Creativity or Not Listening?

I am getting pretty good at teaching when not feeling good.

Thursday I had an awesome headache after our field trip and still successfully managed the class and taught them.

Yesterday and today, I have had an awesome cold that is blocking my ears and making them hurt as well.  Still teaching and doing alright.

Today we started making flowers.

Well I cut the flower out, and then made the stem.

Their job today was to color their flowers. Then write their name on one side of the paper, flip it over and glue the flower on the other side of the paper near the top. I even demonstrated it, to each table.

So, they are coloring their flowers.

They are very pretty flowers.

I remind them about the next step a few times.

The end result?

I walk around to each table as they are finishing up.

I see pretty flowers. About half of them glued the flower to the middle of the page.

Some of them had their names on the top of the page.

Several also decided to draw the stems, leaves, and roots, though I told them not to.

Some of them drew whatever they wanted on the paper.

So, I walked around putting the flowers in the correct spot.

One child kept moving his back.

I had to explain to him a few times that it needed to be near the top so we could fit the rest of the flower.

I am glad these kids are so creative.

They tend to take directions into their own hands and decide what they want to do.

Not always useful.

But still pretty amusing.

We will have very unique flowers.

I love these kids.

Field trip!

We went on a field trip today to the pumpkin patch!

It was a lot of fun.

It was an hour away; the kids did really well in the bus. 

When we got there, the kids played on the playground for a bit.

There was a huge slide!  It was a tunnel slide.  You climbed up a bunch of steps and then slid down super fast into a sand pile.

Even the teachers went down.

A lot of fun, people.

Then we went into this maze. It was in tall grass.

There were little spots where you had to stop and do some sort of activity. The kids seemed to like it.  Especially ringing the bell at the end.

Then we went to the little petting zoo area.

They had goats, donkeys, pigs, chicks, and ducks. There was also a horse that wanted nothing to do with us.

The kids loved the animals.

I did too.

We watched a short movie about the animals and then came the hayride!

The kids were so excited about the hayride!

We rode it up to the pumpkin patch, then got out and everyone got a pumpkin.

Some actually willingly chose small ones.  I was surprised. 

After, we got back on the hayride and went back to the entrance.  We got our lunches and had a picnic! It was a lot of fun to eat lunch with the kids.  I think most were pretty tired.  They were rather quiet.

We got back on the bus and headed back to school.  4 of the kids fell asleep.  I think a few more were pretty close to it. 

It was such a fun day!

Were You Listening?

“Alright, we are going to walk down the hall to Mrs. E’s room without talking.  We are going to have one finger on our lips and the other hand behind our backs.”

We start walking.  A few are whisper talking in the back, but I am not too concerned at the moment.

“I love how nicely Ryan is walking.  Luke is walking so quietly as well.  Most of my friends are walking so quietly and nicely.”

This quiets down the ones in the back.  We walk down to Mrs. E’s classroom without a problem. 
I knock on the door and open it.

“Hi, the kindergarteners made your class a card to thank them for showing us the pumpkin plants yesterday.”

“That is so nice!”

She comes over and takes the card and invites the kindergarteners in.  The second graders are excited.  Mrs. E reads off the names on the card.  She has a hard time reading some of them and mispronounces some.  The kindergarteners giggle.  I try not to.   

“Thank you so much for bringing us this card! We will hang it in our class so we can look at it.”

The kindergarteners smile and we make our way out of the classroom.

“Ok my friends; we are going to go to the bathroom and wash up for snack.  Put one finger on your lips and one hand behind your back.  Alright, let’s go”

They are a little noisier this time.  I continuously remind them that we are walking through the hall and we need to walk quietly.

“In and out of the bathroom my friends, let’s go. Quick and quiet.”

I send them in.

Some are quick, most are not quiet.

I remind them to be quick, and quiet. I also remind the ones in the hall to stop jumping around and hanging on one another.

“Do some of my friends not want snack?”

They quiet down.

Ms. P walks by us and goes into the classroom.  She had been making copies and such.

Ms. P comes back out of the classroom.

“Ms L, there are three students here in the classroom already eating snack, was that supposed to happen? “

I shake my head no.  I am confused as to how this happened.

Ms. P sends them back out.

As the rest of our friends finish in the bathroom, I talk to the three.

“Did I tell you guys to go into the classroom?”

They shake their heads.

“Why did you do it then?”

“I don’t know” two of them say.

“Did you not listen to the directions?”

“No.”

Sigh.

“You guys really need to work on listening.  I never said anything about go into the classroom and start eating your snack. You know not to go in there unless a teacher is there.”

They just look at me.

The rest of the class has finished in the bathroom.

I lead them into the classroom.

I look at Ms. P and shrug my shoulders.

She just smiles.

What can you do?

Full moon

Chicka chicka boom boom,

Is tonight a full moon?

Today, the kindergarteners had a very hard time remembering to keep their hands to themselves.

Not even just in my class.

There were incidents from a few of the classes.

I don’t know if they just forget.

Or if it is a full on domino effect.

One students pokes another student and then it just keeps going.

Except they were more than just poking one another.

They were shoving into each other.

Pushing.

Purposely bumping.

Grabbing each other.

Hanging on one another

And pulling one another…

I was constantly saying –

Get off of so and so.

