April Fools!

There is nothing quite like April Fools in an elementary school. I lament on this every year because every year it tends to be painful. As I got ready for work today I tried to decide the best tactic to take with my class-
1) utterly ignore the holiday all together and pray that no one knows what it is
2) dive head first into it and teach them about it myself
3) glare at them if they try to make a joke at all.

Seeing that it was the first day back from break and all we really needed to do was get back into the swing of things I decided to go with #2 and dive head first into the holiday.

I REALLY wanted to go with #1, but I've found in the past that kids with intellectual disabilities don't always understand April Fools Day. When someone decides to make a joke (and it always happens when adults aren't around to explain, either on the bus, at the park by their house, or in the hallways) they get offended and take it personally. Which can end up with them getting into a lot of trouble if they decide to take matters into their own hands and hit the kid who innocently said, "Hey, you have a spider on your shoe!"

SO, even though I personally think April Fools is a horrid day, I decided that teaching them about the day would actually be important. It's a social phenomena that is just a bit hard to wrap your head around.

"There's an elephant behind you!"
"There's a spider on your head!"
"There's a snake under your chair!"

Giggle, giggle, giggle, *long teacher sigh*

We ended up playing a joke on our principals. We wrote a letter telling them that there was an elephant in our classroom and that we needed help getting it out. Hysterical. Have you ever heard of a funnier joke? I know. You'd think that we never laugh in my class the way my kids roared at this joke.
They thought this was just so funny that when it came time to deliver the letter the only thing they could do was point at my principal and say "ELEPHANT!" which really came out as quite rude. Luckily they yelled "April Fools!" before anyone had time to say anything else.

More hysterical laughter.

Thank goodness for administrators willing to play along.

I'm not sure the kids really understood the concept of April Fools, but at least they weren't going to be offended if anyone played an April Fools joke on them, and *hopefully* they'll remember that we only play these jokes once a year.

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.

the off limits playground

Being a part of starting a new school has been a fascinating process. Watching a school get built from the ground up- to go from an empty building to a breathing community is almost mesmerizing  It also makes me appreciate all the little ins and outs that go into a well run school.

One of the drawbacks of working in a brand new school is the lack of a playground. Due to a series of unfortunate events our school is still without a playground. Or- correction- without a playground we're allowed to play on.

For awhile there was a massive mound of dirt where our playground was suppose to be. It was finally moved (using very large bulldozers, much to our little boys' excitements). Then the open space sat empty for awhile, dirt-free but playground-less.

They FINALLY broke ground on the playground two weeks ago. It was a cause for celebration. And the playground looks awesome. However, while it is being installed we are forced to body block our students from accessing the playground. It's a bit hard to explain to a student with autism that no, he cannot play on the awesome, brand new, brightly colored playground because, well, it's currently under-construction. The students can SEE the playground. If they can SEE it why can't they PLAY on it? Delayed gratification is something we are learning about, and it is a very, very painful lesson.

The construction workers installing the playground waiver between amusement and horror as they watch us try to keep the kids from crossing the barrier between the blacktop and the playground (the horror comes from when our crafty kids find holes and manage to sneak through to them).

One more week and then we're hoping it will be open and ready to go. We cannot wait.

All in a Day

I arrived at school this morning to have my coworker hand me this article. It is amazing. Preview- it's about a teacher who doesn't like kids.

It was clearly the right type of humor to start my day so that I was able to find amusement in the little things.

~~  ~~

Me: Friend, we need to clean the tables. Go get a wet paper towel.

2 minutes later

Me: Friend, where is the paper towel? I asked you to get a wet paper towel. 

Friend: I did. *looks at the trash*

Sure enough, there is a wet paper towel sitting in the trash can. She followed directions- she got the paper towel and wet it. She did exactly what I told her to do.

Me: *deep sigh*

~~  ~~

Me: Wear your pajamas inside out tonight so that it will snow!

Friend 2: Hooray! Wait, oh no, I don't wear pajamas.

Me: What do you wear?

