We Survived the Snow Days!

We are about to go back to school after 7 snow days at home- that's 9 straight days of pajama wearing excitement if you count weekends. What's more, all of this happened right after a three day weekend and a teacher workday, meaning that the students have only gone to school ONE day since January 15th. That seems like a long time ago. This week is going to be rough.

Or maybe not. Maybe the students will have been so bored at home that they are anxious to get back to school. (One can dream, right?)

In the Lipstick household we ended up being out of town for a significant part of the blizzard, which meant we didn't go quite so stir-crazy as the rest of you. We had two different settings to sled, sip hot chocolate, chase each other around like maniacs, and fight over wearing the same PJs for days in a row.

In a moment of brilliance (or, eh, insanity, but those two are so closely linked) right before the snow hit I ordered a blow-up wading pool and balls for a ball pit. We've done this in the past but our previous wading pool had popped and we needed new balls. The new balls were the key to this because they arrived at our door in a massive box. A massive box just begging to become a little house.

My children have played with the ball pit a bit, but spent most of their pajama-clad snow day time inside the box.

Four year old tries to keep one year old in one place...

It's a house! It's an art table!

Windows are obviously for climbing through

I'll just sit here and sip my coffee since both my children are nicely situated inside the box.

The balls. Oh, hello regret. The almost-two-year-old thinks the ball pit is for turning upside down to watch the balls roll across the room. She has no problem cleaning them up, as long as she can immediately throw them on the ground again. I should have just ordered the box.

Snow Days and Working Mommy Frustrations

I just survived another snow day. I've lost count of how many we've had this winter, but enough that they are starting to lose their appeal. I love snow days, in theory. A little day off here and there - everything being paused for a moment. Sadly my love of snow days is slowly changing now that I have kids. It's not that I don't value the gift of a surprise day with my children, because I do. It can be chaotic and filled with too many off-key renditions of Let it Go, but still a wonderful day. What has become more and more difficult is that while I'm reading books and building forts I know my colleagues are working. My phone pings with new emails constantly, which I desperately try to ignore. I can't give meaningful replies and make sure my almost one year old doesn't eat the cat food. At 7:45, when both girls were in bed I finally checked my work email. 55 new emails. Many requiring thoughtful responses, which at this point, after a full day of child wrangling, I was not cognitively available to give. The guilt and frustration are there though. I know my colleagues were working hard during the day and I just couldn't do the same amount of work. I couldn't even reply to whether or not I was available for a meeting because that would involve checking my calendar and in the two seconds it would take to do that my little one would have made a run for the stairs. (I swear she knows when I'm not paying attention.) 

Snow days seem to add another layer complication to the working mommy challenges. I don't want to ignore my work emails for 12 hours while I know my colleagues are working hard. Yet I can't ignore my young children to keep up with the work email conversations. Getting to emails at 7:45 at night, hours after everyone else problem solved, volunteered for tasks and made decisions is discouraging. There are no good answers, and I know years from now I'll blissfully wish for these chaotic-filled snow days. 

 

What happens when they don't #closeFCPS

Yesterday's morning post was a sad foreshadowing of what was to come. My peaceful morning wondering about the announcement that never came turned into a less than peaceful drive to work, a day of everyone questioning the need to be on the roads, and a twitter explosion, with high schoolers in our county discovering the power of social media. Their battle cry, #closeFCPS, trended worldwide, with tweets coming in from around the world saying, "I'm in Germany and I still think they should #closeFCPS." There is probably a lot to be said about the social media lesson they learned, which isn't something that could have been taught in an actual classroom. And I suppose it's better to learn about that power through something as benign as a snow day and not through the need for standing up to an oppressive government. I'm not sure that's what the county had in mind when they were making the decision to keep the schools open though, and I'm pretty sure county officials' days would have been a lot calmer if dealing with the twitter feed wasn't on their agenda.

So what happens inside the schools when they don't close? I wasn't on twitter myself, but here's my twitter-like feed of the day.