Don’t push him.

Did you just hit him?

Did you just shove her?

It was not one student consistently either.

It was all of them.

Collectively abusing one another.

All day I heard –

Ow

He hit me.

She shoved me.

He bumped into me.

She’s poking me.

He’s grabbing my arm.

At the end of the day, I was waiting with a group of kindergarteners that walk to their neighborhood right down the road.

All of a sudden, I see this one kindergartener shove her friend into a door!

Luckily the door was there.

Granted it was the door of a first grade class that was still having class.

But still.

I had enough by that point.

I made her sit at the end of the line away from her friends.

A few minutes later, I asked her why I had put her there.

She didn’t know.

Sigh.

If tonight is a full moon than things should be better tomorrow.

If tonight is not a full moon?

Well, hopefully things will be better tomorrow.

Monday mishaps

If you are wondering why there were no posts Thursday or Friday, wonder no more.  I will tell you.

I had an awesome stomach virus.  It was hospital worthy.  Only for five hours, but still.  It was awful people.  Don’t get it.  Seriously.  Awful.

Anyways! Today I went back to school.

Rough day for me.

Not terrible, but slightly rough.

I seem to have misplaced some of my confidence.  If anyone finds it, could you return it at your earliest convenience? Thanks.

Also? I may have been slightly out of it due to my antibiotic and not so much food in my stomach. 

So, this morning, there was a great possibility that things could have gone terribly wrong.

Luckily, Ms. P stepped in to help.

The kids were just sort of ignoring me and were sort of saying no to things I was asking them to do.

I know, biggest problem right there, asking.

You don’t ask them, you tell them.

True statement people.

Things got a little better throughout the day.

Oh!

Also?

Firemen came today to talk to the kids about fire safety.

So I went to pick them up from the gym.

But first, they got to see the fire trucks and get in one for a minute.

I was leading my class, but I really had no idea where I was taking them.

“Ms. P? Do you want to take the front since I have no clue what I am doing?”

“Well, I can, you could just follow the other people and do what they do…”

“True, true I could.”

I think she could tell I was a little nervous.

She took the lead.  Very thankful for that.

At one point this afternoon, one child got her shoe lace stuck underneath the chair in the metal part.  That was interesting.  Easy to fix, except I got kicked and smashed into by another chair at the same time.  Not quite what I was expecting.

Then, a little later, a little boy decided to play on his chair and as I was walking by, he jumped backwards and kicked me in the knee.  He got hurt too.  Interesting day people. 

Tomorrow is a new day!

Busy day!

“Is it time to go home yet?”

“Is it time to go home yet?”

I got asked that several times today.

The kids were exhausted.

Their schedule was fairly different.

Today was picture day, so that threw things off.

Also?

They had a big math assessment. The kids were amazing for it. Most of them were quiet and did their best to do as they were told.  It was tough, but they did well.

So, morning meeting was at a different time. We had picture day, we had a math assessment, we did not have writing, they had half a period of related arts, and they got to watch extra tv today.  Also? They had math stations.

There were a lot of differences in schedule, and quite a few differences in behaviors as well.

As I said, they were tired.

After related arts when they got to watch tv for a bit, one girl fell asleep.

“She’s asleep! She’s asleep!”

“Ok, guys, ok.  I see that, I will take care of it.  No you don’t need to come over and stare at her, go take your bathroom break.”

“Molly? Molly, sweetie” I whisper as I shake her arm a little.  “Molly.” I try again, she opens her eyes  a little.
“Hey molly, it’s time to wake up baby girl. Take your time; you can go take your bathroom break when you are ready.  You can take a minute to wake up.”

She stretches, gets up, and runs down to the bathroom.

Well at least she got moving pretty easily. 

These kids are cute.

Confidence of the Fake Kind

You know those times when you do something new and you feel like you have no clue what you are doing but you tell yourself you can, then take a deep breath and do it?

Me too.

That is how I felt about teaching writing today.

It was my first time.

I was not confident at all.

So what did I do?

Why, I faked the confidence of course!

Because sometimes,

You fake it till you make it.

“Do you want to go get the kids so you can make sure you have everything for writing?” Ms. Peltz ask me as we are walking down the hall.

“Sure!”

I turn around and start walking towards the classroom

AHHH! I can’t do this! I have no idea how to teach writing! Oh my goodness. Ok, deep breath.  Think. You wrote out lesson plans. Follow those. Just do it.  Also? Keep breathing.

Ok, things I need for writing. My lesson plans.  Those are generally useful. Ok, we are labeling things. Where are the cards for labeling?

I start looking high and low.

I hear children’s voices, I freeze and panic.

They pass by our room.

Thank goodness!

I find the cards in an obvious spot.

Ok, I need the paper for them to do their writing.  I know where that is. Ok, memorize your plans. FAST!

I hear children’s voices again.

Please don’t be my class! Please don’t be my class! Read faster! Ok, I can do this. No! no I can’t do this!

I hear footsteps and whisper voices.

I know that will be my class.

“Are you ready for them?” Ms. Peltz pokes her head in the doorway.

“Yes I am! I say with fake confidence.

“Come on in my friends and have a seat on the dot rug.”

They come in and sit, and I begin...