A Grateful Heart-From Me To You!!

My Dear Ms. Kapileo,
Words can't never express my grateful heart to you. You are a woman that person can count on. You taught me to be faithful/trusting, patient/flexible, generous/self-giving, understanding/forgiving, creative/resourceful, courageous/confident, loving and caring. And your everyday hospitality and welcoming spirit planted in my heart the sense of belonging in the classroom. Thank you very much for all that we have been learning and sharing together. Thank you because I learned a lot from you most especially how to be a Kindergarten Teacher. I will always cherished this wonderful experience as I move on in life. And know that you will always be in my heart wherever I may be. God bless you and guide you always especially as you continue to give light to the torch of our future leaders (the kindergartens). Once again thank you, kilisou chapur, and God bless.

My Dearest Kindergartens,
Thank you so very much for allowing me to be part of your joyful and exciting journey. I learned a lot from each of you especially my abc's, 123, shapes and colors. It is my joy always to see the joyful faces of yours my little angels. And as we depart I just want to encourage each one of you to continue learning because this is just the beginning of your sail on this long journey of life. Remember "Education is your bank...Education is your mama and papa in the future" so study hard and learned well your abc's, numbers, shapes & colors. God bless you always.

Ms. Jasmin,
I don't know what I can say to you because I haven't come up with a nice and perfect way of saying thank you for all that you have been to me. You are not only my mentor teacher but also my spirit guidance. You knew well that at the beginning I was struggling but because of your encouraging and inspiring words to me pushed me through the big waves and strong wind along the way. I finally reached my destination of student teaching because you did not only guide me but you also battle the canoe along with me. And you know what? It was you that I learned I am a flexible teacher. Thank you and may God always be your guide.

Mr. Kevin,
Without you I'm already loco loco around. Thank you very much for your grate help and support to me. And thank you very much for allowing me to mess up your clean and neat classroom. And hey, remember you are the best teacher aid in the whole wide world. And because of that Mr. E always have you substituting whenever there is need up there.

Mr. Evangelista,

Thank you so very much for making me feel welcome and feel at home in your school. I will always treasure this wonderful experience I had with you and the staffs of KES (my beloved school). And to the staffs thank you so very much too. So I say, "Si' yu'us ma'ase, maraming salamat po, mal me sulang, kalang al komi, kilisou chapur, and thank you very."

Teaching Methods and Strategies

1. JOURNAL TIME: We try to make our kids learn how to write simple sentences. Such as, today is mond. November 20, 2007. Clark is a boy. Clark is the line leader today.
2. CIRCLE TIME: Reinforce participation, listening skills, following directions, and collaboration. In circle time the kids are learning to interact and build strong bond among themselves through songs, activities, and discussions. Here in this picture the kids are singing their family song that was taught the beginning of the first quarter.

Here in this picutre the kids are learning to read by themselves and at the same time trying to share with the other kids what are they reading about. They can't read perfeclty but they can share their little knowledge about what they see in the pictures.

3. LINE LEADER-Reinforcing leadership, individual learning, responsibility to take over. Motivates kids capacity to learn to initiate hard tasks. Here in this photo Clark is pointing to the days of the week that they had been learning this past time. All he have to do is ask the simple questions: How many days are there in a week? How many months are there in a year? What month are we in now? How many days are in November? So forth and so on.

Another line leader the follwoing day. This girl is hardly speak up whenever she is in the big group. But whenever it comes to her turn as Line Leader she did much better just like the rest of the students/her classmates.

Here you can see that this girl is taking addentance. Through this the students learn to recognize their full name and the name of their classmates. They learn to recognize letters/alphabets.

4. BIG GROUP-Give chance to the whole group to learn from each other. As you can see from this picture the kids are to write the 12 alphabets they learned during the first and the beginning of the second quarter. Some students did not remember some of the letters/alphabets they learned, however, in the big group they were able to write them all.

5. SMALL GROUPS-working together can help ENCOURAGE each other. Small group activities are cooperative, but have less formal structure than cooperative learning. These activities encourage collective thinking and provide opportunities for participants to work together and increase social skills. The tigers are working together on their project after they finishing coloring them they have to cut and past them so to post it in the classroom.

The Gorillas are working hard trying to learn how to write words separately. They have to write their full names using what we called box it and place it well.

The T-Rexs are working on their phonics book today. They'r discussing which letter should they write for name Igloo. Often times they mixed up the letter Ii with number 1. But they finally got it correct with so many practice activities.

