On the Bonny, Bonny, Banks of Loch Lomond

On the Bonny Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond...

I have this song stuck in my head as the senior choir sang it today in a practice before their concert tomorrow. The Kindergarten kids willingly gave up some of their free play time to go listen to them sing. It always gets me how music affects people, even children. I’ve mentioned before how my most active, unsettled student is calmed and productive when listening to music. Many of the Mennonite kids are completely blown away by music too, and it’s always fun to watch them take it in. It’s amazing to see how many students in a small school are involved in something like choir (in just the senior group, about 30 students). Either way, it was absolutely beautiful music, and their pieces were all completely different- one more modern piece, the Scottish piece, and even an Italian song which the kids in my class loved.

On other topics, I have made it through the second round of report cards, and am about to get into parent teacher interviews on Wednesday. The kids are doing well (I think!) and it’s interesting to see how much they have matured in a short period of time. I think that’s what I love about working with little guys- they grow and develop so quickly- and they are always curious about the world. I tend to be drawn to physical development and movement based learning more than straight curriculum and concept based learning, so Kindergarten seems to be the place for me right now!  I’ve done a little more subbing lately, and quite honestly, I get bored in classrooms where the kids can focus for more than five minutes on their own.

For the next few weeks, we will be working on our math problem solving, printing (some of the kids in my class have beautiful printing already!) and enjoying the warm temperatures outside. Next week I am planning a Sports Day for the whole school, and am excited to see how that turns out. Our school picks one day per year to combine the kids so they work together for a day, and the teachers decided that my idea was good enough to use as our community-building day. Hopefully the athletes get here on time and we can set up enough equipment to have a busy, active day.

Some highlights of the past few weeks:

Finishing report cards! (And having very few mistakes to fix). Something others might not realize about report cards is that they take about half an hour per student- not including assessments, anecdotal notations done previously, etc. They have to be finished a week or two before they go to parents so that administration can read them, then back to the teacher to make changes again. Half an hour isn’t much, but it does add up with 23 kids.

The little guy in my class who didn’t speak much actually had a conversation with me last week- that was pretty huge. It must be so exciting when this happens with your own kids, though I can only imagine if I get this excited for a student in my class. Today he actually played with another student, and named about half the class.

The Kindergarten kids have manners! We have tried from the beginning of the year to make sure the kids know how to ask for help, and how to use ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ on a regular basis. Today one of the kids was holding the door open for the others, and most of them thanked them by name as they walked through- without prompting! Another little guy asked me the other day if I could “please help” him zip up his jacket. Then he promptly told me that he was using, “wonderful manners, but I don’t have to use them at home.” I told him that his Mom might be very happy to hear his ‘wonderful manners’ too!

Today one of the assistants was getting the kids undressed after recess, and was trying to hurry as we were supposed to go listen to the choir. The three year old she was helping wasn’t able to get his snowpants off by himself (she had snugged them up tight before he went out!) so she had lifted him up a little and pulled on his snowpants. I turned around just to see his bare bum hanging out- his snowpants had also pulled off his pants and underpants on the way. He thought it was absolutely hilarious, and we thought it was a little funny too.

Oh the fun! This week we will be making some new dinosaur themed snacks (my way of planning a healthy snack for a picky kid- involve them in the planning and making the entire way!) and get to enjoy some time in the library, finger painting and 'clean mud.' More on that next time!

Thanks for reading!

Sports Day and Professionalism

It is already March and I haven’t updated in much too long again. At least my Mom misses my posts!

The last month has been filled with superintendent visits, peer observations, talking to doctors, speech pathologists, behavior consultants, occupational therapists, and some subbing. I’m finally getting to know a few more of the Jr. High students, and they don’t seem to mind me subbing too much. They do spend way too much time trying to make me feel awkward (at which they are quite proficient) though I figure if I can make them feel a little awkward too then I’m still good!