Friend: Ummmm.....  not pajamas. How will it snow?

Me: Well, wear your clothes inside out.

Friend: I don't wear clothes.

Me: Wear your jammies inside out.

Friend: Oh! Jammies! I wear those.

~~  ~~

It's the little things during the day that make me giggle. 

Poor substitutes...

This afternoon I was walking my class back into the school after recess and I noticed the substitute aid was trying to go through different doors to get inside. I shook my head, wondering why on earth she'd ignore what we were doing as a class- why would she decide she didn't want to use the same door as us? I didn't question it and just kept going- trying to get all my kiddos inside is a challenge in itself- transitions aren't really our strength (to put it mildly).

Once we were inside she took me aside and explained. One of my kiddos- my sweet, sweet little friend in a wheelchair- had told her that he couldn't go through certain doors in our school. He apparently had her running in and out of different doors all day. He'd also told her that he'd left his coat at home (he hadn't) and that I always let him go outside without a coat (I don't.)

I had to put  my hand over my mouth so that I wouldn't giggle in front of him. I should be mad. I should be very, very angry that he would trick an adult like that.

But...
I honestly didn't know he had it in him. To tell her that he needed to go out particular doors and not other doors? The higher level thinking- the understanding that he can tell a lie and that she won't know the truth- well, that's a pretty smart place to be.

It's not OK. I mean, we can't make up stories and trick people, but, I'd rather have a child be capable of telling stories than a child who is always honest just because he doesn't understand that adults can't read his mind. The tricking- it's a good sign.

And kind of funny. OK, really funny.

Teaching Impulse Control

For those of us in the primary grades teaching impulse control in the beginning of the year is essential. It can be a fun way to build community and get to know your kids, but it is also a way to survive the year. 

A few years ago I wrote about the games my partner-in-crime and I played with our kinders to teach impulse control and many people commented about other great impulse control games. Here's a list of some great impulse control games- what else do you recommend?

Teaching and Practicing Impulse Control:

• Red Light, Green Light
• Laughing Machine-  The teacher drops a tissue from in the air and the class laughs until the tissue hits the floor. This teaches them to control their laughing- something that comes in handy when you're ready to move on from a funny part of a book and they just aren't...
• Freeze Dance- Play music and when you stop it the class stops dancing.
• Freeze Game- Freeze when the teacher rings a bell or does what will be the classroom's quiet sign
• Follow the Leader- The class simply walks behind the teacher while copying whatever motion she does. Which means their eyes have to stay on her. And not their friends, or their shoes, or the frog, or the window, or the bathroom. Every time a little one looks up and realizes the whole classroom is taping their heads while he is still taping his knees it's a reminder to the kiddo that he needs to look at the teacher (and a good sign to us teachers of who may need more help with impulse control!)
• Doggy, Doggy, Where's Your Bone? One child sits in the center of the circle and is the "doggy" with an eraser or another object under the chair to act as the bone. The teacher silently points to another child to "steal the bone". Once the thief is sitting on top of the "bone" and it is completely out of sight the whole class sings, "Doggy, Doggy, where's your bone? Somebody stole it from your home?" The child in the center opens his eyes and has to guess who took it. The impulse control pieces comes when the whole class has to sit silently and not tell the 'dog' who took the 'bone'. Harder than you think for some of our little ones. (This also gives you an idea of who has a strong concept of mind and who can't keep a secret).
• Four Corners-  one child is in the middle of the room with their eyes closed. Kids walk quietly to one corner of the room and the kid in the middle has to guess where the most kids are. Then those kids are out until there is only one person left. It's not exactly impulse control in theory but it can be if they are so excited they want to sprint to the corner! (Thanks Kelly with a Red Sox Cap!)
• Into the river- This is where you have the class in a straight line and they are next to for example, a straight line on a basketball court. The line represents the river. The children can step either side of the line which represents the bank. You all start on one side and begin."Into the river, onto the bank , into the river, into the river." Those jumping off the line and onto the bank are out. Game continues. (Thanks Magpie!)