Here the Lions are also working on their Phonics and ABC's work book. They are learning to match the letter to the pictures.

6. SHOPPING/Play Money:
Shopping can be used to enhance learning process for the little kids. Shopping can teach them decision making, prioritizing, and reinforcing counting, etc. They also learn the value and important of money in our world today. The kids also learn how much for each item.


7. GAMES AND Puzzles/BINGO: Bingo is one of the type of games that can be used to provide a different environment in which learning can take place. It can also be used in cooperative learning groups. Bingo helps children to concentrate on the lesson. Bingo with many other type of games can be used for review, reinforcement, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision-making. One of the students is explaining to her group what to do. Good Job Jozi...

The advance kids are doing it individually. They seem not to have any difficulty. Let see who gets it first. But remember you only play the outside box and the inside box.

The Line Leader is concentrating on his Bingo card making sure that everyone get's it right. Wonderful Job Pet. Let us see who among them get it first. Who will get the dollar today!

8. CREATIVITY
Cisca with those students who prefered to do coloring and cutting instead of acting out the simple skit.

Cisca with those students who desired to do coloring and pasting. Some of the kids find it enjoyable to to do hands on activity while others enjoy the acting out activity.

Ms. Kapileo with those students who did the blind folding activity: Where are you partner? Keep that sound going I am trying to look for you. The students without blind folding had to make the sound of their given animals and their partner had to trace or look for them. In this way the kids learn to recognize which animal make that sound.

All right! I'm coming closer to you. Here you are partner. Now say what animal is that and say the beginning letter and the beginning sound.


9. CELEBRATE LETTER Pp WITH POPCORN...
* As a culminating activity after learning our letter Pp we celebrate with Popcorn. It is a way to encourage learning process. The kids had to spell the word popcorn, say the name of the beginning letter and the beginning sound. The kids were able to learn how to spell popcorn, say the beginning letter and the beginning sound. This is something that I thought about to do because some of the kids were having hard time recognizing and remembering letter Pp both the capital and the small letter.
Ms. Kapileo with her group!
Mr. Kevin with his group!
Ms. Cisca with her group!
* As a culminating event for our Family Ties Unit, my kindergartens had an opportunity to present their family history to the whole class. Each student after completing their family album book they presented to the class. They tried to explain the relationship between each family members. And when they finished they each received a sticker. The students were enjoy themselves telling the other students about their grandpa, grandma, sisters, brothers, guardians, aunties, uncle, cousins, etc. On this day they also ate popcorn so just to associate the beginning letter in popcorn with papa, and parents. The family words they learned.

10. Songs/Music: Through the teaching of songs the students were able to memorize their alphabets, their numbers, their shapes, their colors, the family song that they love to sing, they were able to recognize the sound of the different animals that they learned, and many more.


11. Rewards: Positive reinforcement is fairly important.. If you're only punishing for negative behaviors and not rewarding for positive behaviors then the child may develop a distorted view of cause and effect and it can result in the child acting out in a negative way to get attention because that's the only way they know how to get attention from their point of view. Positive reinforcement balances that out and tends to encourage seeking benefits rather than just avoiding negative consequences.. the child will know that doing something good will get them positive attention and will be more likely to do that than to act out to get the negative attention. What we usually do is we give the students stickers, a dollar for the day, or a field day on Fridays. Our kids just love the positive rewards each day.

12. Mini-Lecture: Mini lecture is a way to provide the students with informations to encourage interest and give them an idea for discussions or to be able to do activity. Mini-lecture should be brief and clear for the students.
13. Self-assessment: this method help students as individual and as group to process on what they learn. With the kindergartens I use all the Fridays for self-assessement. They were always asked about their learned alphabets, numbers, colors and shapes. For our other units such as family ties, the five senses, etc. they were asked to do for example a family book, and my five senses mini book.
14. Students presentations: Students present infromation to the rest of the class on the unit "Family Ties". I gave clear guidelines to follow, when the students completed their research about thier family ties they presented to the class.

Lessons, Activities, & School Activities That Demonstrate Value & Diversity

1. Flag Ceremony-Kindergartens learned to be part of the school community, they learned that when they flag is raise they have to put their right hand on their chest and not to talk anymore. They have to stand up straight and don't move anymore. And they have to sing the American, Chamorrow and Carolinians Anthems.

