Inside the Classroom: Whitney Reed - Lakeview Elementary
Inside the Classroom: Whitney Reed - Lakeview Elementary
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
For our next edition of Inside the Classroom, Whitney Reed’s kindergarten class at Lakeview Elementary School was a zoo, but in the best way possible!
Ms. Reed, who has 13 years of experience, got creative and found a way to combine a science lesson with writing while also allowing students to bring a little piece of their home and personality to the table. Ms. Reed asked students to bring a toy animal to school, and they chose selections from across the animal kingdom.
With their puppies, penguins, dinosaurs and much more waiting on their desks, students started the lesson sitting on the floor in the front of the room. Ms. Reed led them in singing a “We are learning to…” song, then showed them the “My Animal Body Parts Book” that they would be writing in.
She talked with students about how animals use different parts of their body to adapt to their environment (with a brief detour to teach the meaning of adapt), using a tiger and its stripes as an example.
Ms. Reed continued by discussing examples of body parts, using a few words to practice phonics.
Students then returned to their table and table captains brought blank books to their classmates. Ms. Reed mirrored her iPad on the screen and modeled examples as she led students through writing in their book.
Writing what their toy animal was, Ms. Reed encouraged students to “stretch out” the words, meaning they say it slowly and listen intently for each sound. She was looking for their ability to identify the sounds and work through trying to spell new words, even if it meant they didn’t spell them correctly.
Next, they drew their toy animal’s face and labeled its parts, combining every kindergartener's love for drawing with more practice writing.
For the next page of their book, Ms. Reed made sure students had their “listening ears” ready, because it was time to read together as they chose which type of skin their animal had.
Students completed their books by describing their animal’s appearance, then they returned to the carpet and shared something they learned about their animals.
To close out the lesson, Ms. Reed shared that after spring break the class will have real ladybugs, except they won’t start as ladybugs. She stopped short of telling students exactly what a ladybug starts as, leaving them to wonder and be excited for their future science lesson.
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.