Impression

Overall I think taht the presentation to teh 1st graders worked out very well. Actually it was better than I expected it to be. The kids cooperated with us through out all the Activities: During the play I think they were interested and interacting by the questions. During the presentations I think they were having fun with the volunteers and effects of the Power Point. I think that my part of the project - the activities with them - worked out nicely and went through good. I was amazed at some of the students that were very fast logicaly and managee to accomplished the tasks we gave them very quickly. I was also surprised to see how much tehy liked teh Tangrams and were paying close attention. I though it would be extra difficult to teach complex conten to children that dont know the vocabulary we were using and have much less knowledge about geometry. It was a challenge but I think it was a very good acitvity that will actually help us, because it is one rtthing to present your project to your classmates and teacher taht know esactly what you are talking about then to first graders taht dont have teh least idea. In my opinion it was constructive and nice. I would do it again anytime.

Giovanna Dedini!*

The Tangram Presentations to the 1st graders

My part of the project, which was the play, worked well and even though we had difficulties at first, we were able to present alot better than I thought we would. Also, the kids seemed to have enjoyed it and most of the time, we had their attention by asking them questions during the story (ex: do you think he'll be able to do it?). The other groups also worked well with interacting with the kids and I especially think we were able to teach them in a fun way what were tangrams. It was a really good experience - for us and for them as well - because it is very different to present our project to the teacher and class and to present it to little kids who don't fully understand geometry and don't know what things like parallelograms are. Overall, I really liked doing it and I think the children also enjoyed it :)

Presenting to people other then class members is always a chalenge, especially with a young first grade audience, where not only does your presentation need to be simple, but it needs to be fun and interactive. I think all the groups did a very good jog because the children's reactions were very good. Especially in Luiza and my presentation, that was the one I really was engaged, they all wanted to participate desperatly, and it seemed like they were having fun. It was also positive to work with someone outside our original group, so we could have new ideas and improve the presentation, especially the images, that Luiza new ways to improve the quality and has better computer skills then I do. Maybe for the next time, we can find new ways to interact with them; this time, we were more concerned in getting the slide show done and improved then accutaly thinking up the presentation. I also think that it was kind of "boring" to stay the last 20 minutes just watching the last group, maybe we could have helped them and even done something more creative or fun. Overall this presentation gave us oral skills, interaction with different people, and sharing knowledge with younger kids. I loved it!! =D

Giuliaa

Well, I really liked presenting to the children: it was a very nice experience. The major problem is that me and my group had issues with organization, and the presentation ended up being a little bit boring.. And confusing. I think that if we had more time, it would have been extremely good, and the "closing" of the project would be amazing. The good thing is we make ourselves learn very well so that we are capable of teaching the children. Also, we deal with the idea ofexplaning things in an easier way and making math a fun thing (not that it isn't!). I would love to have the chance of redoing the presentation, and I know it would be much better.. But for the amount of problems we had and the little time, our theater wasn't THAT bad...

Impression About Presentation

I think we did very well, especially by getting their attention, which is one of the main things to teach first graders. I also think they really got the idea of tangrams, and what they are, but i really like that some of them learned that the parallelogram was a parallelogram not a rectangle. I think we entertained them with the story, they really liked it. The group of what tangrams are and some rules to play with it did really well, mainly when they used the children to be part of it, and it was a really cool experience for them, making them understand better. The group that played with them made it really cool for them because they were really interested in the puzzle and were trying to form new figures. For them this was the funniest part. I liked when we gave them the puzzles, everybody wanted to get it, and they were desperate to have one, which i really had a good impression of the presentations. Another thing that made me realize they were liking the presentation and paying attetion was when i (as prince tantus) went to hadshake them, and every kid wanted to touch me and were saying "Here! Here! Prince tantus!", this made me feel really good about the presentation. I think we did a really good job. They got the idea of tangrams and were really interested in our presentation.

Reflection on Presentation

I believe that the presentations to the first graders were very sucesfull, mainly because we managed to accomplish our objective of teaching them what Tamgrams are. Our class managed to use time wisely, even when some problems (Giulia's and Luiza's PowerPoint not opening)appeared. We also managed to catch their attention, as Ms. Kadlec pointed out. Group 1 strategy of using some of the 1st graders to act out the story was very effective. Group 2, I think managed to entretain them with the story. And Group 3 showed them how to play the game, which was the funnest part for them. After all, the class worked well together, when one group presented, the other were quiet (or at least talking quietly). And in the end, the first graders seemed very satisfied with our little "class". And it was also very copacetic for us to teach them.

Opinion about the Tangram Presentation

I think that the presentations went very well for many reasons. First of all, I think that the 1st graders understood the concept of the tangram. They learned that it is a puzzle that forms a square, and it contains severall shapes within it: triangles, square and parallelogram (they could identify the parallelogram and name it). They also learned that with the shapes that made up the tangram, it is possible to build many different shapes, including a house, a cat, and a running man. I think that by presenting to them the concept of the tangram through a story was a good idea because I think that way understood it better and paid more atention, in the beginning, we needed give them many hints, and the outline, so they could build the different shapes, but after the first and second shape, they were able to build the shapes on there ow and without an outline. I could see that they had lots of fun because they were very excited during the activities and were always focused, and therefore i think it was a good experience for them -and for us because we learned how to handle and interact with small kids - and a good way for them to learn, even a more complex concept like a tangram, without being bored and loosing focus.