• 6:45- Getting family ready, check email to see that 8 am meeting is canceled. Momentarily pleased that the administrators were thoughtful to cancel the meeting. Thinking of what I'll do with my free hour.
• 7:00- Check Facebook and see a stream of posts about the roads and accidents. Starting to get concerned about my own commute.
• 7:30- Leaving for school after finally wrestling toddler and infant into coats.
• 8:15- Pull into school parking lot, no longer wondering what I'll do with my free hour. It was just eaten up by the commute. Why isn't anyone here yet? Did they cancel school on my drive? Email check- nope, still on.
• 8:40- Loud speaker requests anyone in the building to come to the office to so we can access how many teachers we actually have and make a plan for how we can cover classes without teachers.
• 9:00- Teachers waiting at assigned posts for kids who are usually streaming into the building by now. The stream is more of a drip. 1, 2, 3.
• 9:20- Only kids in the building are ones whose parents brought them. More teachers making it to school. The classrooms we were worried about covering are still empty- no kids.
• 9:30- Teachers standing out waiting for buses. Rumors about stuck buses, buses skipping whole neighborhoods stops, and bus drivers being told that being stuck for two hours and being hit by a car isn't a priority right now, to just sit tight and wait.
• 9:40- Buses are coming in. We prepare for the onslaught of kids- 10 kids get off the first bus, 6 off the second, none off the third. Kids getting off the first bus are talking about standing on the street for an hour waiting for their bus. That's dedication to learning. 
• 9:50- all resource teachers are wandering the halls looking for ways to be useful. There aren't enough kids to be useful.
• 9:55- News that we are a twitter sensation starts to come in. 
• 10:00- I'm walking by half-filled classrooms.
• 10:05- One student tells how he came to school in a taxi because they bus never came to get him.
• 10:15- county-wide email comes in "apologizing" for the decision, saying we will not get home early. Really worried about being stuck here tonight. Will they actually get all the buses unstuck and ready for their afternoon routes?
• 10:30- Teammate arrives to school after having her car hit.
• 10:40- Rumor that county told bus drivers that if they have kids stuck on buses to just take them nearest school. Wonder if this is actually true. Are we going to have random kids show up? Where are our students?
• 11:00- Teachers frantically calling parents to figure out if their students are stuck on a bus or are safe at home.
• 11:15- I go to pull students for a group. Student isn't at school. 
• 11:30- Hear a story about a car sliding under a bus, no one seems concerned. Apparently there is worse happening out there.
• 12:15- Only two students in the classroom I normally go into for guided reading. Feeling useless. 
• 1:00- Run into a teacher who finally made it to school after abandoning her car when they closed the road she sat on for two hours.
• 2:00- Planning meeting ends with us checking the twitter hashtag and reading about all the bus accidents being reported.
• 3:00- Go to pick up fourth grade guided reading group. None of the 4 members made it to school. Back to paperwork. Classes watching movies.
• 3:01- Another apology email from the county comes in, this one a bit more sincere.
• 3:20- Copier seems to have stopped working. Perhaps busted from the amount of paperwork we were catching up on today.
• 3:25- Almost every classroom I walk by has a movie on. Classes are combined since together they can make up part of a whole class.
• 3:45- Worried about getting everyone out the door. Will the buses actually come?
• 4:15- Leaving school and realizing I worked with a total of two students today. 
• 6:00- check email- see two county wide emails, one announcing tomorrow's two hour delay and another letting us know that those of us who came into work will have an additional day of administrative leave. Those that didn't make it in won't have to take leave for the day. #thanksFCPS. That makes me happy, although does not do anything for the high school tweeters. Alas, the power of social media can bring awareness to a cause but it isn't going to be a fairy god mother.

The whole day leaves me with two main thoughts. 1) I work with extremely dedicated teachers. Those who made it to school had so many war stories to tell, and those who didn't feel ridiculously guilty even though the situation was out of their control. 2) The students I work with are dedicated as well. The long wait at the bus stops, taking a taxi, parents walking students to school in the snow- it is a reminder of the commitment to learning our students and our families make.

Snow Day?

