OK, I know it's been a minute... or two, since my last post. I have been working hard on getting the school year together. And just when I did, and was ready to post, my internet failed me for several days. But I'm back and hopefully to stay!
So, we are in the fourth week of school now... yeah, that's right. Gotta double check myself! ;) I went from a class full of sardines, at 26 darlings, to 24, to 23, as I just had my first withdrawal today already! Just from these first few weeks, I can tell you what, even 24 is a challenge. It is so hard to keep that many 6 year olds all on task at the same time. No wait, it's dang near impossible! But I'm working it and we are going to make it. Definitely supports small groups instruction, I tell ya what. I have been trying to teach centers since the first week of school so they get it down pat, then when I do get my small groups going better I will not have any problems. I introduce a little more each time we do it, a new center, a new activity, a new procedure for small group time. They are actually doing pretty good with it. I am impressed. They seem to do better than any group I've had in the past, or maybe I'm just getting better. Let's go with that. :)
I did the "fairness" activity with my kids, which I learned about on Pinterest the other day. It was too funny and they really did understand. Ok, so the activity was about fairness, and how being fair doesn't mean that I'm giving everyone the same thing. I told all the kids to make-believe they had some "boo-boo" they needed a band-aid for. First of all, just my saying "boo-boo" the way I did had them rolling. So anyway, I would call them up one at a time, and enthusiastically gave fake sympathy, and with much flourish, place the band-aid on their upper left arm, regardless of where their "boo-boo" was. At first I got some laughs, and some funny looks. It took a few kids for them to realize I was putting the band-aid in the same place every time, and a couple of kids tried to stop me or say something, but I just kept on with my exaggerated flourish and "healing" of their "boo-boos." At the end I proudly announced that I took care of everyone's boo-boos and did a great job. Of course, through grins and giggles my kids were like "no!" and "nu uh!" To which I replied by asking why I didn't do a good job. They pointed out my "mistake," of putting everyone's band-aids on the same place instead of on the correct boo-boo area. By this point half the band-aids were off and stuck somewhere else on their person, but that was ok. This reply from them was exactly what I wanted of course, and used it to explain that not everyone needs the same things all the time, and that I would treat them fairly, not the same, to make sure that every child always gets what they need to be a winner. ( I say winner because of the sports them. I'm always telling them how they are winners.)
We also did our first art activity last Friday for our "Fun Friday." I love the arts and there is just not enough of it in school anymore. So what I do is spend a few minutes teaching the kids about an artist, teach them about his/her style, and show them some of the artist's works. Then, we create art in the same style as the artist. This past Friday we studied Piet Mondrian, an artist from the Netherlands who painted many abstract paintings. The ones he became famous for were largely made up of straight black lines, sometimes of various thickness, that criss cross over each other. Then, some of the squares and rectangles that are made are colored in with colors. Mondrian used mostly primary colors, though sometimes used other colors instead. All in all though, only a few colors were used in repetition. So, I gave my kids a piece of cardstock, a ruler, a black marker, and a choice of only 3 or less colored markers. Then they drew as many or as few black lines as they wished, and colored in some of the shapes created with their chosen colors. They really enjoyed this and colored boxes until it was time to go home. I wish I had taken some pictures, but quite honestly I just forgot.
So, there is more we have said and done, but I'll leave that for another day. I still need my 2 more stools, though (grin) and I still plan to do my ADHD posts, but for tonight I'm going to put it away. My son wants to watch Pinocchio, and how can I say no to that. Half the kids in my class probably have never heard of him, bless them. So I bid you all adieu! See you soon!
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