I have been planning a Sports Day for the school, and am really looking forward to bringing some friends out to give the kids a chance to ask questions, try out and just be exposed to some different sports than they’d regularly see in a small town (volleyball/basketball). The teachers are excited, and I know the kids will be intrigued to see high performance athletes from wrestling, gymnastics, parkour, football, wushu and those training for cirque-du-soleil. It should be a fun day that I hope will benefit everyone in some way! It’ll also be neat to see K-12 kids working together for a day.

This post might be a little shorter than usual, mostly because this month has been a challenging one in many ways. It has been very tough to be professional at points, and has been difficult to understand the social systems that are put in place to care for children. There are quite a few foster children in my area, and it is so hard to understand that many times, these children don’t have an idea of what “Mom” or “Dad” is meant to include. It is just a word for them. To see survival instincts kick in on a three-year old is pretty heartbreaking. One little guy knew he was going to another place for the night, and circled the classroom packing his bag full with any food he could find, as he wasn’t sure the next time he would get to eat.

That’s about all I’ve got for now. I feel pretty lucky to have family and friends and consistency in my life, and I suppose all I can try to do for these little guys is show them the same care and consistency that I’m so fortunate to have! 

A Short Update!

I thought I should write a quick note as today was a pretty good day.

On Monday mornings the kids sit down with one assistant and tell her about their weekends. I thought it would be a good way for the kids to get to know the other adults in the room, and to put everyone on the same level (I don't know how I would manage without the assistants in the room- some days it feels like they do more than I do- and it seems that often, classroom assistants really aren't appreciated as much as they should be). Anyways, one little guy was sitting beside her and had a small paper in his hand. I was watching from the other side of the circle, and getting our newest little one settled on an activity. Another assistant beside me began to laugh, and I turned to see the little guy using the piece of paper to simulate shaving his face, very seriously, then his neck, then turned to the assistant beside him and began "shaving" her neck and face as well. It didn't help that we had the giggles by then, and it sure didn't help when another boy noted, "Miss C. has a moustache!" Then, because it got a few laughs, "Miss K. does too!"

We noted later that we both felt a little defensive and self-conscious, then realized how funny it was.

Our newest little guy had a great day, and so did another boy who has been having a tough time settling in lately (also great that the behaviour consultant was in to see him on a great day too).

The best part of the day began during our center time. As I've mentioned before, there are a few children in the class who are just learning english. They are not exposed to it at home, and often, parents don't speak english or read- in english or their first language. This makes it tricky to get permission forms, notices and special event notices out, but we've all managed so far!

One little boy in our class comes from a home where english is not spoken regularly. In fact, we hadn't heard him speak AT ALL, in english or german, except for spelling his name a handful of times. In fact, he had a hard time getting on the bus in the mornings, and for a long time would not even go to the bathroom at school (though we've been working on that with his sister, who has been wonderful). This little guy has a face that hides all expression most of the time, and he either nods 'yes' or 'no', or just stares when asked a question. We've been worried about him, but didn't want to push too hard in case that caused more anxiety than ever.

Today I was in the hallway playing with a girl on our movement center (I bought a mini trampoline for the hallway!) when an assistant called me over. She whispered, "he's talking!" and we watched from a few tables away as the other assistant had the little boy name colors, shapes and letters- all in english. Keep in mind that we hadn't really heard his voice at all, even in his first language much at this point, and only his name spelled out in english about 5 times.

I think all of us had tears in our eyes- this was pretty huge. For the rest of the day, this little boy came out of his shell, and would answer to the adults in the room using words when asked, and even made faces, played and even joked to one of the assistants to "stand up!" when she was crouching down to get the ball during free play. I hope this was the first of many great days for him- it sure made our day/month/year fantastic!

Other than moustaches and talking kids, today I also caught a little girl singing, "Get Low" (a Lil'Jon song, Mom and Dad, you wouldn't like it) and was told that I was the 'best teacher ever' for making the kids snacks out of celery sticks (the fishing rod), cheese whiz (the bait) and goldfish crackers (the fish to catch)!