2. Peace Builder of the Month: This is an excellent activity in the school to enhance and reinforce positive behaviors for the students. They learned to be responsible and be an active member of the community by showing good behaviors, manners and showing good examples in the classroom. They learned that to be a peace builder of the month they have to do their works in class/home, to always clean up after they use a particulure thing or place, return things to its proper place after using it, not to hurt someone but make friends, come on time to school, and follow the simple rules of the classroom.
Sharon and Erica peacebuilder of September-they received their certificate by Mr. E the principle.

Erica received her certificate from Mr. E the principle of KES. Good Job Babe!


Sharon happily shaked hand with Mr. E after receiving her certificate of the month. Continue be a peace builder and show good example to your friends/classmates.

Jaime & Rishialyn peacebuilder of August. Shown in the picture is Jaime standing with the other chosen one from the upper grades. Jaime is holding her certificate that was given by Mr. E. Not shown in the picture is Risha. Congratulations Guys!

Here in this picture Mr. Richson and Mr. Diego Peace Builder of the Month of October. Yes, you did it. Good Job boys!

3. Manamkos-Visit the Kindergarten Class: They were not only visiting the kids but they were also teaching them about their cultures. They talked about the important to be a good listener during young age. They told the kids that when they were young they never gone to school but learned how to help dad fishing/farming and how to learned/helped mom how to clean and cook. Then they demonstrated some old songs in their own language. The best of all they taught the kids the right way of singing the Chamorrow and Carolinians Anthems. Some words were very different than what I know today. The kids were having fun learning the songs. But the best of all is that the manamkos were encouraging the kids to study hard, work hard, listen to teacher, and listen to mom and dad too.

4. Cultural Day: On the cultural day the students were able to learn and appreciate the important of their own culture as well as their classmates cultures. They were able to see the different costumes, dances, songs, and food of the different cultures group.

After learning from Mom now I can do it by myself. These kids are enjoying themselves making thier own bracelets from beats.

I am just having fun and I am proud of myself I can do it.

It is not difficult anymore, it is just a matter of counting the beats, and poking the fishing line in the right hole.

Another parent is teaching the kids how to make beats. Here we go make sure you poke it in the right hole and don't forget count how many beats you need. It is better to use different colors so that it will look nicer than only using one color.

A parent taught the kids how to weave a basket. Looking upon are the kindergartens with some fourth graders. They were able to learned that out of a coconut palm we can make a simple basket. This man was telling the children that long time ago people were using baskets as plates to eat, basket to keep things, and for baby to carry them around.

One of the parents teaching the kids on how to make bracelet. On the cultural day many parents voluntarily came over to teach the students so many kinds of Chamorrow and Refenuwach native things. On this day I found the kids engaged in learning. They were even asking some amazing questions about what they were learning. Amazingly, the kids were able to learn how many flowers and leafs do they need to be able to complete a bracelet. They were even able to learn how to hold the ring to make, how to start and how to tie it.

As you can see in this pictures some of the kindergarten girls were able to fixed their bracelet on their own. They are enjoying themselves...I am very proud of them.


5. JAPANESE STUDENTS VISIT FROM JAPAN: Here in this picture you can see the final work of the kindergarten with the Japanese students when they came to our classroom. The Japanese students were not only visiting but they were also teaching the kindergartens one of the important culture in Japan-the making of Origami.


6. Halloween: Most adults have fond memories of childhood trick-or-treating and dressing up as a princess or super hero. So many traditions, myths, and unfounded rumors have develope. The kids are learning different culture and practice in the world today. Here in this pictures the kids are having fun going door to door trick-or-treating in their beautiful and unique costumes. My kindergartens with Ms. Martha Mendiola's.

Cisca posted with her students on halloween day after coming back from trick-or-treating and before going home today. The kids were able to learn to say TRICK-OR-TREATING, HAPPY HALLOWEEN, THANK YOU, AND WE HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN NEXT YEAR. They were even able to tell about their costumes whenever the teacher asked them.

They are already very excited knowing that in about 10 minutes they were going to go trick-or-treating.

We are the three powerful spidermen. Don't worry we don't bite.

They are watching a show while waiting for the time to go around campus trick-or-treating.


7. THANKSGIVING CELEBRATION: KIDS, PARENTS, TEACHERS.
Students learned a brief history of thanksgiving. Why,what, and how to we celebrate thanksgiving. It is a time to give thanks for what we have in our life. It is a time to eat turkey, pumpkins, many more good food. For the kindergartens it is a time to have fun with classmates, parents, teachers, as well as friends.