"Not I!" Said...

I have been the worst blogger, both intentionally and unintentionally.  When the plate is full this is the first thing to be neglected and as week after week passed, my perfectionist self neglected it because of my imperfections.  A colleague encouraged me a little less than a week ago to get back on the saddle and write - so here goes.

At times, I shy away because I feel guilty that I do not know the number of every single house bill that affects education. In reality, I feel like the athletes who are blocking out the media before the big game. In my world, every day is a big game.

We are knee deep in the fourth quarter. I had a parent ask me today if I am ready for summer.  I said, "my body is but my heart not so much." She told me I could say yes and it would be okay.  But it is the absolute truth - I've been planting and sowing seeds since August and this time of year is when all these growth spurts happen and I am selfish and want to reap the benefits of all the behind scenes planting, watering, sunshine, and transplanting in some instances.

A little one that has struggled all year with emotional regulation and still needs me to prod him along on most of his work.  When we were working on plant labeling.  I said "tear the bag and put your dirt on the paper".  A few minutes later, he said, "there the dirt is on the paper."  Well played, it's all these moments that make the planting meaningful.  And yet, sometimes all the labors of love that go into one moment are lost in translation to everyone making decisions regarding planting.

They all grow immensely in different ways.  The ones whose growth is reflected in assessments, I worry about a little less.  The ones who I can tell you countless stories of things they can do now that they could not do in August or even January, I worry about them a little bit more.

We have been reading various versions of The Little Red Hen as we work on comparing and contrasting story elements and mapping them out.  We listened to Cook A Doodle Doo and made shortcakes. 

My littles blew me away with their connections far beyond the story content.  They were talking about the characteristics of the pig, dog, and cow (in most versions) and how they didn't want to be like them.  Others said, you know it reminds me of Cinderella because they made her do all the work which  led to a conversation about the difference between folk tales and fairy tales that was not in the plans.

I felt immense pressure to get this bread right the day after we had been heart broken about our chicks. Failure is hard for all of us but I take it hard. I have been thinking all week about the why's behind that - because I know they need to see me deal with things don't go my way - even the bigger things.  The daily mistakes I can model well but I have a hard time when my plan or vision is tested.

The girl who loves everything to be clean thinks that learning is messy. I knew at this point that the bread had not risen accordingly but followed through to see what would happen. I can pin point the mistakes we made - timing is everything and I put that yeast in when the mixture was still too warm because we had specials to get to on time.

Sometimes the end product is not always pretty but it's more about the content and the experience.  I am pretty sure the Pioneer Woman would have cringed at the sight of our rolls.  However, they were ours and we owned them.

The best part (and hardest part for my type A) of teaching is that I get to learn lessons or be reminded of lessons along the way.  As I mapped out my general plan of this unit of study, I got out the incubator after taking a year off due to a bad hatch two years ago mid a hard season of life.  I told myself it had to be better but began to really worry last week as day 21 approached and not a peep was heard. I called the source and they came out to candle the eggs which had stopped growing day 10.  On the way to work that morning, I had told myself I was done and that I had failed.  But when she asked if I wanted to try again, I found myself answering yes.  When I picked my class up from lunch and had to share with them about what had happened, I also told them about my change of heart.  One little one said, "because we don't give up" and in a nutshell that's why my perfectionist self who was a lot heart broken signed up for a second round that could very well have the same outcome.

At the end of the day, not everything that can be counted matters and not everything that matters can be counted.  If I am being honest, sometimes I feel just like that Little Red Hen. "Who will help me educate these children?" and my governor and legislature continually respond with actions that say "Not I!"

A Little Of This and A Little Of That

Tomorrow will be the 65th day of school.  The fact that I have not regularly spent time sharing about my tenth year by blogging is just one indication of how busy the year has been.  In August, I would have told you I was ready for anything, nine years under my belt, I had this.  