Snow is silently falling outside my window, coating the street and sidewalk with a light white covering and a sense of peace that comes from natural beauty intersecting with our busy lives. Inside I'm hitting refresh on my email every five seconds, waiting for those brilliant few lines saying, "go back to sleep, we've closed schools today," or even, "two hour delay." We've been back at school for only a day, but the excitement over a snow day- especially the first snow day of the year- isn't something that follows any logic.

5:25. No email yet. Snow still falling.

Over winter break my Facebook feed started to fill with teacher comments about snow this week. On one person's excited "Snow?" status I noticed an angry commenter, who asked just how lazy teachers are to have two full weeks off and then be hoping for more days off. If I squint my eyes I can kind of see her point. I'm assuming that she has at least three children at home, had her own work schedule thrown off by the two week break, and is ready to send her kids back to school. She wants routine. Or maybe she has a horrible, boring job that would never allow her to experience the joy of snow. I have a small bit of sympathy, but not enough to agree that we shouldn't be excited about a snow day.

5:30. Website still has yesterday's date. No sign of a snow day.

It's not that we're lazy, don't want to work, don't like our jobs or don't care about our students. It's pretty much the opposite. If we are working all the time, thinking about our students all the time, and putting in long hours that we don't actually get paid for, snow days are like our Christmas bonus. Other professionals get to look forward to a check at the end of the year for a job well done. Snow days are our bonus check from God, thanking us for our hard work and telling us to keep it up. Here's a day off. Some teachers will go into work anyway if their buildings are open and try to get work done. Others will work from home, and some will stay in their pajamas all day and watch movies. Use it how you see fit. It's a snow day.

5:40am. Still no announcement. Toddler starting to stir upstairs.

I feel for those of you who work in warm weather states because you don't experience the elation of waking up to find you've been given a random day off. I'm sure you find joy in not having recess duty in 35 degree weather, but still. Snow days are a special sort of magic.

5:43. Why is there no announcement yet? Starting to get worried. By now they've got the buses up and running.

5:49. Things are looking grim. Time to face the reality of cleaning off the car and going into work on time. Could it be?

Snow days, glorious snow days

Today was a much needed snow day. I am a firm believer in the theory that snow days are little gifts from God sent specifically to teachers as his way of saying, "You know what, you've been working so hard, just take a moment and relax."

They are a beautiful, beautiful thing.

This snow day was a bit painful because although other areas in the region were getting snow, my house and my Ezra Jack Keats loving daughter was only getting rain. So although our snow day did not end up being a memorable Peter-puts-on-his-snowsuit type day, it was just what we needed anyway.

The day before my entire school was sent into the field for an aerial photograph. I've seen this done in other schools and I remember taking part in it in my middle school (a very, very long time ago) but I've been a part of it before. And I have to admit, I hope I'm not a part of it again.

For the kiddos in my program it was particularly painful. They like their routines, a lot and here we were totally blowing their routines out of the water. Grant it, it's a good opportunity to practice rolling with the flow, but practicing rolling with the flow tends to put a lot more stress on us as teachers. My kiddos just couldn't understand what was happening. Why, oh why were we outside in the field, not having recess and not lined up for a fire drill?

After we'd been out for what felt like two hours (but was in fact more like 15 minutes) one of my girls started yelling, "no, no, No, No, NO!" and shaking her head to announce she was done. This is usually our sign to have her take a break before things get more stressful, but here we were, packed into a field with all the other students at our school, trying to smile when the photographer told us to smile.

While I was worried about what to do with my pre-meltdown friend another of my kiddos didn't want to waste time merely telling us he was upset. One moment he was standing beside me and the very next he was sprinting across the field, looking backwards to see if I was coming after him, and giggling with absolute glee. I can't say I blame him. It was a beautiful afternoon, we were outside and not doing math, and normally when we're outside it means playtime.Frankly, at that moment I wanted to run away from the mass of elementary school students myself.

