Today's theme for happy fee was Valentine's Day and dancing through our heart. I bought props to help bring some connection and elegance to our movements. I brought dancing scarves. So there were so many different colors that I laid out for all the students to pick two colors that they felt connected to that they love. And I'm so grateful that no one fought over and Has there was enough colors for every person and with the props we practiced connection following directions and using big movements that created an effect using the scarves. So pretending like they were our wings using them as paintbrushes painting the floor creating circles we pretended to To use it as our love. And that we were painting, love, you know, like water flowing through the classroom. They painted it above us. Even circled the scarves on different parts of our body. Starting with our head coming down to our heart, to our tummies, to our legs, to our feet, and is bringing awareness to the full body experience.

It went really well just paying attention to. Their energy levels is very important. We did have an accident today. One of the students had a little accident and went potty during class so quickly. I was able to get support from another teacher and they were able to help pull the student aside, get them changed and comfortable while I was able to keep the class going. I feel Really grateful because no one made a big scene or a big deal about it. And we were able to continue on pretty smoothly and then once the student was all freshened up, you know, it took them a second to feel comfortable to rejoin, but as we continued on the class and, you know, had joyful movements, they quickly came back on their feet and the class was all excited. Together to be moving.

Today, we started off with warming up bouncing, our knees as we're standing up, and we took turns saying how the day was for us. So we said my name is Dana and today was great as an example and we went around in a circle, giving everybody a chance to share a little bit about their day. And then after that, because we started warming up our bodies, bouncing a little bit. It we moved onto following instructions and I played the Cha Cha Slide which is really simple, instructions in movement and the kids were able to carefully listen and we were all in sync. Going from the left side to the right side, taking it back and then paying attention for about which foot to stomp on which side and it was a ton of fun during the time it About doing the now, Cha-Cha all is when we took turns Following the Leader in a circle. And so each student was excited to be the leader following in a circle. We had a water break because that definitely took a lot of their energy. We rested took a breath. And then after that, we carried on, in dancing, our next song, which every week, we've been incorporating, a Disney song. Song. It helps them feel connected because they're very familiar with the Disney songs. And today's theme was Moana. And so I had how far I'll go and I taught them, some easy choreograph choreography that they were able to follow, and then we ended the class with their own Renditions and their own dance moves because they all get excited to share their own moves.

Great! I enjoy this class because the students are very engaged

Today, I had the students determine between what was fact and fiction and the first assignment that we did as a class, I had a printout I printed out for local articles about some San Jose stories. Two of them were fact to the reflection. And so, I had the students first, take a moment to read them and circle. All the article that they believed was a fiction story and after that, once everyone was done, I asked for volunteers to read one article at a time and then share if they believe that article was a fact, a factual article, or a fiction article. So we went through the four articles and then I did a Venn diagram together asking what Clues made, you know, the certain articles feel real or fake and I reread I took the first article AA that I had and then which was a fact and I had a version that one that made it a fiction story using you know, the same main elements of it. So like the school name and the the topic, right? And having the students see that you can have a story and tell it in a factual manner or have imagination and creativity whatnot. And so yeah, I've got to kind of decipher the differences on what makes a story fiction or fact and then we also asked, you know, when is it appropriate to share? Fiction story and why it could be inappropriate such as sharing it with your family and Etc. And so yeah the the kids seem to be really engaged. I had them also write effective fiction story based on something. That was fact, they shared FX factual story with the same topic. I had them, write a fiction. And the each read, both versions and the class voted on, which one was was fact or fiction.

I really enjoyed it. I thought well, I'm glad that I kind, I had my my lesson plan broken up into different activities. A, we even did a play before. We went into the writing activity, I had them stand up and we did a little shake down with our bodies. Like stretching our hands all the way up to the ceiling. Reaching down shaking or legs. And then jumping in plans, Or for about a few seconds and then and then we went into the writing and so I'm really appreciative of the students being engaged and willing to kind of be out of the box. Be silly answer questions. They were excited whenever I called for volunteers to share. So I really appreciate it. I didn't really know what to expect at first given for students. And then it ended up actually being to students. So even with two students, it was a really great class. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

So for our first day, we started off with getting to know each other and really introducing the idea of what journalism is why it matters and how our imagination can transform storytelling and we really emphasized on finding and sharing good news and and sharing what has happened in our lives. You know, this week. And so in our warm-up, I had that the students create name tags To put on their desks and then we took turns sharing our names and I had them even share something that happened to them this week and in that exercise not only did we get to know each other a little bit but I was able to summarize their story using a headline that I wrote down on the Whiteboard. I went into a lesson and Define journalism and also Define what a Is and what a good journalist does, which we then Define together using a lot of Engagement really? I had them to find what imagination is and and we came up with you know creating a visual and using our senses creating a story and using yeah sensory detail to help other spark their imagination as well. We had A dream Circle. So I had each person we took about, you know, ten minutes for them to write on paper a story, something that they had as a goal and I encourage them to use a sent their senses and what we've already, you know, worked on so far and then we shared. And then that was pretty much the whole class and yeah.