An Introduction to 3rd Grade

So as a Liberal Studies major, teaching hours or observation hours are required in a lot of my classes (taking the place of research papers and the like). This last week I taught a California History lesson to a group of 3rd graders at a Newbury Park elementary school. Despite the chaos and the late nights that went into planning and organizing and creating the lesson, I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It was also more fun because it was a dual teaching assignment with one of my best friends here at school.

So the premise of the lesson was "Who has walked here before you?" We were to present 5-6 of the cultures that walked in this area in the history of California and present a cultural activity that the students could participate in. This relates specifically to Community, which is the theme of 3rd grade history (actual California history is in 4th grade). So we outlined our lesson plan to include the contributions and impact of the Chumash, the Spanish, the Basque, the African-Americans, the Chinese, and the Norwegians.

We incorporated creative dramatics and had them imagine that they travelled back in time and were walking back forward to present day, meeting a specific person from each culture in the time that they were most prevalent in this area, and having that person introduce them to the activity for each lesson. Here's what we did for each culture:
Chumash - Traditional game of chance
Spanish - Decorating sombreros
Basque - Learning a children's dance
African-Americans - simulating the blacksmith experience by creating "tools" out of pipe cleaners
Chinese - Learning to write Chinese symbols and know what they mean
Norwegians - Number ordering contest

It was a lot to cover in 40 minutes and it was incredibly chaotic. But the students had fun and the teacher had really great feedback for us. Honestly though, I would never try and incorporate that much stuff into such a short period of time. There's a difference between being ambitious and unrealistic. But we made it through...barely! The students had some good reflections for us, too.

I know I can't base my whole decision on this one experience...but I walked out of that classroom feeling really affirmed in my desire to teach LOWER elementary. The students were still fun and young and interesting....but based on this one experience...I prefer my Room 3 munchkins. :)

I get to go teach it again to a different school in a couple weeks. A less financially well-off school (the one I went to this week was bigger than my high school and had only 21 kids per class!). We'll see how that one goes, stay tuned for some more perspectives on this one.