Finally after all this time, we have enough snow to play in! Thanks to the playground supervisors, we had a great time making snowmen, snowwomen, and children. We also had a great time listening to the fourth graders read to us on a rainy recess.
Monday morning devotions in the gym. Well, we're back in school again and we've brought the colds, coughs and sniffles with us. It's so hard to know whether to send a child to school or not, and everyone has different thresholds of when to keep a child home or when to send them to school. I have times too when I wonder should I make a call to have a child picked up or have them stick it out for the day. Invariably, the one you send home will be running around in a half hour and the one you keep at school will throw up, but that's part of the game. So for the past couple of weeks, I've invested in a few boxes of good kleenexes so we don't rub our noses raw, given a lot of stretching breaks, and don't get too worried when a snuffly little one performs a little lower than what I think she or he should. We've been working hard on songs for the all-school program and one of our whole school songs is "A Mighty Fortress is Our God". It is not the easiest song to learn or to sing. It's especially tough to teach to kids that can't read and really don't understand the vocabulary in the song; but it does lend to some smile-able moments. The song is very long and it moves along without any rests so you really have to have a lot of breath control. At the end of one verse, one little boy looked at me and said, "I wish I was an otter." "Why?" I asked. We had just read about otters, but I couldn't figure out what that had to do with anything. "Well, they can hold their breath for a long time." Then, when we got to the end, one of the lines was "...and armed with cruel hate." One little boy raised his hand and said, "I don't think we should say hate. That's a bad word. Maybe we should say "and armed with cruel H" (probably not, but I'm glad you're learning beginning sounds...) The line "Dost ask who that may be?" was incorrectly sung as "Just ask who that may be?" Try to explain that, "what, you mean like dust, like on the ground?" No, dost, like do you ask who that may be? I try to explain, but sometime I just have to remember memorize now and it will all make sense later.:) On one of the first days back after break we played a game matching letter cards and picture cards. Each person had a randon mismatched letter and picture card and they had to find the correct matches. For K week, we read the book Koala Lou by Mem Fox and then we made koala puppets. We had to make some silly faces for our pictures too. Then we reread the book using our puppets to say... "Koala Lou, I do love you!"
I got a new rug! (That's not such a little thing,) but what a stir it created! Everyone, kindergartners and teachers alike have to come in and check it out. It is so cool. I have wanted one for years, but didn't want to spend the money on it and wasn't sure if I could justify it enough to ask for one; but this year I finally broke down and put it on my wish list and a wonderful, anonymous donor donated it. So excited!
The rug is huge and bright and colorful and EDUCATIONAL. It has boxes with rhyming words and pictures and the alphabet all around. The kids are ecstatic. They have already picked out their favorite spot to sit and we've already played a beginning sound game on it. It's the little things that make our classroom fun and exciting. Stop by and check it out sometime. Love it! Thanks to our anonymous friend!!! |
Joyce Holstege
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