Anyone who works with young children with disabilities knows that the cardinal sin in working with runners is that you do not chase them. The last thing you want is for them to think it is a game and have them run faster. Of course, anyone else would see a running child and immediately sprint after them.

Nothing beats those few moments of having a child run away from you while the entire school looks on. You have two choices. You can try to keep it together enough to not chase him so that you don't reward the behavior by playing the game. Or you can run after the child in hopes of ending the whole situation as fast as possible  Walking as quickly as possible I prayed I didn't look ridiculously lazy and incompetent as I marched after my giggling, quite happy friend who was absolutely shocked and a bit taken aback when I (finally caught up to him and) explained that it wasn't time for running.

It was a long, long 20 minutes. And a well deserved snow day.

More exciting...

Yes, there is something more exciting than putting out water and finding it turned to ice.

It's a two hour snow delay when you get to re-live The Snowy Day by bringing in snow and watching it melt (but playing with it first).

One of my fabulous coworkers told me she was bringing in a bunch of snow for her class of students with intellectual disabilities to play with.

In ten years of teaching why have I never thought of this before?!?!?

It was so much fun, with no clean up other than wiping down the table (the table is much cleaner now as well after having all that water scrubbed onto it).  We worked on vocabulary (cold, hot, wet, soft, white, melt), discussed the states of water (watching the snow melt and turn into water) and made connections with The Snowy Day. I'd say that was 20 minutes well spent.

patience

I'm not sure which is harder, being 5 and waiting, desperately for snow to start, or being a kindergarten teacher and trying to keep the 5 year olds attention while they are desperately staring out the window waiting for the snow to start.

the heaven of 2 hour delays

When I was a classroom teacher I always had hot chocolate waiting for my kids on 2 hour delays. It was the perfect way to calm them down in the morning as we'd all sip our coco and read our books.  When I left the classroom partner-in-crime took over the tradition.

Can you think of a better way to start the morning?

Friday morning's hot chocolate and book party

Jobs I'm glad I don't have-

1. The person who has to make the decision about snow days. Like, our superintendent. Because there are some angry, angry people out there who,when not shouting at each other on list serves or on facebook, are taking their aggression out on our superintendent over his snow day decisions. At this point he will never be able to make anyone happy, so I just hope he chooses what will keep everyone safe.

2. The person who has to decide how to rearrange our schedules to make sure everyone has time for lunch on 2 hour delays. Like, my assistant principal. But I have to hand it to her, she was even trying to brain storm creative ways to get the children some outdoor "recess" on the sidewalks that are clear. I love her.

3. The person who has to drive 50+ loud, excited, hyper children through the neighborhoods only plowed enough to allow one lane to get through at a time- driving through the same streets lined on either side by unplowed sidewalks that are bound to force the children you are not driving to walk in the street, right in your way. There is a special place in heaven for bus drivers after tomorrow.

4. The person who has to someone figure out how we're going to administer those 550 standardized tests to assess English language acquisition. You know, the one we were stressed about completing at the end of January, before we missed 2 weeks of school?

snow day love

I have to admit, I absolutely love snow days. My facebook and twitter feed is currently filled with my co-workers who are admitting they are bored out of their minds and are desperate to get out of their houses or even back to work. I admit I can't relate to being bored along with them.

I adore snow days.

Growing up, preparing for snow days was like preparing for snow-camp. We lived on 10 acres of land that could only be reached by a half mile, uphill gravel road off the main road. When it snowed we were stuck. The rest of the world may have been able to hustle around with 4 wheel drive, but we were absolutely unable to get down the gravel hill safely in order to get to civilization. And if we did make it down, there was not a chance we would survive the climb back up. We were also on well water, so when we lost electricity we lost everything. No showers, no flushing toilets.