All in all, a pretty good day. I'm subbing high school tomorrow, so I'd better get my grown-up clothes out, and math reviews started!

Dance Parties, Piglets and Exploding Soap Messes!

It's been a few weeks again and I haven't had much time to update. It has been feeling like the beginning of the school year all over again in some ways, though at least now I have a better grasp on what I should be teaching and where to go next. It's the paperwork that always gets me!

I have a new student, and with him, there will be a new assistant whom I have yet to meet. That makes four adults in the room at any given time, 23 kiddos, and in the mornings, two high school students (work experience) and afternoons, another adult. Not including speech assistants, OTs, behaviour consultants or principals who are in to watch that day. Some days it feels like you're trying to keep from sinking just to keep on top of all of it. Thankfully though, the kids are having fun, learning a little (hopefully a lot) and keep us laughing which is why I ended up here!

Here is my January highlight:

Many of the students in my class live on farms and regularly help out with chores, feeding, etc. One little guy came up to me shortly after the Christmas break and said, "We have some piggies, and Dad wants to know if he can bring them to school."

I thought this was a great idea, and went about arranging this as soon as possible. Then I thought a little more and remembered that this little fella had said, "piggies," plural. So I asked, "how many piglets do you have?"

He looked down at his hands and counted on his fingers silently..."1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12... There's 12!" Oh geez. I had an image of 23 little kids being chased around the room by 12 squealing pigs and had to tell him to ask Dad to bring one or two piglets. (It felt like a Robert Munsch story - which the kids have been really enjoying lately- ONE pig, JUST one, NOT 3, 4, 5, 6 or 12, JUST ONE.)

The day came and the little guy was trying his very best to keep his secret quiet. Then during recess I see Mom, Dad and newborn baby coming up the walkway of the school carrying a large tupperware bin. Inside were these little guys:

Aren't they sweet? The kids were so excited to see them, and the Dad got a huge kick out of letting them out of their bin to run around the classroom and chase kids for a little while. They couldn't get traction on the slippery floor and looked like Bambi on ice until they made it on to our foam carpet. Thankfully, there were no messes (by piglet or kid!) and the kids happily named them Smartie (on the left) and Chocolate Chip (on the right). They were two weeks old and very heavy already. It was really interesting to see which kids were right in the middle, who grabbed the camera, who wanted someone to stand next to them to pet the piglets, and who quickly lost interest and moved elsewhere.

As the kids were hanging out with the piglets, the little guy whose idea it was to bring them in went up to one of the assistants and said, "Them piggies are growin'like a son-of-a-gun!"

I mentioned that we now have two high school students coming in the mornings (one at a time). The first day that they came in, we were having our snack, and I turned on some music for the kids. I should have chosen a different song than Madagascar's "I Like to Move It, Move It," because instead of finishing up their snack, ALL of the kids got up and started to dance. We couldn't help but play the song again and have a good dance party then, and just as the one high school student walked in the door, a little girl came up to me and yelled, "K______! Come dance!" Well....there goes my credibility! (These things have a strange way of happening...)

We did have a great time, and got the kids moving for another few minutes at least! I know that I have a hard time sitting all day during workshops, conferences, etc. and can't believe that we expect kids to do the same. Unfortunately, I think often teachers recognize this as a behaviour issue, instead of a need to move once in a while! In Alberta there is a requirement in the curriculum called 'DPA' or Daily Physical Activity, in addition to recess/lunch breaks. This is built in time meant for kids to get an extra 20 mins or so throughout the day to MOVE! Unfortunately this often gets counted in to recess, walking to library, gym class, etc. This has been a big focus for me this year in recognizing when kids need to move around a bit, and I have been trying to use it in how I say things too, so kids can start to identify between behaviour and need. Often our morning talk, weather and calendar goes just a little too long for the kids (they say that a child's attention span is approximately as long in minutes as their age, so I'm working with 5-6 minutes) so I will try to say, "it looks like you need to get up and move, lets do some counting backwards and go touch 10 things and count down to one," or, "go climb under three things and over three things, then come back." This gives the kids a little break while still learning, and the repetition helps them out in the long run as well.

