Tuesday SOL One month of no blogging - time to ramble!

This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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Almost one whole month has gone by since I last posted and I don't like this at all!
There have been so, so, so many things I have wanted to share…
and now I hardly know where to begin.

Should I share my excuse - 
my son Keith got married just before Thanksgiving! ?
How do I describe how busy this made me, how it filled my head, hands, and heart?
How much fun we all had? 
How incredible it was to see my oh so serious son smiling all day long?
How beautiful Mara and he looked together?
How cold and perfect their outdoor ceremony, in the woods?
Should I share how fabulous it was? 

No, the wedding is no topic for a blog about early childhood!

Should I share how several preschoolers told their families that I missed school because I was getting married?

Well, that's not much of a share!

What if I shared some photos of our fun during these last four weeks?

We love playing doctor in the dramatic play area.

We love to work with recyclables and tape.

We made a fun new alphabet line - covering letters with glue and dipping them in sand.

We love building trains and traveling to make believe places.

We love, love, love to run around on our big field and play games.

We dragged in some branches from outside and then we painted them!

We had fun yarn bombing the tree branches!

More yarn bombing!

Still more yarn bombing!

We have begun our new exploration of found objects and are loving this, too!

That's all I'll share for now…I have written a short post, and I have rekindled this blog…I will share more in the days ahead.

It is nice to be back!


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Wait, one last thing…


Sure, it's not early childhood…but once upon a time, a short while ago, they were preschoolers! Here are two photos from the happy wedding day!

My three fabulous sons at the wedding - the groom, Keith, and the groomsmen, Wade and Bryce.

Mara and Keith say their vows.

Tuesday SOL What can you learn from a sharing ritual?

 This is a Tuesday "Slice of Life" for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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One of our favorite pastimes in the Big Cats is the afternoon "sharing" at our closing ritual. I have a special container that rotates alphabetically through the class; each child uses it to hide a  prized possession and the rest of the class asks questions to discover what is inside. Preschoolers love sharing their treasures with one another! Once we make rotate the container through the alphabet, I begin at the top again with another container. Our first share was in an old heart-shaped candy box - "sharing from the heart" and now we have moved onto a special bag. There's also a shoebox, a coffee tin...the containers go on and on!

This simple ritual has long been a fun way to

• encourage children to speak up in front of an audience, 
• foster their question-asking skills,
• build their math skills as they measure items for a particular size container (it must fit inside!) 
• help them with their concentration and focus as they select one dear item to go inside, and,
• cultivate their understanding of one another - what do their classmates like?

Recently, I discovered that this sharing ritual also teaches the alphabet - who knew?!

When Charlie discovered that the box rotated from child to child alphabetically by first name, he had a vested interest in knowing the alphabet. He loves that I add a new container when one has completed its rotation through the class; he knows that his letter "C" will come up again and again...and he has figured out our class pattern.

"There are FIVE A's in our class, Ms. Ingram - Ada, Akhil, Alyja, Amelie, and Ashley. 

There is one B - Bernie.

Next, it's me, C - but first Caroline and then me, Charlie."

Me - "Wow, Charlie - that is great! Who comes next, after you?"

Charlie - "Well, there are no D's."

Me - "How many E's?"

Charlie - "Three - Ellie, Eloise, and Evan."

On and on, he worked his way through our class alphabet...amazing me all the way through to Z, Zuren.

Very sweet.