POLSON - This week’s One Class at a Time winner teaches at Valley View Elementary in Polson, and she's all about teaching her young students to exercise their brain muscles.
“Well we have a new reading curriculum and it has a knowledge section and a skills section," explained Amy Westphal.
Mrs. Westphal's classroom is home to both kindergarten and first grade students.
For these young students, her classroom is usually their first opportunity to experience a school learning environment.
But even though their young bodies might be small, Westphal wants to help their minds grow big and strong.
“They dress up as doctors and they have little stations where they have puzzles, like the little kindergarteners have their puzzle to put together, and I just find different activities for them.”
She will use her $250 One Class at a Time grant to purchase a variety of new items for her classroom that connect with the different units she teaches.
She’s hoping things like a stethoscope for a human body unit, or a crown for a kings and queens unit will make learning fun and realistic.
“Cause they’re reading, they’re starting to learn that whole reading lightbulbs is kind of a fun thing to see, it’s like it’s automatic — it’s not automatic, but they just learn so much in such a small time.”
Westphal will soon have lots of new additions to her classroom after today, all to help the brain muscles keep growing.