Alright- I know there are a million other ones out there- what are your go-to impulse control games??

busy hands

Tear-art snowmen- no scissors allowed. Keeps their hands busy for a nice, long time the day before winter break.

arrested

Our amazing speech pathologist was meeting with third graders the other day and found herself discussing bedtimes. After learning they each went to bed WAY to late for a third grader (way to late for a teacher as well!) she gave them a quick lecture on how important it is to get a good night sleep. She ended it with,
"It is very important to be well-rested."

One of them gasped in horror. "We'll be arrested if we don't go to sleep early?"

The temptation to agree that yes, they would be arrested without a good night sleep would have been way, way too much for me. How much do you not want to agree, "Yes, absolutely. So tonight, go to bed early or I'm calling the cops."

Alas, as she is a good, moral teacher, she corrected his misunderstanding.

We all laughed about this, and then found ourselves reflecting on this kiddo. Although he played it off as being funny, he really did hear "arrested". How much of his day does he spend interpreting what was said and trying to make meaning out of the parts of words he hears? How much time does he spend trying to be silly to hide the fact he mis-heard directions? What information is he truly getting throughout the day?

moments

Yesterday was pretty awful, and then today... I'm not even ready to blog about today. But despite all that, there were those moments- moments that help remind me just why this really is the best job in the world.

Yesterday morning I was walking in the hallway when I over heard two third graders.

"So, did you like living in Africa?" one asked the other as they made their way to class, as though comparing different continents is natural for all 9 year olds.

** ** **

As I was leaving school yesterday I heard screeching coming from one of the houses right off school grounds. I ignored it, but it only got louder and more frantic. Then I started to wonder if the house was on fire and the child was screaming for help. It sounded like she was yelling about a stick- wait, no, not a stick- lipstick. Yes, someone was leaning out the window of their house, screeching, jumping up and down, waving her arms, screaming about lipstick.

Oh, wait- Mrs. Lipstick. Yes, she was definitely calling to me.

As I walked closer to her house she waved her arms even harder.

"I'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW!" she screeched as she gave me thumbs up with both hands. I waved back and started to get into my car.

"MRS LIPSTICK!" she screamed again, "YOU DRIVE A WHITE CAR."

** ** **

Today as I was in the midst of a guided reading group, I noticed the story teller silently stomping his feet around the room. On second glance I noticed that he was not just stomping, but giving occasional silent 'roars' with his mouth in the direction of others, with his arms bent in front of him, mimicking the front legs of a T-Rex. Yes, the storyteller was spending reading workshop pretending to be a dinosaur. Grant it, he was doing his center, he was just doing it dino-style, as though he was straight out of Calvin and Hobbs.

so much for zen...

A few months ago they started offering yoga after school for an extremely reasonable fee. Every Wednesday a yoga instructor attempts to turn one of our "learning cottages" aka trailers into a relaxing, peaceful environment where we can spend an hour stretching out all the tension that's built up over the past week.

I'd never really done yoga before, but after enough well-meaning lectures from my aide about how I need to learn to meditate and stretch to get rid of my tension headaches (she's from China) I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea.

It's become a beautiful mid-week ritual where I leave the trailer feeling uplifted and relaxed, knowing I can handle the rest of the week. Of course, since this class started in the winter, and the playground beside the trailer has been covered in snow for most of that time, we've always had the last few moments of class to relax in peaceful silence.

Today, however, the playground was full of the children from after school care. Children who had not been outside on a playground in 3 months. Children who have been couped up inside taking test after test. Children who need to run, scream, and play.

Sadly screaming children on a playground do not aid any teacher's attempts at de-stressing, especially when the teachers are able to identify certain screams and know exactly who is most likely trying to walk up the slide, whose throwing mulch, and whose not using the swings appropriately.

We tried really hard to lay silently during our relaxation period, but based on the rustling sounds echoing around the trailer I wasn't the only teacher thinking about each individual child whose voice carried into our room.

