In the Bear Classroom at Jones County Pre-K, with Teacher Lauralee Ussery and Paraprofessional Kerri Altman, students have been working on their letters, numbers, shapes, patterns, and modes of transportation.
Students have learned that transportation in the air can include rocket ships, jets, airplanes, and hot air balloons. They also discussed forms of transportation on land, such as cars, trucks, bikes, motorcycles, buses, and even animals like horses and camels!
Ussery amazed her class by sharing the opportunity she once had to ride an elephant as a form of transportation on land. Finally, they talked about transportation on water, like boats, ships, and surfboards.
To pair nicely with the student’s transportation unit, students heard from a guest reader from the Board of Education a story called “Goose on the Loose,” discussing transportation and reinforcing rhyming skills the students have worked on.
The Bear Class also had the opportunity, along with the other Pre-K classes, to go on a school bus to learn about safety.
Students learned how to be respectful to bus drivers and responsible bus riders.
They learned to be quiet on the school bus, especially at railroad tracks where students must put their hands up and keep their mouths closed so the bus driver can listen for trains!
Students practiced getting on and off the bus, not running up the stairs, holding on to the railing, and sitting back-to-back and bottom-to-bottom in their seats.
Ussery is a graduate of Jones County and has taught at Jones County Pre-K for three years, where she began her teaching career. Her husband is the youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Gray. Together, they have a young daughter. Ussery likes to go to coffee shops and listen to podcasts when she is not teaching.
The teacher has always known she wanted to be a teacher. However, she experimented with many majors while in college and graduated with a public and human services degree. After college, Ussery worked at Middle Georgia State University but decided to pursue teaching after having her daughter. She went through the TAP program and has now obtained her teaching certificate.
At this point in the school year, Ussery’s students have learned many things about pets, transportation, and community helpers. Her favorite classroom activity is morning circle time, where she and her students review what they have learned and discuss the weather and the calendar. Her favorite motto she shares with her students is “You obey right away and do everything with a happy heart.”
Altman is from Jones County and has two daughters. One is a senior in high school, and the other is in seventh grade. She spends most of her free time with her eldest daughter with the Jones County High School Marching Band.
Altman has been a paraprofessional for eight years. She has always had a passion for children and loves to be around them. She worked with the children’s ministry at her church, which inspired her to become a paraprofessional and has been in the Jones County School System ever since.
Altman’s favorite activities with students are hands-on experiments like going outside and making volcanoes or slime, where students can have fun and get a little messy while learning. What she finds most rewarding about Pre-K is the love of her students.