And keep in mind this is before the internet. So even when the electricity was on we were limited in our activities, because, of course, we did not have cable. (My parents spent years of our lives telling us that the only channels we got were PBS and the news and that all those channels we saw at our friends' houses were "cable". They got away with this because our tv was one of the original tvs ever made and did not have a remote. You had to change the channel by turning two different knobs and had to make sure the first knob was turned to exactly the right spot in order to turn the second knob. There mere thought of changing the channel made the tv transition to complete fuzz and we had to hit it numerous times to make it reasonably watchable. Therefore I believe my brothers and I watched every episode of any PBS show ever made between the years of 1986-1991, when I decided I was too old to watch PBS and would either hold my hand in the right place over the tv so that I could watch Full House, with my nose against the screen, or I would read a book. Because of this I read books that were later made into movies I wasn't allowed to watch).

Anyway, with limited access to the tv, no access to civilization, and the threat of not being able to flush toilets for days during a snow storm, we had no choice- we had to utterly thrived on snow days or kill each other.

My mother was a snow day queen. She always seemed to have the ingredients in the kitchen to keep us busy baking, and she had no problems letting us open cook books to find new recipes to try. Or allowing us to see what happens if we just throw a pinch of this and a handful of that into a bowl and bake it... She didn't mind that most of those ended in disaster, or that we made a gigantic mess in the process. (We did, of course have to clean it up).

She also allowed us to roller blade in our finished basement on snow days. There wasn't much room, but there was enough to practice the jumps we saw the ice skaters on tv do. And we could put the couch cushions out to catch us when we fell.

We were even granted the use of the video camera so we could make our own short films or recreate the trashy talk shows we'd only heard rumors of from friends. I pray that all of these have been destroyed...

My mother knew that the secret to surviving a good snow was a roll of butcher block paper. She'd roll it across the kitchen floor and then encourage us to just go at it. If it was before Christmas she got out stamps and we made our own wrapping paper. Some days my brothers would create race tracks for their matchbox cars, or elaborate game boards that stretched across our kitchen. Once she read us The Snow Day by Ezra Jack Keats and then encouraged us to make our own Snowy Day scenes across the long roll of paper.

Of course, living on 10 acres of land we were also well equipped with sleds and even had 2 old pairs of cross-country skis. We usually had to be tortured into venturing outside on skis, but once out there we were able to explore the trails in the woods behind our house, or create elaborate sledding runs in our back paddock.

Because of all this snow days meant a vacation uninterrupted by the demands of the real world. It meant days of buckling down as a family and just being. With no chance of escaping being bored didn't get us very far, so we hopped from project to project, happily enjoying the fact that we had no demands but to be trapped inside.

I can't help but have that same excitement now. The first sign of snow makes me giddy with the thought of what's to come. I love to watch it fall, love to see the white-covered ground, and love to see those beautiful words on the television- "Schools Closed".

Not that I don't love my job and don't miss my kids. I do.

But, I have to admit I'm not very bored. I've embraced a large pile of books, I've caught up with old friends, played around with some arts and crafts projects, finally watched those movies every one's recommended, and taken long walks. Every time I think I might be bored another idea pops into my head for something to play with on the sewing machine, a knitting project to start, or a book to re-read.

It helps that I no longer live in a place where snow=shelter in place. I'm walking distance from stores, coffee shops and restaurants, as well as many friends. I could even jump on a bus and be downtown to explore museums.

The snow has started falling again threatening to never let us get back to school EVER again. And I'm sure a time will come when I too am ready to be out of my house. But right now I'm guiltily living up my little snowcation.

using the snow to my advantage

Our entire region is absolutely, ridiculously snowed in. This is absurd. We do not live in Canada. We do not live in New England. We do not live in Antarctica. Although, it feels like it these days. The squirrels are starting to look more and more like penguins.

And we're starting to suspect we will never go to school again.

On my afternoon walk, as I embraced the beauty of the snow covered trees and the quietness of the neighborhood, it occurred to me this is actually a good thing for some of my children.

In order to get my special education students to qualify for summer school I have to be able to prove that they will actually lose the skills they learned over the year if they have the entire summer off. Typically we do not worry too much about this since our summer breaks were so short. But since now we are looking at a regular school summer I'm feeling a little nervous about some of my children regressing over that long summer- we've worked so, so hard for them to go so long without reading or seeing their name in print.