Once a week the Elementary school teachers get together for a "PLC" or "Professional Learning Community." We focus on certain things and is a way to keep learning new ways of doing things, or at least considering them. Our group has been working on 'student engagement,' or, keeping the students excited about what they are learning and making sure that there are connections being made between past experiences and new concepts being taught. Our job last week was to pair up with a grade other than our own (not difficult, as there is only one class of each grade in our school) and to plan a lesson that will demonstrate student engagement. The other teacher was to come in and observe how the lesson went, and provide feedback. I was paired with my mentor teacher in Grade 2, and we planned a lesson together. My kids haven't had much experience with science yet, as our science curriculum can be summed up as exposing students to new ideas, reactions and questions. In Grade 2, students focus on solids, liquids and gases, and learn a little about the scientific method.

We planned a lesson that used almost all of the 5 senses (a big focus in Kindergarten), as well as some math (graphing) and technology (smartboard and cameras). If you place a piece of Ivory soap in the microwave, it actually expands and bubbles, looking like it's exploding. The result is a very light solid that feels like kleenex, and can be used just like regular soap. It also leaves behind a very distinct soapy smell that is pleasant at first, but gets really gross, fast! Anyways, it all worked out, the vice principal was in to watch our experiment and give feedback, and the other teachers were curious enough during our next PLC that we had to repeat the experiment all over again for them.

This week we're going to make some new snacks (last week we made 'apple teeth' out of apple slices and mini marshmallows), take the kids skating and try out some more centers (this go-round has glittery water in the science table)!

Thanks for reading!

Christmas concert, Kindergarten brunch, holidays and back to it!

Hello!

It has been a little while and I suppose I should try to make this more of a weekly update, especially now that a few people have told me that they're checking for updates once in a while, maybe I'll be more inclined to write!

The last week before Christmas holidays was crazy. The adults in the classroom managed to get through the week by having a constant coffee and chocolate supply on hand. If you can't beat'em, join'em right? I couldn't blame the kids for being excited though, I was too.

The Christmas concert was a lot of fun, and they were definitely pretty cute! Apparently people at the back could hear the kids singing too and not just me and my half-gone voice. Our little porcupine (albeit almost late to the party!) was perfect in his role, and we had even the quietest, most shy kids onstage with us. Thankfully we were first, and most kids stayed with us to watch the rest of the show afterwards. Seeing kids moved by music is such a neat thing. We've had some really neat moments over the past month that include music, and it has opened up a lot of interesting experiences and ideas for me. Some of the kids (many of the Mennonite children) were completely enthralled hearing other students in the school singing. They didn't move for the entire concert after we were finished.

There is another little one in the class who works with a full-time assistant who has tried out music breaks when being in the class is just too much. He sat listening to a range of music, from opera to pop and books on tape for half an hour straight. This was a huge amount of time for him to be sitting calmly and totally focused on one thing.

I suppose I had better learn a little more about music as I've noticed that many kids seem more focused and productive when there is music in the background of the classroom during activities. I had a prof during one of my first years of university that would play music (a different piece each day, depending on the lesson) as we walked in and out of his classes. It always set the tone for the lesson, even though this was a class of over 400 people, and we were exposed to anything from Mozart to Jiminy Cricket's "When You Wish Upon A Star."

Our Kindergarten brunch was a huge success! It was so much fun to cook with the kids, even though the bread turned out a little tougher than usual due to excessive kneading, and our jello cut-outs ended up frozen then liquified.