I should have known better.  Teaching is funny that way.  It is always different even when it is the same. So leave it to year ten to try and one up all the others by starting the year with 26 little ones enrolled in my class.  For some, that probably is not a big deal but for my district that protects small class sizes it was huge.  I did nine days with those 26 little darlings and I think I did it well, however, when I would walk down the hall with the longest line of little bodies, I doubted how I was going to have enough to give what every one of them deserved.  I am living in a world of criticism surrounding my career.  At the end of the day, I am the media, politicians, and others scape goat if anything goes wrong.  Thankfully, a couple days after school started we got permission to add a section of kindergarten.  Our fourth teacher began the Tuesday after Labor Day.  My body and my mind was ready but my heart was not.  I had to share children by letting them go.  While I think everyone handled the transition with grace, when a little one comes up to me during recess duty and asks "why did you give me away?", you just are never ready for those kinds of conversations.  

In the mean time, I am mentoring my new team mate, student teachers, and teaching an online graduate level class for a university.  There have been several moments of pause where I have wondered what in the world I have gotten myself into.  A week out from some of those commitments expiring for the mean time, I think they have been my reminders about how important this job is and what tops the list.  Interns become students too. While there are standards that I want my children to accomplish in our time together at the end of the year, if they leave with nothing else, I want them to know they are loved deeply.  In a conversation with a current intern, I told her that I hope future teachers leave my room knowing the importance of those relationships with children.  With everything on my plate, the meetings, expectations, and lack of enough time, I find myself continually going back to my relationships with children as my ulterior motive for sticking it out as a classroom teacher living in a sea of negativity.

I do not watch the news religiously anymore, other than the weather.  I find myself frustrated at the media for their quickness to sell the negativity of this profession.  If they would only come to room 29 (or another room of their choice), it would not take long to be swept away by all the amazing things that happen, most of which you cannot truly appreciate unless you are in the trenches everyday.  One of my little ones, I will call him Johnny, came with no letter recognition, counting skills and very little background knowledge.  We are almost mid way through the year and he's still behind and it is so easy to get swept away by the stress of that.  However, he knows some letters, can count to 29, and backwards from 10!  I think I caught him off guard when he counted back for me and I looked like I might cry.  If this girl could do cartwheels, I would have.  I believe he knows how far we have to go.  He is very perceptve of what others are doing but even if no one has ever told the child how proud they are of him, I hope he recognizes it in my crazy excitement.  And all that stress, well I hope I carry it for him and for them all.  I hope anyone from the outside looking in never really understands the burden of all that stress.

It has taken me years to embrace outlets for the stress.  Some would say I am over the top and I will absolutely own it.  I am guilty.  Lately, I have thought is it too much?  I have had other teachers comment about it in terms of their children not getting the same experiences or feeling inadequate because they do not do as much.  Here is the thing, I am my daddy's girl in being humble.  My over the top has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else, it is an outlet for stress of sitting through meetings where despite the growth that is not always celebrated the focus is on what next?  Also, my over the top has more to do with my little ones than anyone else's.  If a bow on a bag is therapy and in turn demonstrates love for the littles, well then...  This job is about relationships and I think I am good at it, really good.  My over the top things I do is a part of it but so are the little details like how Susie might need more hugs on Monday because she did not get over the weekend.  I do not want to apologize for my ridiculousness, I want to keep on, keeping on because for some little ones it might be the only amount of ridiculousness they get.  I want kindergarten in my room to feel better than a trip to Disney World.  Disney World with more learning than you could ever imagine.

One of my favorite parts of October, the rotting pumpkin.  Lots of change occur in those weeks where the pumpkin is rotting.  This year, my littles predicted it will rot.  The pumpkin has begun to turn to liquid and sink in. We read Pumpkin Jack after making our predictions and before Winter break, we will read Mousekin's Golden House before revisiting our predictions.

One of my favorite Halloween stories is Big Pumpkin.  I bought this off Teachers Pay Teachers and we worked on the sequence of the story and our one to one correspondence.  My littles are struggling with it this year.  I bought witch fingers at a party store and they practiced with one before taking the book and witch finger home to practice.

Speaking of sequence, it is such a huge skill for comprehension.  At the end of the year, the little ones have to not only read the book independently but retell it, without help and in order.  It takes retelling continually all year long for children to be able to do this.  I love using Unifix cubes early in the year and moving to the retelling rope later in the year.  I like retelling the events of our day to practice this daily.  In my opinion, retelling also is key in understanding beginning, middle, and end.  Oh and I have been using clickers with kindergarteners to rate themselves as a part of my district's Marzano evaluation. We have a long way to go but sometimes you just have to jump right on in.