Let's just hope that the children's need for play was more beneficial than the teachers' need for zen.

moments when i think i may only survive on humor and chocolate

"how come authors write so many books?" a kindergartner asked me today.

"well, i think they like to write" i explained, trying to move on with my book introduction.

"nah" she disagreed, "they just want a lot of money, right?"

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

"mrs. lipstick, what is wrong with those kindergartners?" a first grader asked me at the end of the day.

"what do you mean, friend?"

"what i mean is, do they ever listen to you?"

*sigh* yes, but only sometimes. and not when they have a substitute, with 4 days left before winter break...

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
i can survive, i can survive, i can survive.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~
a student gave me and my co-teacher a very generous collection of shampoo and conditioner. mine is specifically for frizzy hair. hmm.
i hugged him and asked, "wow, did you and your mom think mrs. lipstick needs this?"
"yep!" he nodded happily.
hmp.

ok, his mom does work at a hair salon, so the gift was not a hint, but after 1 child called me a monster last week when i had my hair down, a 3rd grader asked how i made my hair stick out like that when it was down, and my first year teaching a boy gave me a curling iron for christmas (gently used). i'm starting to take the hint.

another child gave me a box of fudge.

i ate it on the way home.

now i'm fat with frizzy hair.

bananas unite!

The thing I miss most about being a classroom teacher is that I no longer get to burst into song whenever I feel like it. In my classroom we sang all the time. We sang for transitions. We sang during morning meeting. We sang in the midst of long lessons so we could get our wiggles out. We sang when I was feeling ansy and I needed to get my wiggles out.

No, I am not a good singer. I am horrible, tone-deaf singer. The poor, poor student-teachers and co-teachers who were stuck with me were faced with pretending my singing was beautiful and had to go along with whatever tune I started.

But regardless of my own singing ability I found that singing and chanting was the best way to get our wiggles out while I stayed in control of the group. I could never full handle the five minute break where kids got to dance alone, or got to get water and have a few minutes to chat. I needed more control. (And maybe I needed to wiggle too) So instead we sang.

I still sing while I teach when I can, which means not only do my co-teachers suffer from my terrible off-tune ramblings, but students from different classes will chase me down in the hallway and just burst into song. I've been walking along with the principal chatting about something important when a first grade girl has snuck up behind me. "BANANAS UNITE!" she belted out, expecting me to join in with "PEEL THE BANANA" as the principal eyed me suspiciously. This happens more than you think.

Once when I asked a class, "Do you know why the principal hired me?" a boy shouted out, "to sing the flea, fly song".

So you can only imagine my excitement when I found this waiting on my doorstep yesterday.

It has 88 different songs, rhymes and games to sing/chant/play with your class. I was excited to learn new songs, but also thrilled that some of my old favorites were in there. Songs I'd learned years and years ago at Camp Alleghany For Girls in Lewisburg WVA that I've brought to the classroom and thought no one else had ever heard of.

I brought it in this morning and my partner-in-crime immediately flipped through it and found one to play as our activity in morning meeting. It even has little side bars beside each song/activity that tell what skill is practiced (focusing, listening, self-control) so that when the principal comes in and wonders why you're "playing" you can explain you are having a guided-lesson on self-control. (I've found that as long as you can make anything your doing sound like you put a lot of research behind it people will stop questioning you)

I've also been doing a lot of reading on using play to help children develop executive function and improve their working memory. As I was flipping through the games in the book I noticed that many of the games would allow children to practice using their working memory during play.

