Kindergarten Today

Christmas Tree Center

I do this every year. Most children this age don't get to participate in tree decorating as much as they'd like. Some just get to "look, not touch" at home. So I set up a little tree and decorations and let them spend two weeks doing whatever they want with it. Monday the boys took all the rubber snakes from science center and made a snake tree!! Probably Santa's favorite!

Gobble, Gobble

There are so many ways to make a turkey!!

Our hall turkey is a "home" project and all of the feathers haven't been returned yet.

Children are different

Here are a few quick examples of why I love to teach:

Last week we were discussing our “sight words” during circle time. It’s a list of familiar words we need to know “when we see them” without sounding them out or thinking about them. I told my students I was going to add “we” to the list. Several of them chimed in with “I love that!”, “I have that!”, “We play that!” Our next lesson was the difference between “Wii” and “We”. J

One of the first grade students told his teacher there are four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and deer.

This is “F” week. During phonics yesterday I had to explain to my class that the funny looking picture next to “f” is a roll of film. I’ve also had to explain “top”, “record”, and “jacks” during corresponding weeks. The program definitely needs an upgrade soon.

During a story about Native Americans and bison I made the comment that they ate bisons, “just like we eat cows”. A look of horror came over one of my girls- “We eat cows?”

I told one of my girls that for homework I wanted her to stop being rude. She said, “My mom won’t let me practice that.”

I called one of my boys to me during recess. “Why do you think I called you over here?” “I don’t know. I was just pushing her into the fence.” “Is that against the rules?” “Yes.” “Then that explains it.” He just turned and went to the time-out table.

 

 

 

Halloween Fun

 

This little pig...

 
 

 

We just finished our unit on farms and harvest. My class made some great pigs and wrote little stories. They are getting more confident in their skills.

This week we will study “cats, bats, and spiders” and of course, Halloween. We’ll talk a lot about safety! Many of our students only go to family and friends for treats. Others go to parties or businesses. Everyone needs to work together to keep these little ones safe this weekend.

Hard to believe our first report card went home this week! Most of my students are right on track to become great readers in the spring. They are learning their alphabet sounds and recognizing familiar words. They are figuring out how to find word clues in illustrations. It doesn’t naturally occur to children that if you are reading a story about fireman, a word on the page that starts with “h” is not likely to be “horse”! J We learn to “stop, look, and think” rather than guess.

We now have a kindergarten tutor who is working for 20 minutes each day with some of our students who are finding the phonics program a bit of a challenge. It is wonderful to have extra help and I really appreciate our administration for recognizing that the extra effort here in kindergarten will benefit these students in the years that follow.

Fire Safety

 

We've been busy, busy learning about fire safety. We can call 9-1-1; we can "stop, drop, and roll"; we won't ever touch matches, and half of my boys want to be firemen when they grow up. We've had a fire drill. We've talked about safety plans for home. However, it occurred to me that with all of the problems going on in the world, fire may be the least of their worries. 

Children with Disabilities

As a kindergarten teacher I’ve seen a lot of children with disabilities. At least one or more of my students each year has a labeled disability- something recognized, tested, and monitored. Professionals from the special education department meet with the parents and with me and sometimes with other outside providers to discuss student progress, changing needs, testing, etc. We work as a team to make sure the student is receiving all the help they need to reach their potential. I might have to accommodate the student with extra tutoring or a front row seat or extra homework or no homework or any number of minor or major changes. One year I had a student who required, and greatly benefitted from, a squeeze ball! He kept it in one hand while writing with the other. It made a vast difference in his behavior and his work. I’m all for that!

 One thing I have noticed over the years is that children with labeled disabilities have a distinct disadvantage that few people seem to discuss. That disadvantage is the label itself.

Testing and labeling a child is wonderful on the one hand. It gives you that “aha” moment-“Okay, now we know what is wrong and we can proceed with a plan to help this child.” On the other hand, once the label is attached, everyone seems to forget that there is a child underneath the label. Parents are especially prone to see everything their child does as somehow related to the disability. I’ve had parents assume that their ADD child is doing “xyz” because they have ADD, when in fact their child and every other child in my class is doing “xyz” because they are five. But once that label is on, it is often difficult to see ordinary behavior.

Another thing that the label does is require frequent testing and monitoring. This means that a parent will now know more about their child than they would have if the child was “normal”. They will have a whole folder of scores and charts and information about their child’s strengths and weaknesses in whatever areas are affected by the disability. However, it is always the weaknesses that they show me first. It is the weaknesses that concern them. My usual reaction is “have you seen my math scores?” Sometimes they get my point, sometimes they don’t.