My kids really love to write.  So much so there have been tears when the writing center fills up during centers or inside recess.  We made a pumpkin for the library character contest and decorated the pumpkin like David.  We wrote letters to David Shannon and are patiently waiting a reply!

I love cooking pumpkin pie with the little ones.  

And embracing my love of football with them during Red Ribbon Week.  

And December!!  December planning and prep has been going on since Halloween was over.  The fun begins tomorrow!

My grandma gave me this Christmas cactus seven years ago.  Every year, I water it religiously, take it home during the summer months, and yet it blooms when it is ready once a year.  It is tedious taking care of it throughout the year without seeing the fruits of your labor.  Teaching is similar.  Therefore, I will keep watering away and waiting patiently for the blossoms.

End of The Year Balloon Countdown

May is a hard month.  Most teachers are drowning in end of the year assessments, paperwork, and schedule routines.  It is enough to make anyone crazy but those of us who have a type A personality, well it is beyond draining. 

The end of the year balloon countdown is as much for my own sanity in addition to keeping my learners engaged.  Last year, I used some premade activities from Pinterest.  When I began to think about the end of the year, I thought about things that I had not gotten to that I wanted to fit in.  Immediately, I knew I wanted to cook pancakes with this group.  From there, I just tried to think of activities to motivate them as well as extend their learning. 

Day 10:  Popsicles in the Park

The plan was to enjoy popsicles outside for snack.  I asked a parent who was assigned to snack that day to send popsicles.  It was only fitting that it rained on this day. 

Day 9:  Dance Day

A dance artist was scheduled to be at my school and we would visit them as a part of a schedule rotation.  In addition to this, we listened to music in the classroom while we worked.  Thank you, Pandora.

Day 8:  Picnic in the Outdoor Classroom

My school has an outdoor classroom that we had just planted in a couple of weeks before.  My kindergarten grade level enjoyed lunch outside.  My class loved this!  After they finished eating, children played Duck, Duck, Goose. 

Day 7:  Thunder Thursday

Thunder Up!  I owe my sister-in-law for this idea.  Back in April when I was brainstorming things that I could do, she mentioned this.  It was perfect for so many reasons.  So as the Thunder made the playoffs and did not always play as well as they could have, I got a little nervous.  I really wanted them to be in the playoffs while we celebrated.  Apparently, the team knew this was important because Thunder Thursday was actually a game day!  The children dressed up in their Thunder gear.

For snack, I had planned to make basketball snacks (round cheese and crackers) and then we had blueberries and whip cream to look like a rain cloud.  They loved it!

I am not a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, but I can do it, at times.  Realizing that it was game day, I thought I would have the children "predict" who would advance in the series.  We also read a non-fiction book that a little one had checked out from the library and told me that we should share it on Thunder Thursday.  

 

My favorite part of the day was after reading the non-fiction book, we were talking about something and one of the little ones mentioned Kevin Durant's MVP speech.  He had won the MVP a few days before.  The little girl (yes, girls like sports too!) mentioned how he talked about his mom.  The best part of the speech in my opinion had nothing to do with him mentioning his mom.  Kevin Durant works hard and is a star.  There were so many times at recess this year where little boys aspire to be Kevin Durant.  So in a world where everyone is out for their own ambitions and success, it was nice to mention how Kevin Durant mentioned everyone of his teammates in his speech because he recognizes how much they contribute to his own success.  It was a great conversation for my little class who struggles with being egocentric.

Day 6:  Our Future Is Bright

You can read more about this day, here.

Day 5:  Somewhere Over the Rainbow

I am a Summer baby.  It has its perks but it also has its downfalls.  I always include Summer birthdays on my May snack calendar.  As I was planning the snacks, one of my little ones reminded me that we needed to celebrate my birthday.  I brought cupcakes and there was a rainbow on top.

We also had t-shirts from the beginning of the year with each child's name written on them.  Each child wears these during the school day, during our short first week to help everyone learn their names.  I thought it would be fun to tie dye!  We tie dyed these shirts to wear on the last day of school.  I will totally do this again but it made me nervous dying with five and six year olds.  I used squirt bottles so they actually got the opportunity to squeeze the dye.  It was memorable for many reasons including the fact that the only things that were dyed were our shirts!