So, if my little kindergarten friend was correct, I now have a whole new list of songs and games to add to my job description.

budget cuts hit everyone

during kindergarten reading workshop i looked up to see a little one tapping one finger against his palm. after a bit he'd hold his palm up against his ear for a moment, sigh, bring his palm down, and tap his fingers again.

i had to know.

friend, what are you doing?

calling the police. he stated, without bothering to glance up as though it was obvious, and continued his pattern of tap, tap, tap, hold up to ear, sigh, tap, tap, tap.

oh.... why?

because she (he pointed to the little girl beside him who was on-task reading a big book) isn't my friend anymore.

what are the police going to do? i asked, hoping to lead the conversation into a 'what is a better way to tell your friend that she hurt your feelings' discussion.

well, nothing 'cause they're not answering.


even in the imaginary world of a five year old the police budget has been cut so much that they can't answer the imaginary phone to take care of friendship problems.

it's a tough life.

bright pink temptation

this is for you mrs. lipstick! she exclaimed, wide-eyed with a huge smile as she thrusts a pink flower into my hand in the morning before school started.

for me! thank you! i answered, knowing she hadn't picked it for me, but the sight of me impulsively prompted her to hand over one of the bunch of tiny pink flowers she was clutching in her hand.

the tiny pink, well-groomed flowers that clearly were not growing by the side of the road as weeds. pink flowers that had clearly been planted, watered, and nurtured by a gardener.

wow! are these from your garden? i asked.

yeeesss, she replied but her crinkled nose and eyes on the ground gave away her secret.

are they from someone else's garden? i asked again.

her eyes found their way back to me. yes! she exclaimed, and before i could say anything about not picking other people's flowers she skipped off to hand out another lovely pink flower to the next teacher wandering by.

hopefully she picked them from a large well-stocked garden where the mass of flowers she so carefully plucked from the ground will not be missed by their original owners.

viola

now that i am no longer a classroom teacher i do not get to use my viola swamp voice of death nearly as much as i use to. with the exception of when last year's kindergarten class rolled down the hill during a fire drill (yes, rolled down the hill during a fire drill- every time i write it down it helps me to deal with the fact that it actually happened), it's a rare occurrence that i have to pull it out.

yesterday as i sat at my desk doing paperwork i could hear the substitute teacher across the hall trying to get my first grade class to line up for lunch. it wasn't going well. the incredible classroom teacher has these little ones wrapped around her finger and all she has to do is say, "oh friends, this is so sad" and they jump into shape for her. it's magic.

clearly that was not working with the substitute.

when it didn't seem to be getting any better i decided to intervene. as i walked across the hall i could feel myself turning into james marshall's book- the footsteps in the hall, the door knob turns... their faces of horror when they realize i'd caught them running all over the poor substitute in my viola swamp voice of death.

unless they were in the kindergarten class for the famous fire drill incident they had no idea i could do that.

i've learned that the viola swamp voice of death is most effective when you use the element of surprise. once they're standing there, mouths open, trying to get in line as fast as possible, quivering because they have no idea what is coming next if you are using the swamp voice, you turn immediately back into miss nelson. "oh look at carlos with his eyes to the front! wow. and annie- she's got her hands behind her back" sweetly labeling their behavior and further encouraging them to show what is expected of them.

and then, for the little one who thinks that the miss nelson voice means that you don't really mean business- you pull out viola one last time- "johnny, get in line NOW" just to show them that unlike miss nelson, you do not need to do a superman change in the bathroom- your viola swamp personality does not require a costume.

as the substitute eyed me with trepidation and stayed on the other side of the room from me the rest of the day i worried i'd snapped too much at my little friends. or perhaps, she, like any normal, non-teacher, would assume that what she just witnessed showed a dangerous split personality and decided it best to not get to close.

who knows. maybe teaching turns us all into schizophrenics with our constant battle between miss nelson and the swamp. perhaps mr. marshall was really a psychologist who appreciated this duality and wanted us to come to turns with our inner swamp.

I'm on to you

As we prepared for take off on my flight out to Denver the flight attendant stopped by our row of seats to give her safety speech.

"Would you help me?" she asked, "Will you hold these for me?" and she distributed her props- the seat belt, oxygen mask, etc to the seats around us.

As I held the oxygen mask and paid attention to the security talk for maybe the first time ever it occurred to me that this is exactly what I do to encourage the more rambunctious children to pay attention. Give them something to hold under the auspicious of "helping me" in order to encourage them to pay attention.

