Each week, families interested in learning more about a classical, Christian education at Immanuel can join us for a Walk-in-Wednesday tour to see our students and teachers in action. When you step through our red doors, you will be welcomed by the joyful sounds of learning, from poems and jingles in the lower grades, to great discussions of literature and history in our older grades. Singing and music ring out from the music room, and the wonderful sights and sounds of students and teachers engaged in learning can be witnessed throughout our campus. If you haven’t yet had a chance to visit us in person and experience this for yourself, we would like to offer a virtual tour here on the ILS Blog.
Every Wednesday, we will be featuring a brief sneak peek from one of our teachers, highlighting what a visitor might observe when they walk into our classrooms. Through this, we hope to create an image of just some of what a visitor may experience if they were to stop in Jr. Kindergarten, or 3rd grade, or 8th grade Science, or 6th grade History, or any one of our classrooms at ILS.
We are kicking off our new “Walk-in-Wednesday” series this week with an inaugural post sharing a bit of the delightful teaching and learning you may observe if you were to step into our 1st grade classroom this week! Join us as we peek into Miss Kirstin Reistad’s classroom for a glimpse at some of the delightful things our 1st grade students are studying.
We hope you enjoy, and please visit the blog each week as we share additional “Walk-in-Wednesday” features!
As you make your way first grade classroom you will hear drifting down the hallway the sound of 16 delighted students singing and dancing to the verb jingle, where they joyfully “wiggle, jiggle, and turn around” “raise their arms and stomp the ground” or proclaiming what parts are needed to make a complete sentence – “Subject (clap clap) Verb (clap clap), Complete sense! (Clap clap clap)”.
After recitation leaders have returned to their seats, Miss Reistad will lead students in orally diagramming sentences. “Four big bears ran quickly. First graders, who or what ran?” Miss Reistad will ask. “Bears! Subject noun!” students will confidently chorus. First graders will continue to identify verbs, adjectives, article adjectives, and prepositions and may stop to review chants when students confuse what words are answering the question “What kind?” as opposed to “How?”. Especially attentive students will earn the privilege of picking what kind of voice the final sentence is diagrammed in – anything from soldiers to cats to robots are popular choices.
Students may then be asked to put on their imaginary detective hats, glasses, and jackets as the class begins a game of Grammar Detective. A stealthy first grader will come to the board to find what capitalization or punctuation errors have been made on sentences and fix them as classmates eagerly wait to be called on for “back up” if help is needed. As you are walking out, you may see 16 dear children rolled up in balls on the floor to show that a sentence Miss Reistad speaks is “telling” (declarative) and then jumping up when a sentence said is “asking” (interrogative) instead before they return to their seats for a handwriting lesson.