*On a side note, I had made 8 batches of bread dough on the weekend (a sweet egg bread that my family calls 'Teddy Bear Bread' and is made every Christmas) and put the batches in freezer bags to rise as I drove back to the town where I teach. I had the dough sitting on the floor of the passenger side, and part-way through my drive I heard a few "pop! pop! pop!" sounds that could have been my tires popping. I looked over to see that the warm air from my heater had been blowing on the dough, causing it to rise to epic proportions and explode the bags wide open! You can bet that dough stayed the night in the fridge after that!

I love parent volunteers. I had a few Moms that came in both days to help out, clean up and lend plates, crock pots, punch bowls, recipes and a lot of patience to the process. They were wonderful. The kids made Christmas tree shaped bread, cranberry orange muffins, jello, cut up apples, pomegranates, fruit dip, hot chocolate and punch. They welcomed their parents (and Grandparents!) and helped to make sure everyone had something to eat. We had about 40 people in our little room, and many families who brought siblings and Grandparents too. Most of our Mennonite families even came, which was very exciting, as many do not speak English and have quite a few little ones to bring with them. It was a really fun celebration. We ended our clean-up with a "pomegranate stain scavenger hunt" (I'm awful I know!) to wipe up any last remnants of our mess...the cleaning staff has more than enough to do this time of year!

On our last day before the break we took the kids to the Grade 9 Science class where the student teacher was demonstrating how to make ice cream with dry ice. I was really worried that the kids would get too excited and try to touch it, so we had a quick safety chat and went over to the room. About half of the kids were terrified, and wouldn't even try the ice cream when invited to. It was a pretty neat thing for them to see, and hopefully we can get in to some of the other classes to see what they're doing as well. The Grade 6 students will be making 'egg parachutes' at some point, and dropping them off the roof of the school, so we'll definitely be watching that one!

After watching ice cream being made, we hopped on the bus and went to see a movie at the theater in town. The movie definitely wasn't my first choice, but the kids enjoyed it, and one little girl (who sat on my lap for half of the movie) very proudly told me at the end that, "I didn't even cry!" We headed back to the school for a pizza lunch, quick recess and an assembly to round out the day. This was the first elementary assembly that the Kindergarten kids have been there, and they behaved really well despite the amounts of junk food eaten that day. I got to give out a few classroom awards to kids who displayed the  "best printing," "best reading," "best manners," and "most gentlemanly" behaviour for that month. Our class also won the "Library Award" as the Kindergarten kids are always "enthusiastic and have great manners" in the library (we've been working on it)!

I received some really wonderful cards and gifts from the kids and their families, and have come to the conclusion that: 1. I smell funny, and 2. that I need more chocolate! There were a lot of lotions, soaps and chocolates for me to enjoy! One really interesting and strange thing about living in a small town is that everyone knows where you live. Sometimes it's not a good feeling that people seem interested even in what groceries you bring home (goodness knows what people think of me carting laundry back and forth on weekends!), but it's also nice to know that people are watching out for you. A "Secret Family" adopted me the week before Christmas, and left a gift each night on my porch for me to come home to. That really blew me away.

It was nice to have a break and though it was hard to come back, the kids didn't forget everything and were really well behaved (though very tired by the end of the day) on our first day back. We went over our rules again, enjoyed the strangely warm temperatures and went OUTSIDE for gym class (unheard of here in January), reviewed our Sound Connections and did some new puzzles. The funniest part of the day was our shaving cream activity. We rolled up sleeves and put a pile of shaving cream on the table in front of each child and let them trace the capital and lowercase letters that they knew. They wrote their names and generally got pretty messy. Thank goodness shaving cream doesn't stain and just wipes away! It was a pretty fun activity, and one that helps out with fine motor development as well...I think the art of teaching Kindergarten must be hiding all of these developmental exercises behind exciting activities! Needless to say, we had most of the staff come by to see why our classroom and all of our kids smelled so darn manly!

