Alexis Nagley 3/1/13 ELD 375 Mrs. Millers Kindergarten Class Dr.

Bulgar Field Report 2 The lesson that I observe in my group was a lesson on adding up to 12. When talking to the Mrs.Miller, she explained that she hopes her students would be able to gain from this lesson that there are many combinations of various numbers up to 12, and to be able to write a number sentence correctly. The activity Mrs. Miller planned for her lesson was to go with the theme this week which was Dr. Seuss. She also explained to me that during this time of the year it says in the kindergarten curriculum that they need to be working on addition facts up to 12, so the teacher can talk about it during parent teacher conferences in the next couple of weeks. The completion and understanding of these facts will also be a section on the students next report card. The lesson was planned so that the teacher would model the activity for the whole class. She rolled two dice and showed that one was a 4 the other was a 6. She explained that the students could count the dots on the dice if they needed to. They would put the two dice numbers in the space and add them together. When observing my group, I notice that everyone wanted to take charge and roll the dice first. After deciding on the turn taking, the first student rolled the two dice and then everyone worked on the problem individually. Two of students had to count every dot on the dice in order to know what number was presented while the other two could glance at the dice and knew the number. From this I realized that each student did have an understanding of one to one

correspondence. Each student realized that one dot had the value of one instead of thinking that the dice as a whole having a value of 1. All students even knew all the numbers up to 12 which they should, even if they did write them backwards. When writing the numbers, I saw that all of the children would put the larger number first followed by the smaller number. This showed that the students understood what number was larger and had number sense. I thought it was interesting that each student did this the same way. Some of the students in the group even moved the dice so that the larger number was on the left and the smaller number was on the right. This would make it so that the dice were easier for them to read and to fill in the blanks for the word sentence. When completing the lesson, I though the way the group worked was interesting. One student would roll and everyone would work on the problem. They would all stop after they were done and then go over the answer. If one person got a different answer than the rest of the group, they would go over the problem as a group. They would count the dots on both dice so they could see who had the answer correct. Most of the time all the students developed the right answer or were one lower or higher than the correct answer. One conversation that happened that I thought was interesting was between two of the stronger students in math and how they had filled out the work sheet. One of the students filled out his sheet following number order while the other students filled his sheet going from top to bottom, left column then right column. The students were discussing whose worksheet was right. When the teacher came over, she explained that both ways were correct. It was their job to fill it in so it didnt matter if the students went left to right or top to bottom, as long as they filled out the worksheet. The students continued on with the worksheet and completed it without any problems.

The lesson went according to plan by the students filling in the worksheet, rolling the dice, being able to understand the problem successfully and filling out the number sentence the correct way. Most of the students were able to successfully add and come up with the correct number without any problem. The only part that I dont think that got accomplished was the students realizing that there are different combinations of numbers that you can have to get the same total. The students were not able to solve the problem unless the larger number was in front and the smaller number after. When the teacher flipped it on my group and had the smaller number and then the larger number the students had no idea how to solve it. When talking to the teacher after the lesson, she thought that the students really enjoyed the lesson because they were able to work together and the theme of The Cat in the Hat was fun. She did think that the students understood the lesson. Some needed more explanation than others on how to complete the lesson in the beginning, but she explained that this happens a lot. Mrs. Miller did say that she thought the lesson could have gone better if they went over the concept that when adding the larger number does not always have to b and she e written first. She would have gone through a couple of examples so that the students would have understood and grasped that knowledge. Mrs. Miller the felt that the students met the objectives. They were able to add successfully and complete word sentences with combinations up to 12 with ease and understanding. Through Mrs. Millers observation, she did tell me that she is going to continue this lesson the next day by explaining and showing students that when someone adds they do not always have to put the larger number in front. If the smaller number is in front, you will still get the same answer. She told me that she was going to do this with dice so the students could visually see and count with the smaller dice in front and see that the answer is the same. Having this lesson will allow them to get a full understanding of addition.

Through my observation, I think that the students might have benefited from and gotten more out of the lesson if they learned that numbers can be switched around and still have the same answer before this lesson. If this was done before the lesson I observed, I think the students would have gotten more out of it. It would also have been interesting to see how the conversations and the problem solving would have been different. I am not sure if all of her objectives were met because with number combinations, which she mentioned in her objectives, flipping numbers would count as a combination and my students in my group were not able to accomplish that.