My point is this- we ALL have strengths and weaknesses! Every student in my class has a whole range of high and low scores in different areas. None of us is perfect or even balanced in strengths and weaknesses, yet that seems to be what we are trying to achieve with these labeled children. We try to make the charts and graphs and scores come out even. We try to make these children achieve in every area of their lives. We seem to think that because they are blind or hearing impaired or hyperactive it would be a further burden if they couldn’t do algebra. Well, I’m here to tell you that I’ve led a full life without it!

Yes, I want my children with labeled speech problems to be more articulate, use better vocabulary, and have more confidence. However, half my class needs to be more articulate, use better vocabulary, and have more confidence! Yes, I want my ADD kids to be able to concentrate on lessons and listen to me attentively. But I wish their non-ADD classmates would do the same!

I suppose I am the person most “removed” from the disability and my heart and ego are the least affected. So sometimes I can be blunt. Sometimes I just look at parents and say “She’s five. This isn’t about her disability. This isn’t about her test scores. She’s five. This is about figuring out who she is and what she is doing and how to do it. She’s not going to be good at everything. No one is good at everything. We just don’t know all the things the normal kids are struggling with because they haven’t been tested and scrutinized.”

Which brings me to that term “normal”- What is normal and who among us qualifies? I guarantee you that if every one of us was subjected to the detailed testing that some of these children go through we would be amazed at the results. If every child in my classroom was given the battery of tests that my disabled children are given we would probably label ALL of them with something.

I try my best to teach each child, and not their disability. I try to connect with their personality and their learning style. I try to be firm, but friendly. I strive to help each child be successful . If they have a label, I try not to let it get in our way.   

The Other Playground

What is it about boys that makes them exasperating crazy wild animals in the bathroom??

I can send my girls to the bathroom and I might hear a few giggles while they compare Hannah Montana shirts or look at each other’s nail polished fingers. Or I might have trouble if I send one of my girls at the same time that her best friend from Mrs. C’s class is in there. I have to tell the chatty girls to hurry up and get back to class. I might even have one girl, ONE, who gets carried away and soaps down the counter top because she thinks she is “helping” to keep things clean.

Yesterday I sent one of my boys to the bathroom and he didn’t come back. He didn’t come back. Didn’t come back. So I stopped our reading lesson, took off my FM system, walked across the hall, and found him scooping up water and slinging it at the mirror!!  Then he had the audacity to deny that he was doing it. Fifteen minutes of reading time wasted by the time I got him situated at his desk again and got everyone back on task.

In the past month one or more of my boys has been on top of the counter, under the counter, or standing on the toilet. They have flooded a toilet by stuffing it with paper towels, soaped down one of the walls, and slammed a door against a kid’s head. They have crawled under the stalls and all over the floor. They have kicked the walls. They have kicked each other. They have hit the walls. They have hit…you get the picture.

They do all of this in a matter of minutes. I have tried sending one boy to the bathroom at a time, but there are eight classrooms in our building so the chances are always good that someone else has also sent one of their boys. And even if my child is the ONLY boy in the bathroom, as was the case with the water slinger, he'll still find a way to get into trouble.

As punishment my boys have missed center or recess time, had to take notes home to be signed by their parents, apologized to the custodian, cleaned up the mess, written “I will not…” sentences, and missed daily reward stickers. One of them is improving. Three are still getting into trouble at least twice a week.

Boys! Why can’t they just go to the bathroom, wash their hands, and return to class??????

Noise

Friday I thought I was going insane!!

The noise level in my room has become increasingly annoying. Perhaps it is because of my advancing age or my personal sensitivity to repetitive sounds, but this year I seem to have an unusual number of noise makers, who make noise in unusual ways!

Student 1 sings and hums while she works.

2 has an extremely high pitched voice and tends to squeal when he gets excited.

3 cries for at least fifteen minutes to two hours per day- that whiny crying that changes pitch. 

4 hums.

5 also sings, especially when she gets involved in her work and forgets where she is. Unfortunately she and #1 don’t sing the same song!!

6 tells me every blessed thing he does or is thinking about doing."I did that part. Can I get my glue now? Do you trust me with the glue? I'm going to be good."

7 asks me to repeat each and every instruction. And she tells me at least four times per hour that she is going to be a "car" or "bus" rider, depending on the day.

8 taps his pencil on his desk and/or the METAL cubbies next to him.

9 makes this loud, low-pitched "barking" noise periodically because it makes the other kids laugh.

10 starts crying and asks to get a drink every time we do something she doesn't understand- which is every time we do something besides color!

11 talks and taps her pencil and moves her desk.

12 growls.

That leaves me with four quiet children who are working away, oblivious to the noise around them. Why can’t I clone them?? J

Rainy Day Fun

It drizzled all day so we painted at recess time. One of my girls kept saying, "Oh, this is so much fun!"