The day had its really tough points as well, including parents coming in who do not often have the opportunity to see their child, and are so appreciative that their child has a safe and consistent place to come, and parents calling from the police station reporting a kidnapping when their child is safe at school. There were also calls to try and track down another child who should be at school, but whose family seems to have left without much trace. There have sure been a lot of sleepless nights on my part trying to think of what to do next, how to document things and how I can do the best for each child in the class, so I can only guess what parents go through in tough situations.

One thing I have really noticed in working with kids is that some parents are very disinclined to listen, ask or even speak to me about strategies, because I am young and do not have kids of my own. I was speaking to the classroom assistants about this as well, and one pointed out that I am also not from "here" which makes sense, though this has happened when I coached as well. Unfortunately, I haven't found a kind way to mention to these parents that before teaching I coached for 11 years (18 month-old children - adults), and have had many opportunities to learn strategies and just see what works with different kids. It's all part of proving yourself too I suppose, and this will take time!

A couple funny stories to finish it off:

One little guy came up to a classroom assistant, leaned on her and very sweetly asked, "did you miss me over the holidays?"
She responded with, "Of course I did!"
He then noted very matter-of-factly, "I knew you would."

Another little boy needed help opening his water bottle and stepped in front of one assistant and said, "open!"
She then said, "open what?" (Asking for a 'please'!)
He looked at her, very confused and said again, "open!"
I figured that I should stir the pot a little and whispered, "sesame!"
He then turned to her and said, "open sesame!"
Poor little guy...he did eventually figure out that we were asking for him to use his manners, though it was through no help of mine!

Doing our calendar each day takes a good half hour, as we can incorporate math, literacy, songs, weather, numbers, patterns, printing, etc. into it, so it is quite the production (and has taken me until now to have any sort of system to present it to the kids). The first day back we had some parents in the classroom, just watching what our days are like as they hadn't had the opportunity to come in to our class yet. We were in the middle of our calendar (imagine, it's a new MONTH and YEAR now) and one little girl wanted to help as I sometimes get volunteers to use the pointer to count and help us figure out what kind of movement pattern will be associated with our numbers that month. Well...she came up there and completed our calendar and counting smoother than I have ever done- with the parents still in the classroom watching of course! We had a good laugh as both the assistants and I noted that this little girl should lead calendar every day instead of me!

I have a fun lesson planned for tomorrow afternoon- making pudding in bags, add milk and let the kids squish away until it thickens up (see, more developmental exercises hidden away)! Hopefully it turns out a little cleaner than our shaving cream adventure!

Tomorrow should bring new challenges, and next week again as we get a new student!

Thanks for reading!

They can READ!

Well...a little!

Monday was a pretty exciting day for me, as a few of the kids started to put together letters and associate their sounds into words. We have learned five letters so far: m, a, s, n and t. A strange order yes, but the program we are using introduces them in this way, plus, we can spell short words after learning very few letter sounds.

One little girl just turned 5 about a month ago, and she was the first to 'read' the word "mat" by sounding out the letter sounds. A few of the other kids caught on, and most of them were pretty excited to know and see what other words looked like. I wasn't expecting to see anything like this until closer to the spring- these parents must be working hard with their little ones!

Parent-teacher interviews went well, and I learned a bit more about the kids and their family dynamics with each conversation. Again and again I'm reminded at how important communication is between kids, parents, teachers, assistants and anyone else involved. I'm glad that I had enough communication with the parents that there were no surprises on the students report cards, and that parents didn't have big concerns but came anyways to talk about their child for 15 mins. (I was completely booked from 3:15-7:30!)

Today I hosted my first meetings with parents, social workers, coordinators, behaviour consultants, occupational therapists and speech and language pathologists to talk about certain kids in my class. They went well, thank goodness!

When I signed up for teaching I didn't realize that I would also have to become proficient in talking to, understanding and putting into place strategies from doctors, therapists, psychologists, lawyers and counsellors, never-mind being responsible for researching various medications, disorders and laws. I was reminded today that even having a 'communication book' between the classroom and home environments should remain mostly positive, as these documents can be sub-poena'd in a court of law.
As long as the child stays central to these suggestions, then that's what matters. Often it doesn't seem that way.