Hmmmm.... I don't know if I feel tricked or if I'm just impressed at the flight attendant's airplane management strategies.

desperate times

Last Friday after returning from the office where one of my little ones was being suspended, I looked out at the kindergarten room where my desk is and thought, "There is not a chance I'm going to make it to June 17th. Not a chance". If it was earlier in the school year, I thought, this kind of behavior would warrant a whole new behavior plan. But why now, with two and a-half weeks left?

But then I looked out again and decided, we're desperate. So my amazing co-teacher and I came up with a plan that really will only work for 2 and half weeks.

We have a "race track" where every student has a car. They've colored their cars and names themselves (they had the option of drawing their own cars, but every child picked the car I'd printed out for them- that's going in the wrong direction. I think the fact that all of our cars are going in the wrong directions is slightly symbolic of the year...)

The race track has mile markers and whenever your car hits a mile marker you get a note home telling your parents what an awesome job you did. The notes are pre-printed for teacher ease, we just have to put their names on them and then have the child draw a picture of what they were doing well to get their car moved ahead.

Cars move whenever the driver is following the teacher's directions or sitting quietly. If they get out of control and need to go to the pit to visit the mechanic, they go down to the crash-zone. Nothing happens to the driver, the car just goes into time out. Yet the children are still devastated when their car moves down (moreso than when we put the actual driver in time out. Somehow putting children in the "thinking spot" in our room has turned into a chance for them to be clowns, kick things, or take control of the classroom in their own little way. When their car is in time out they really don't have that opportunity). When the driver shows us one of the two magic behaviors, the car moves back to where it was before on the track. There's no going back or starting over- just a quick time out.

So far (after two days) it's been working. The kids are obsessed with the idea of the race and seem to love taking their notes home to their parents. A trip to the crash zone typically stops the undesired behavior, even more than putting the child in the thinking spot in the classroom. For some kids it is excellent because it really only focuses on the positive. They can track their individual progress and seem to be working on complying even when the group is not so that their car can be on track.

We'll see how it goes. It only has to last 2 more weeks. We've told them that we're happy to add more paper and make the race track go much longer if we need to and they're excited to "take their cars to the coat closet". I'm not sure it's the type of behavior plan that could be used throughout the year, but for this time in the year when you just need a little something extra to motivate them, so far it seems to be exactly what we needed.

bang your head slowly

i thought i'd write a nice, calm, reflective post on how thinkblocks have been going, or perhaps how i'm worried about a certain student, or maybe even the book we're all reading for teachers as readers. you know, something thought provoking and slightly intelligent.

i can't make my brain form complete sentences.

today was horrid. there must be something wrong with the air pressure, the moon, or the equilibrium of the earth. something has crawled into our children's brains and turned them from the active, engaged learners we love to.... well, kids with spring fever. but not a low-grade fever. a 'we'd better go to the er because this isn't your typical fever' fever. not just a warm forehead and achy body fever. the kind that cripples you.

my bff was off the wall today. i actually video taped our interactive writing today so that mr. lipstick can understand what i do everyday. and so that i'd know that i hadn't made it all up in my head, this really was how his thought process was going.

the transcript of the tape goes something like this:

me: ok, read it to me:
bff: ok, read it to me. what does it say?
me: your turn to read it
bff: thanks for the ice george. you're a curious monkey, aren't you?
me: I'll read the first part you tell me what's next. 'the pigeon went to _____'. what comes next?
bff: a very curious monkey
me: ok, what word is next, let's read it again
bff: the pigeon went to SCHOOL! SCHOOOOOL... School! how do you write it?
me: what do you hear? say it slowly
bff: sssss..... wait- *begins singing magic school bus song. then writes school from memory from picturing magic school bus*
me: great! what does that say?
bff: what does that say? what does that say? oh boy oh boy oh boy! *covers eyes with hands* Can i read it? can i open my eyes? *takes hands off eyes.* oh no! my eyes are glued shut. ahhhhhh! ok, that's better. WOW! it says "the pigeon went to school"
YOU DID IT! you're the best. i love you.