Right before last Tuesday's snow I was going over my paperwork and looking at what sort of data I needed to be able to prove that my children's skills actually regressed over a break. But since our children go to intersession during our breaks, this is actually harder to prove- they may have a "break" from regular school, but they are still in a learning environment.

Yet now, with what could turn out to be a very long unexpected break from school with absolutely no instruction, I might actually be able to get my data.

I kind of feel like a scientist excited about the perfect conditions for an experiment. Not that I'm experimenting with my kids- but I need this data.

It feels wrong that I have to hope they'll lose what I just worked so hard to teach them- but if it allows them to go to summer school I feel like it is worth a shot.

So, here's to my children not doing anything for a week but letting the tv eat their brains...

only so that they may have a summer filled with learning.

the un-justice of snow days

Our county made the announcement that school would be cancelled this past Wednesday at the same time it made the announcement that we would be expected to go to school on Presidents' Day. There was something harsh and unfair in the combined message. They took all happiness and excitement out of Wednesday's snow by so quickly reminding us that we'd lost the 3 day weekend we'd all been looking forward to. Couldn't they have allowed us to enjoy the luxury of the snow day and just waited 24 hours to tell us when we'd have to make it up?

Last night we watched the local news interview some young boy about the upcoming storm, who must have shared my exact feelings.

"They've already taken away Presidents' Day" he mournfully shook his head, "Who knows what holiday they'll take away next."

Mr. Lipstick, who clearly does not understand the sad reality of having to make up snow days responded in his best grim-reaper voice.

"your birthday. hahaha"

perhaps...

one of the cruelest fates in the world is to be sick over snow days. when you have the opportunity to have a day of unscheduled excitement, but are instead stuck inside, under the covers, angrily wondering which little one gave you your current disease. exactly whose cough was it that is keeping you inside and miserable when you could be playing in the snow?

bitterness.

**SNOW**

Like my weather-obsessed friend predicted, we got lots and lots of snow on Saturday. (and I hope everyone followed his advice and drove their cars slowly, if they drove at all!)

I've had multiple posts floating in my head the last few days, but after attempting to free my car from the snow trap created by mother nature and my neighborhood's snow plow, I'm too tired to actually compose sentences with correct sentence structure. So if I revert to using my kids' broken English phrases please forgive me...

They've finally announced that our school system is closed for the next 3 days. 3 days!?! It's beautiful, in many ways- we have time to lay around in our pjs, get that last minute Christmas shopping done, sip hot chocolate, finish up Christmas cards, wrapping, cooking, and get in some sledding! But... but... Panic has set in.

My facebook feed is full of panic- lessons to organize, intersession to plan for, class pets to feed, children to teach, gifts to deliver to needy families, conferences to hold, report cards to finalize, ieps to close out. Not to mention the fact that this means we're using up all our built in snow days before the real winter even starts!

It says something about my awesome coworkers that my facebook feed is now full of teachers planning to storm the building to get in as soon as the parking lot is clear, and the promise that my principal plans to make sure we get in. One of my coworkers summed it up nicely:

We really are a very dedicated bunch of teachers to go in on a day off to get things settled. I don't ever want to hear crap from the business world about our job!

who needs the weather channel?

grinch like

My Monday afternoon duty takes place amongst our many trailers ( "learning cottages" for those who dislike the term trailer). This is usually a fairly boring duty compared to my old post at kiss and ride, where one is always afraid that a parent on a cell phone is going to run you over.

Today, however, we still had snow on the ground. The students must have misunderstood "Bus 1, 2, and 3 are dismissed" for "Please pack ice into small balls to throw at your friends", and "Students going to daycare are now dismissed" for "Please tromp through the snow and get your pants as wet as possible".

Really. The poor children whose names I knew were in trouble first, the rest I could only yell, "Drop the snow!" "Get to your bus!" "Get your feet out of the snow!"

And somewhere in there I stood back and heard myself- the Grinch who stole the Snow.

For some of our children this was their first or second time every seeing snow. How does one not reach down and stick ones hand into the cold, wet, whiteness?