After my meetings today I got to sub in Grade 2 and do some art for the afternoon. What a good way to end the day!

Before I forget to mention, my evaluation by the superintendent went well (even though I had to change my lesson plan on the fly) and so did the 'induction' night put on by the region to welcome new teachers to the profession. I'm glad that it didn't include having to stand up and recite the oath from memory (as many seasoned teachers tried to make me believe the day before)! We did however, have to stand as a group and reply, "I will," to each statement. I couldn't help thinking about the story of Pat's Dad, who was a very loved teacher and principal, standing up in front of the administration and important people in his region to lead an induction ceremony, and starting to laugh so hard that they almost had to carry him out as he was picturing these new teachers as part of a mass wedding, complete with the trading of vows.

Next week is our last week before Christmas holidays, so we have been practicing our "Porcupine in a Pine Tree" song, and getting ready for our Christmas brunch for the parents and grandparents. On Monday we will be cooking for most of the day (thank goodness for parents who are so willing to give their time and ideas!) and then we will have our Christmas program on that night. Wednesday will be our Christmas brunch, and Friday we will join the rest of the elementary students on a trip to see a movie, then back to the school for pizza and a short assembly. I expect the kids (and me too) will be excited and bouncing off the walls all week!

A few funny stories to finish up:

Last Wednesday we had a massive snowstorm, and as 80% of our school population are bus students, no one came to school. This can be pretty confusing to Kindergarten kids, as we have school every second day as it is, and when our middle day (the kids know Wednesday as our 'sandwich' day, poor things) is taken away, it gets even harder to explain! One little guy came in on Friday, breathlessly saying, "um, I'm sorry I was late!"

We replied saying, "It's ok, you weren't actually late. The buses didn't come on Wednesday because of the snow storm, so there were no kids at the school, only adults!"

He recovered quite quickly from that surprise and asked, "Is it a new month?"

I was pretty excited that he would have figured this out, and said, "Yes it is! Do you know which month it is?"

"Is it December?"

"Yes! Good for you for remembering!"

At this point, his jaw literally dropped (just like the cartoons where it hits the floor with a *smack*), and he took his hand and manually lifted his jaw back up to close his mouth.
Some kids would make incredible cartoon characters.

- I got quite the shock during our morning playing of O'Canada on Friday, as one little boy (whose snow-pants were still half on at this point) who was standing in front of me, facing the flag, slowly turned around and very deliberately, winked at me. I almost had to leave the classroom I was laughing so hard- a great example for the new assistant who had started only 5 minutes before!

- One last lesson for me that I'm sure I'll learn over and over throughout the years: pre-screen everything! The kids were working well on an activity and I asked them if they would like some Christmas music. They indicated that they would love this, so I went to YouTube as I didn't have any Christmas cd's at that point. I found an 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' song, turned it on and went across the classroom to speak to one of the assistants. The kids continued to work, dancing and singing as they went. The song ended, but a good five seconds afterwards, I found out that another song was randomly tacked on to the end of a kids' Alvin and the Chipmunks song- the Black Eyed Peas, 'My Humps.'

Oops! I made it across the room as quickly as possible while trying to make it look like nothing was going on. One little girl told me, "Oh! That's a cool dude song!"
If that's the only trouble I caused then thank goodness!

I think that's the end of my ramblings for the week, thanks for reading!

Halloween, Remembrance Day and Christmas prep- (Oh! And report cards and IPPs...)

I was hoping that journalling/blogging would become a weekly habit for me (some people are so good at it!) and I think that writing is one of the greatest things to have as people get older- it's nice to look back on too!