 

The worst part of the tie dye was rinsing!  Next time, I will not do it before school for the day!

I did not love the end product but there's always next year.  The kids loved it!

 

Day 4:  Pancakes and Pajamas

I love cooking with children.  Pancakes are super easy and I usually do it while we learn about Eric Carle.  This year, a student teacher taught as we studied Eric Carle so it did not happen.  We listened to Pancakes, Pancakes by Eric Carle and my children made so many connections to the Little Red Hen study.  We also listened to Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola and used the pictures to tell the story.  We voted on whether or not we wanted regular pancakes or polka dotted pancakes (chocolate chips).  One of my little ones before casting his vote says, "if I get chocolate chips, can I still have butter and syrup"?  

Day 3:  Kick Off Your Shoes

This would have been easier if we had been in our classroom for longer lengths of time.  They loved it though!  We listened to Pirates Go to School and talked about bossy r.  I had "hid" ar words around the classroom and children went to find them to bring them back to the carpet.  We used strategies to say the word and place them on the map.

We had a relaxing snack at the end of the day.  

 

Just another day in paradise...

Day 2:  Treasure Hunt Thursday

My team and I put together a scavenger hunt for our classes.  Last year, we did this with book buddies but we decided that this year, we would do it just for our grade level with a few clues.  We decided on the places that we would visit and had specialists help.  Each class' clues were tied with different colors of ribbon and our last clue was tied with a gold ribbon.  We all started in different places so that we would not be in the same place at one time.  When we got to the last clue and the ribbon was gold, one of my little boys said "it means we found the treasure".  As their treasure, I had put together gift bags with student work, a slideshow from our year, and some summer learning ideas in a bag that was sitting at their table.  Once we got back to the room, they were allowed to wear eye patches and we made a pirate snack.  They loved this so much.  It was a hit!

Day 1:  Last Day!  Hooray!

We wore our tie dye shirts to our morning assembly.  The shirts that hung off at the beginning of the year because they were too big were suddenly more of an accurate fit.  My homeroom moms bought pizza for lunch so we ate lunch in the classroom.  We also made plane tickets and "flew" to the beach to enjoy our afternoon centers outside as a grade level.

The end of the year is stressful and sometimes I think that the balloons can be stressful.  There are things I learn each year about how to embrace the end.  I am not good at change so letting go is extremely difficult.  I always contemplate if I am making the ending harder on the little ones by counting down.  There are always children who struggle with the changes approaching as much as adults do.  I do not have the solution but I know when talking to families during our last week together that the children mentioned all the random things we did to celebrate our time together.  During our kindergarten recognition, a family that I did not have an extensive amount of contact came up to me and was sharing about how the little one (a boy) talked about all the cooking we did as well as the integration of sports.  For that little one, the planning and the details mattered.

The Little Red Hen

Over the last three weeks, we have been reading various versions of the famous story The Little Red Hen.  We began by reading the version by Paul Galdone.  As we have read these stories, we have story mapped on our interactive white board.  Over Spring Break, I had found a variety of versions that I was able to locate through my school library as well as other schools in the district.  Story mapping is so powerful and after only reading a couple of versions, it was powerful to see the connections my learners were making.

We listened to Gator Gumbo by Candace Fleming and my class began comparing the Gator to the Fox in the Gingerbread stories!  We had many discussions and conversations as we talked about the characters, setting, and endings.  It was encouraging to see the conversations that the text and story map helped ignite.

After children were familiar with a variety of versions of the text, I set up our dramatic play center so they could retell the story.  I made masks for them to use and included other props like a sifter, whisk, mixing bowls, tickets, and a puppet theater.  There are things you can not always predict - one of which is the success of a dramatic play idea.  One of the best parts of all the work that went into the story mapping is hearing them use the common language of the text during their play.  "Not I" said the...