They can't miss their buses, they can't have snowball fights, and they really should keep their shoes dry so they wont get sick. I just wish I didn't have to be the one to deliver the depressing no-fun news.

**snow** a moment of gloating. please excuse.

while my college classmates may be at their high paying, highly respected jobs the alumni magazine always writes about, they had to brave the weather this morning. i saw those like them huddled by the bus stop this morning, or brushing off their cars while looking bitter about the weather. but, my friends, while you have more earning potential than i do, and people don't respond with "how cute!" when they hear what you do for a living, you do not have the pleasures of a snow day.

God gave teachers a snow day- His way of saying thank you for all the hard work we do during the year.


i love snow.

why i keep hitting refresh on weather.com

pajamas inside out.
ice cubes in the toilet.
dance in the front yard.
walk backwards to bed.
stand on your head while chanting to the snow gods.

do whatever is needed.

I want to still be in my pjs at lunch tomorrow.

it's time for some snow.

"We do not throw George Washington"

Thanks to being the transition back to our normal routine, a snowy Thursday, a two hour delay Friday, and just having five year olds be five year olds, this week was exhausting. I find myself almost too tired to compose my thoughts on this week other than:

1. I'm glad its over.

2. Although I love having dolls of Famous Americans, it does distress me to see George Washington sail across the room. (Could someone please give me a Helen Keller doll??)

3. What kind of a world do we live in where five year olds have to spend an entire day watching snow fall outside their classroom window, only to finally get out of school and have it begin to rain.

4. If I hear anyone at the central office make a comment about how fabulous it was that we didn't send our children home early so that we had an uninterrupted day of learning on Thursday I might punch them. And once they fire me, they can spend a day with children watching snow fall and then decide whether or not it was uninterrupted learning.

5. I love watching five year olds watch the snow fall. I love the shock on their faces when we walk down the hallway and they see that it isn't just snowing outside their classroom window~ it is snowing outside on the playground, and in the parking lot, and outside the cafeteria too.

what's in there?

Today in honor of the snow I grabbed white paint and blue paper and decided we would make Snowy Day snow pictures. I did this with my kindergarten lunch club yesterday and decided that it went well enough I'd try it with my first grade group.

The only problem is, I don't have paint brushes. I had a fantastic tub of paint brushes. If I'm honest my tub of paint brushes was my favorite part of my classroom. It looked so inviting. The different shapes and sizes of brushes, just asking to be used in whatever creative process they are needed. When I moved out of my classroom I left the brushes and haven't seen them since. I miss them.

So, yesterday when I was grabbing the supplies for my kindergarten bunch I didn't have time to ask someone for brushes. Why let that stop me? I grabbed plastic knives, spoons, and paperclips and demonstrated all the magic we could create with these supplies. They bought it, and we had a lot of fun. So why not try it again?

Today I introduced this to my two first graders and they ate it up. One though, seemed to dive into the project in a way I'd never seen before. He started looking around the classroom for other supplies to paint with. He found two skinny wooden rods, hooked them together with a paperclip, and began painting with both of the rods. Then he grabbed another piece of paper and pressed it on top of his current art work to create a stamp.

This is a little one who stays in the back of the classroom by choice, defies teachers who try to engage him, and frequently avoids participating. He struggles with language and although wants to communicate, gets so frustrated by his difficulties that he lashes out in anger frequently.

I've seen him talkative and happy before, but I've never witnessed this amount of initiative and creativity. He was in his own world, making his ideas happen, testing his theories, and fixing them when they didn't work. To be honest, I was shocked. This is a child who has thrown his guided reading books at me when he got frustrated.

So what is in there? He is a problem solver, he is thinking quickly, making connections in his life, and he seems to love creating. This just isn't what we normally see. This isn't reflected in his testing, or his predicted ability. Are his communication struggles making him appear behind his peers in everything when really it is just his ability to verbalize his thoughts? Who is this little boy we've known all year? What else is hiding in there?

I don't know, but I am planning another open-ended art project for tomorrow. Let's see what else we can discover.