Last time I wrote was the end of October, just before Halloween and our 'Literary Character Day.' At the last minute I had to come up with an activity to do with groups of kids K-5. Luckily the school has a few old gym mats, so my classroom assistants helped me haul them into the classroom and pad the floor. (I think this would be a brilliant classroom set-up by the way...what kid wouldn't love mats covering the entire floor of the room? The only downside would be mopping them down every day...

I decided to teach the kids 'ninja rolls' (they don't realize they're learning a useful skill- some of those playgrounds are really high up and kids often over-estimate how high they can go, whether they can hang on, and forget to think how they're going to get down- plus, everybody falls!) It was a lot of fun to teach the kids, and to see how that changed their play at recess for the next few days. I had kids jumping down in front of me and rolling during supervision, showing me their ninja skills... the other teachers weren't entirely thrilled with these new skills...

Remembrance Day didn't fall on a Kindergarten day this year, though many of the parents did bring their little ones along to the service. Since I was subbing in grade 6 in the afternoon, I was able to go too. The school does a really great job of Remembrance Day, with elementary and high-school choirs and the town mayor and community members joining. Remembrance Day always makes me think hard and I seem to get more emotional about it every year. Coming from a military family, I really appreciate what people have given up for our country, and continue to give. Remembrance Day seems to bring memories back of missing Dad when he was away during the Persian Gulf War, and then being very confused at crying because I was so happy to see him again. I can only imagine the memories of those who have actually been in service. Thank you to all!

Since Remembrance Day is now over and Christmas is fast-approaching (it's an early holiday start this year!) it's time to get on lesson plans and craft ideas. I wasn't aware that my kids would have to take part in our Christmas concert, so I've been scrambling to find a new idea that the little guys can handle. There's a great book called, "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree," by Helaine Becker that reads as a Canadian version of the 12 Days of Christmas (think caribou, puffins, squirrels curling, stanley cups and beaver-tails) that I'm going to try to make into a song/skit. Luckily for me, Kindergarten kids are cute whatever they're doing, so it can't turn out too badly!

I'm hoping to put together a few fun things for Christmas, so I've got a lot of planning to do...more on that later!

One of the biggest challenges so far this year (that has somehow made it to the end of my post) has been putting together report cards and preparing for the upcoming parent/teacher conferences. It was tough to find and put together meaningful assessments for Kindergarten kids, mostly because I'm still learning the tools and strategies to do a good job of it. Luckily my report cards have been approved (they have to go through administration first) and I've only got minor things to fix! 

Today we had a day of work with other Early Childhood teachers in the region, which was a huge benefit to me. Really, I need all the help I can get! We'll see if I can start implementing new strategies by next week- just in time for my evaluation by the superintendent...

Here are a few funny moments from the past week(s):

- One little guy in our class loves to laugh, and does so any chance he gets (and loudly!) He is also one of my ESL kids. One day he was laughing and 'encouraging' another child's actions which were...undesirable at that point. 

I explained to him that although we love to laugh and have fun in Kindergarten, it's not always a good idea to laugh at bad behaviour. At the end I said, "does that make sense?"

He replied with a very solemn face saying, "Yes! A whole lot of dollars!"

I couldn't stop laughing. What a clever thing to say, especially for a non-native English speaker. I'm quite sure he didn't see what was funny about his comment, but in some way, he must have made the connection between 'dollars' and 'cents.'

- Kindergarten kids have been notorious about putting on their mittens before other outerwear, and by the time they get everything on, it's time to come in from recess again! So we did an activity (using a very good-humoured little guy, who happens to be one of the worst offenders of our outerwear challenges) in which he was our 'model' for putting on pieces of clothing in the right order. We drew each piece on the white board, and crossed them out as the kids chose them and the little guy put them on one at a time. Well, the poor fella must have put his boots and mittens on and had to take them off again at least three times, but we eventually got it right! (A big curricular outcome for Kindergarten kids is 'sequencing' and the more often I can incorporate movement and actual examples into lessons, the better!)

I think it's time for me to sign off now, I'll be updating again soon!

Thanks for reading!