We read Cook a Doodle Doo by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel in the middle of our adventure.  In this book, the animals work together to make strawberry shortcake.  I like to eat.  I really like to bake.  I have really great childhood memories baking with the people I loved.  I believe that there are children today who do not get the same experience and I think the hands on opportunities are important if we want children to understand fractions, measurement tools, and the variety of uses of word in our language.

We used Bisquick for our base for the dessert.  It shortened the length of time we invested in the recipe but still gave them opportunities to mix and measure.

At the beginning of this adventure, I began incubating chicks.  I love this and have done it with every class that I have taught, except one group of my first graders.  However, it is stressful.  The children were interested in the incubation process at the beginning and then interest died off for a bit until it got closer to the 21st day.

Monday evening one of the eggs cracked!  The 21st day actually was on Thursday so he was early.  By Tuesday, when he still had not gotten out, I knew he most likely would not.

 

On Wednesday, I was able to see this one come out of the shell! My student teacher was teaching and I happened to be at the incubator when the egg was really moving.

 

The chick stayed in the incubator until he was dry.  He was all over the place and up in the business of all the other eggs!

We had a total of 3 eggs successfully hatch out of a dozen.  It wasn't a great turnout but considering the turner had been taken off twice and I had to begin tracking the turning off the eggs despite an automatic turner, I think it was successful.  It is an experience that they will remember and one that enriched the story mapping of The Little Red Hen.

 

We read many other books about the life cycle including some pictured above.  We planted seeds a week ago.  After listening to Chickens Aren't The Only Ones, we compared and contrasted the chicks and plants.  

 

Here is part of our work.  It still needs a title and labels.

We also made bread this week from scratch.  It was a two day process.  We measured and mixed one day, let it rise the following day, and then baked.  

 

The smell of vinegar brings back so many childhood memories!  I hard boiled eggs in the oven.  Thank you, Pinterest!  On Friday, the children colored one egg.  They loved it!  Many mentioned it being their favorite part of the day.

 

Our sensory table was taken over by some animals!  There are also bugs buried in the dirt.  The children were using their imagination to have bug parties. There was lots of problem solving going on as they talked about how the bugs and farm animals did not like each other.

States of Matter

I am blessed to work at a school that has great traditions.  One of which is 50's day.  Typically, we celebrate this the last day with students before Spring Break.  This year, we celebrated the Friday after due to a scheduling conflict.  Our fifth graders perform dances in the morning assembly and in the afternoon we have a live band, hula hoop and bubble gum blowing contests, and each grade dances.  It is a ton of fun!

This week, our learnt focused on this school wide event as well as finishing up loose ends.  During our writing time, we wrote directions for how to make a root beer float.

It is fun to process with the class and get them to think through the fact that we actually have to buy and gather the ingredients.  It was also neat to see their background knowledge of all our cooking experiences come to life when I asked them what they thought the ingredients would be.  They instantly named sugar.  We had great discussions throughout the week leading up to us making the root beer floats for snack on Friday.

 

My science unit for second and third quarter is solids and liquids.  We wrapped up the unit on Friday with our special snack.  We talked about the ingredients and the state of matter they represented.  

Earlier in the week, we listened to non-fiction texts about matter and acted out the three states of matter with our bodies before making a foldable with Cheerios.

 

When we acted out the states of matter, we were close together for a solid, some space for liquids, and even more room for gases.

 

We also finished up working on consonant diagraph sh and th.  I have many children who substitute the /f/ sound for th.  As we wrote words, I had children identify where the sound could be found in the word.  Depending on our time, either I wrote the word or they helped.

 

We will work more with the consonant diagraph th this weeks as it holds more opportunities for learning for this group of children.

My school also celebrates its 50th anniversary in May. Each grade level is working on a project for a time capsule to be buried and dug up in twenty five years at the 75th anniversary.  Our class worked on a class book of letters.  When I introduced this project, I talked about how it was a birthday present for a Monroe.  My class has lots of questions about how long it would be before we opened it. When I told them, they would be my age on Monroe's 75th anniversary, I shocked them!  We also talked about how kindergarten had changed throughout the years.  We have been reading Ramona the Pest during our quiet time and I referenced the story and how Ramona only goes to kindergarten for half day.  I asked them to think about things that make our school (and class) special.  Some of them understood that and it shows in their letters.  I loved the final outcome.