5 minutes later and i'm practicing my mental imaging skills- imagining a nice frozen margaretta.

my bff never really intends to misbehave, or is overly malicious. but i feel like he's a good litmus test for what's going on in the building. if he can't stay calm for more than 2 or 3 minutes without breaking into repetitive behavior, well, something is up.

and it was. note passing, kicking, screaming, hiding from teachers, running out of the classroom. (different children no less). our hallway was filled with screaming, kicking kindergarten students for the majority of the day.

ugh.

scrapbooking 101

We're currently in our two week intersession where students get to take two different classes- one in the morning and one in the afternoon. since we're year-round it's two weeks that would be a part of our summer break and we get paid extra to teach classes. it means we kind of get to be like super tenured professors at small liberal arts colleges- we get to teach courses about any speciality we'd like.
i of course, chose a class that is the definition of organized chaos. we're scrapbooking and it mainly involves letting the children have almost 2 and a half hours of arts and crafts time. i stop them occasionally to show them a new technique or to add another sort of special paper to the stack, but mainly they work on their own.
and make a big, big mess. which i am constantly telling them is ok- as long as we clean it up really, really well at the end. i love watching some of them embrace this new messy philosophy and others struggle with the idea that i'm telling them it is ok to be messy. some do really well with the open-endness of it all. and others seem lost- you mean, you're not going to tell me exactly what to put on my paper? i don't understand. if they bring in pictures from home they are welcome to use those (as long as mom or dad said it was ok for the pictures to be cut, glued, stapled, etc) but for the many who don't they draw their own memories.

this little boy suddenly came up with the idea of framing his picture with christmas trees. his picture had nothing to do with christmas trees and his measurements were completely off so in the end you can't actually tell they are trees- but regardless he spent the better part of an hour carefully cutting out each tree and pasting it onto his border paper. then he became inspired by the way the orange paper looked with the white tree trunks and he started another border paper where he cut out the orange paper to match the white-trunk pattern.

i teach them to measure (all of the pages for their books must be 9 inches by 9 inches) and then i teach them to measure the border paper that goes around their picture. while i personally would never take the time to measure like this for my own scrapbook, it's good for them to know how to use rulers right? (plus there was a time when i could have told you the SOL number for that state requirement).

tomorrow i'll introduce them to ed emberly's picture pies and we'll work on making small paper cut outs using fractions.

the problem is i find myself torn between making sure everyone is doing a scrap booking activity (this is school and i'm suppose to be in charge- right?) and letting it become an arts and crafts extravaganza (the chaos part). a boy today began teaching others how to make water colors like eric carle. before i knew it his entire table were crumbling up their papers and dipping them into the watercolor brush water. while the outcome was awesome the paint dripped across the floor and their tables (and their clothes). yesterday a group decided to take the scrap paper and make hats for themselves. they put a lot of effort into these hats but today i crushed their little hat making dreams because it wasn't something for their scrapbook- but really, when else will they have such freedom with a set of arts and crafts activities and someone saying, "you know what, be creative? what else can you do with that scrap paper?" hmmmm.... maybe i'll let just have everyone make a "scrapbooking hat" tomorrow. don't we all work better when we have costumes?

st patrick's day

things i love about my job:

-i get to put my hand in paint to make leprechaun "footprints" around the classroom.

-i get to listen to first graders and kindergartners squeal with delight when they discover said footprints.

-as i walk down the hallways i am greeted by "guess what mrs. lipstick, you'll NEVER believe it- a leprechaun came to our classroom today!"

-first graders will totally buy any learning experience you throw at them if it has some small tie-in to the current holiday.

-i get to listen to children who proudly don't believe in santa claus search their classroom for leprechauns, because they know those little men are real.

-i get a kick out of watching little girls from south america, asia and india come to school in green shirts that say "everybody loves an irish girl"

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who needs green beer when you've got 5, 6, and 7 year olds?
beer is WAY to weak to help a teacher recover from this day anyway.