A Child's Experience of Group 1

This article was written by NCCL student Rachel, age 11.

When you were five or six, what kind of school did you want to go to to start your education? A place where the people let you learn at your own speed? And did you want understanding teachers and parents to help you grow up? In Group 1 there is all that and more compressed into a group of warm, kind and caring people that soon become like your family.

Group 1 is a class for children in kindergarten and first grade. The difference in age might be hard to manage, right? Wrong! "The older group starts to do an activity really well and the younger group wants to follow and be like the older half." explains Ann Brown, one of the teachers. Kind of like monkey-see, monkey-do. "The kids think it's cool to know lots of stuff, so they make that their goal!"

When I was observing Group 1, I noticed that all the kids were very energetic about what they were doing. Never would I walk into a room while class was going on, and find a kid sitting around lazily. The kids are always talking to each other, asking questions and answering. The older group is happy to help the younger group learn and the younger group is very willing to listen. Want to know why the kids like what they are doing? Because the teachers make it fun! "We think about what we want the kids to learn, and then we try to make those things into a game." Ann says. We want the kids to move into the next group thinking that learning--math, writing, social studies, spelling—in general, is fun.

Lately the kids have been learning about birds. Ann and Kelly try to incorporate the study of birds into daily activities. The day I watched their spelling class, they spelled the names of different birds like: hummingbird, robin, cardinal and blue jay. In math, Kelly had bird addition and subtraction games where you add and subtract while taking buttons and other manipulatives on and off a picture of a bird.

I asked some of the kids what their favorite bird was and one of the things they learned about birds. "Hummingbirds can fly backwards." says Sarah, whose favorite bird is a swan. Maddy says, "Hummingbirds eat pollen from flowers." Her favorite bird is a Hummingbird. "The Bald Eagle swoops down to get their fish and animal food." Erique says. His favorite bird is the Bald Eagle.

In the morning the class has group time where everybody helps figure out what today's date will be, what day of the week today is, what tomorrow's date will be, what day tomorrow will be, and then they sometimes say that in Spanish. Then they figure what the weather is and draw a picture on a chart about the day's weather.

Activity time comes next and normally Ann and Kelly have specific activities laid out, but there are always computers and painting if the kids don't want to participate. When the more experienced kids are playing computer, they love to teach the inexperienced kids how to play.

After activity time comes snack time. When everybody is done, the class goes outside to play. They play on the jungle gym, around the school and they participate in other games that are going on.

When break time is over, the group splits up for spelling and math. Ann teaches spelling normally, and Kelly teaches math. In math the kids are learning a lot about addition, subtraction, and multiplication. In spelling the kids are learning all sorts of different bird names. At 11:30 the group switches, that way everybody gets both classes.

At 12:00, the kids eat lunch and, when everybody is done, they go outside to play. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, half the group goes inside at 12:45 for Spanish. At 1:00 they switch.

After lunch, on a regular schedule, the entire class has reading time, where the kids read and get read to. Ann says, "Reading is my favorite subject to teach because it is so fun to watch the kids catch on!" Sometimes some kids from the older homerooms come in and help out. In fact, Joy apprentices there and helps Ann and Kelly with all the work they have to do to make the class fun. She also helps the kids to do activities.

When reading time is over, the class has special projects time. Some of the things I watched them make were: Mother's Day cards, bird houses, special paintings and pictures (which Joy framed) for their mothers, things like that. After special projects time, they have end-of-the day clean up time. Everybody has an area or a job that they are responsible for. Some of the jobs are things like: stacking chairs, wiping tables, picking up blocks in the block area and putting the outside toys away.

When everybody is done with their jobs, the class has end of day group time. This is where they do Bernie and the Surprise Box. Bernie is a bear that one of the kids brings home each night. They write in his diary about the things that Bernie did with the family. With the Surprise Box, one of the kids takes a special box home and puts a mysterious thing in it. Then they write down three clues to tell the class. When it is time for end-of-the day group time, they share those clues, and the other kids have to guess what the mysterious thing is. It can be almost anything that can fit in the Surprise Box. Ann and Kelly don't worry about how quickly/slowly the kids are learning. It is just that they understand what they are learning. That way the kids are not pushed way out in front of where their abilities end. Ann and Kelly's class is creative, energetic and fun to be with.