Johnny Appleseed Day
For this last lesson, my teacher let me know that the students would be learning about Johnny Appleseed the day of my visit. And so, we were able to continue to work on the concept of taking on characters by taking on the character of growing trees! The kids were able to be creative, come up with character traits for their trees, and I was able to experience quite a bit in relation to teaching and understanding how these first graders learn. We began the lesson with a game of character rock, paper, scissors. (see the attached lesson plan for details on how to play) During this warm up, we were practicing taking on one of the characters in the game, supermodel, when I noticed a boy who had crouched under one of the tables and wasn't participating. I started worrying about what I could say to convince him to join us, but I was at a loss because I don't know these children very well yet. But instead of drawing attention to his lack of participation, I decided to invite him to p