushing their teeth, they go to the

carpet to dance to the transitional song. When the song is finished, students sit on the

carpet and put their attention on the teacher for instruction.

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5. Instruction to centers: To transition to centers, children individually go to the teacher,

spell their names, get their nametags and choose a center. Each center has a poster with a

certain number of spots. When children go to the center, they stick their nametag to the

poster. If all of the spots in a center are taken, students have to choose somewhere

different.

6. Center to center: If students wish to change centers throughout play time, they may do so

as they please. However, before moving, they have to clean up their area, get their

nametag, and put it on the center they wish to go to next.

7. Centers to writing practice: The teacher flicks the lights when there are five more minutes

left to play. Students say, “5 more minutes!” and begin to wrap things up. When it is time

to clean up, the teacher flicks the lights again and begins playing a clean up song.

Students clean up their area and move to the tables to write.

8. Writing practice to the playground: As students finish their writing, the teacher checks it

over and collects their papers. When the teacher has collected their paper, they are asked

to go stand in line on the place markers. They walk, as a class, out to the playground.

9. Playground to classroom: Students play outside with the other classes in the school.

When playground time is over, teachers call their classes to a specific area to gather their

students. The children sit and wait on all members of the class to gather up, the teacher

counts everyone, then they walk back inside to the classroom.

10. Classroom to lunch: Children come into the classroom from the playground, use the

bathroom, wash their hands, and get back in line. As a class, they walk to the cafeteria,

get their trays individually, and walk to the table to eat.

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11. Lunch to classroom: As the children finish their lunch, the teacher cleans their trays and

collects their milk. One student collects the forks and another student wipes the table.

Students stay seated until the teacher asks them to get up. The teacher tells one side of the

table to get up, push their chair under and line up. When everyone from that side is in

line, the teacher asks the other side to stand and follow the same procedures. When

everyone is in line, the class walks back to the classroom to use the bathroom, wash

hands and prepare for nap time.

Curriculum Snapshot

Domain Standard Description of How would you

Behavior assess the
behavior?
Describe the
assessment here.
Approaches to Play Goal APL-4: Elani uses the Observe students in
and Learning (APL) Children grocery basket as centers, especially
demonstrate her pocketbook during dramatic
creativity, when she is play. Students
imagination, and pretending to be should engage in at
inventiveness. the mom in least 3 imaginative
dramatic play. or creative play
opportunities
during an
observation.
Emotional and Goal ESD-6: Na’Trael explains Utilize an emotions
Social Development Children identify, to Timothy that he chart that allows
(ESD) manage, and is sad because he students to identify
express their would not share the their feelings 2
feelings. blocks with him. times per day.
Health and Physical Goal HPD-1: Angel uses her fork From a list of
Development Children develop to eat the rice, various foods,
(HPD) healthy eating chicken, and students will
habits. pineapple on her individually
tray at lunch. identify 2 healthy
and 2 unhealthy
foods.
Language Goal LDC-12: Jaleah spells her Ask each student to
Development and Children begin to name correctly to spell their name.
Communication develop knowledge the teacher. Students should
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FIELD EXPERIENCE ASSIGNMENT
(LDC) of the alphabet and correctly name half
the alphabetic of the letters in
principle. their name,
including the first
letter.
Mathematical Goal MTE-4: Mikeal tells his Using two different
Thinking and Children begin to friend during play- sized squares, ask
Expression (MTE) identify, describe, doh center that he the students what
classify, and is going to make a the name of the
understand shape, circle and a shape is, ask them
size, direction, and triangle out of to put the larger
movement during play-doh. square on the
play and other smaller one, then
activities. ask them to put the
smaller square over
the larger one.
Students should be
able to correctly
respond to two of
the three
assessment
questions.
Cognitive Goal CD-1: Hailey holds two Using a Mr. Potato
Development (CD) Children use their books in her hands Head, identify
senses to construct and says the bigger which body parts
knowledge about book is much are used to sense
the world around heavier than the our surroundings.
them. smaller book. As a group,
students should
work together to
identify all 5 senses
and the
corresponding body
part.

Lesson Planning Process

The process to lesson planning takes place on a weekly basis. The weekly plans

must be submitted to the director of Head Start by Wednesday of every week. The

teacher does the bulk of the planning, but the assistant does provide support, ideas and
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suggestions for instruction. As the teacher develops the lesson plan, she gathers any

materials, books and activities that may go along with it.

The centers in the classroom are predetermined. The teacher’s responsibility is to

set up the centers and change them throughout the year. The centers are organized in the

classroom based on the level of volume, so the louder centers are grouped together, and

the quieter centers are more secluded. She changes the centers each unit to correlate with

the material that she is teaching. Many play options are added to the centers to enhance

the experience of the unit. For example, when they were discussing neighborhood jobs,

the teacher added a truck loading game to the toys and games center, a police puppet in

the discovery center, doctor, fireman and police dress up in the dramatic play center, and

job books in the library center.

Family involvement is very important in the planning process. When I spoke with

her, my cooperating teacher explained how much she enjoyed the help of family

members in the classroom. She talked about how beneficial it was for the students to

know that their family is involved and care about their learning. For this reason, she

sends home the weekly school readiness goals and calendar events to keep them

involved. Many events that the school hosts include families in the classroom. Some

examples of family involvement in my classroom are Marvelous Moms on Monday,

monthly parent meeting, biyearly home visits, male involvement Thursday, and a WIC

representative day.

Personal Reflection

My field experience at Green Sea Head Start has been beneficial to me as I have

learned about curriculum. I was able to observe many positive aspects of curriculum
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within this classroom. First, the integration of curriculum was evident. The teacher really

immersed the students into the unit topic by including their instruction topic in all of the

centers, writing activities, and even nursery rhymes that they sing going down the

hallway. I took note of useful ways to integrate the topics in my own practices and plan

on using them in the near future in my own classroom. My only suggestion for this

classroom in relation to the integration of curriculum would be to use the sand and water

table to bring even more manipulatives and hands-on opportunities for learning to the

students.

The transitional strategies in this classroom were effective for the most part. The

use of the strategy to flick the lights during play time to show “5 more minutes” and

clean up time were beneficial for the students. They were prepared to start wrapping

things up and transition out of centers. This, among the other transitional strategies, were

successful in moving students throughout the day. However, I noticed that a child

repeatedly struggled with breakdowns during transitional times. In those instances, I

would suggest assigning him a job to do during the transitions that he struggles most

with. A job could be beneficial to keep the child occupied during the time which he

usually struggles.

Children in the early years require all hands on deck to be successful in school.

This is the reason that parents should be involved in their child’s classroom. Even though

there is a great need for this involvement, I did not observe much participation from

parents. When I asked the teacher about parent involvement, she said that many parents

do not put in the effort to be involved because they do not really understand the

importance of it. She said that she always welcomes parents into the class at any point
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during the day, but they rarely ever show up. I would suggest that the teacher take the

next step to involve parents in the curriculum. She could do this by specifically asking a

parent to come in and help with a particular activity or at a particular time. I believe the

main reason parents do not show up is because they do not really know when to come or

what to do when they get there. This clarification would help parents be more prepared

for helping out in the classroom.

The curriculum in this classroom was effective in many ways. The students

respond well to the integration, follow transitional procedures effectively, and exceed

their learning goals. While I had a few minor suggestions to make the flow a bit

smoother, I was able to learn from much of her practice.