Time just passes faster and faster doesn’t it?
I
can’t believe it’s the end of April, and my kiddos only have about 20 days
left. In that time we still have to pack in an assembly (each Elementary grade
gets to lead an assembly, and May is all ours!), a final round of report cards
and transition meetings for PUF students (this is where parents, Occupational
Therapists, Speech Pathologists, Behavior Consultants and teachers get together
to plan how to best prepare the little guys for the next year). I’m also trying
to plan a field trip to the dinosaur park, and a ‘Kindergrad’ evening for the
kids and their parents/grandparents. I don’t think that Kindergarten kids need
a big celebration, but a potluck and picnic and a special award for each child
will be manageable and fun! I also have the regular day-to-day planning
(especially with Mother’s and Father’s Day(s) coming up!), assessments and maintaining our sanity!
Some highlights from this week:
One of the kids’ aunts brought in a bucketful of these little peepers:
And this little guy made an appearance last month!
On
Tuesday I got to substitute for the Grade 1 teacher at our school and boy was
that a different class dynamic. There are only 13 kids, but they really make up
for it in their boy:girl ratio! I think there are only about four girls.
On
Wednesday we had a good discussion about tattling and how telling someone a
piece of information can be distorted very quickly (especially on the
playground!) We read a ‘Rainbow Fish’ story, then played a game of ‘Telephone,’
where you sit in a circle and the first person whispers a message to the
second, they pass on what they heard, etc. until it gets back to the beginning.
The message has always changed, and it’s usually humorous. During our first game,
my message of, “I like red cats,” changed to, “Happy Birthday.” Our little guy
who is very quiet and rarely speaks to other students unless he’s playing ball
with them willingly joined in and played, without any encouraging on my part at
all! This was the first time he approached another child in the classroom in
such a direct way- it’s really exciting to see how comfortable he is starting
to get.
Our
second game of ‘Telephone’ ended up being even funnier when I began by
whispering, “I love you, Stinky Face,” (the title of a book we had read, about
a little boy who asks his mother if she would love him if he was a monster, a
skunk, etc.) This message changed to something so obscure that the little girl
who was last was embarrassed to say what it was, as if she thought it was
inappropriate. After about five minutes of looking at me nervously, she
whispered, “It was, ‘I like to woman it.’”
Probably
funnier at the time, but it was a strange turn of events! I also had a phone
call from the Deputy Superintendent who offered me a full time position for
next year, teaching Kindergarten in two places, or Grade 1. I have a week to
decide, and a lot of things to consider! It’s nice to know that they would like
me back next year.
Today
I got to join in the Grade 6 girls’ Health class as they were painting
flowerpots for Mother’s Day. It’s nice to be in other teacher’s classrooms and
to get to know other students a little better.
One
more thing: our newspaper article was printed! The local newspaper website is
currently out of service, but if I can get it, I will post it!
Tomorrow
is ‘Nerd Day,’ not sure I’ll participate in that one, but we’ll see! It is also
an assembly day, and ‘Stone Soup’ day! I’m excited to see how that turns out-
each student in the school is invited to bring something to put in the soup,
and the cooking class and teacher put together soups for the whole school. The
Grade 1’s are coming to our class to read, “Stone Soup” with us in the morning
too!
Thanks
for reading!
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