For the placement of my first six weeks, I was placed in a first grade classroom. When communicating with my cooperating teacher about whether she would like me to have my first lesson, be math or reading, she told me it would be better to work with the students on math since many of them were struggling when it came to adding within 20. When I was creating this lesson, I didn't just want it to be information that the students received, but I wanted it to be a fun lesson where the students would be able to use manipulative to actually help them add within 20. I decided to have the students use colorful pom-poms to replicate caterpillars when adding within 20. I would give them two different numbers, and they would create two different caterpillars that combined those two caterpillars to make one big caterpillar, giving them the math answer. I'm glad to say the students were extremely engaged during the lesson, and they were able to build skills when it came to adding within 20. My cooperating teacher told me that it was a good idea to use colorful manipulatives that could engage the students, so I'm happy to say that it went perfectly.