Expect things to get a little messy

This is a Tuesday Slice of Life for Two Writing Teachers. 

Check out their website for many more reflections on teaching.





_________


My centers time is such a delightful mess.
Really.



I love how the children get deep into everything.

We need these and these and these.

We need this and this and this and this and this.

The children begin playing in one place and move on to another,

taking materials with them as they go,

dress ups to the blocks,

dolls to the writing center,

science materials to the dress ups,

around and around and around the room they go.

We need these and these and these.

We need this and this and this and this and this.

Twenty minutes into centers and the room is 

in total disarray

but there is a beautiful hum.

So many blocks,
let's build houses for ourselves,
let's build roads,
let's build an animal world,
let's make ramps,
let's play together.

We need these and these and these.

We need this and this and this and this and this.

Let's go off by ourselves

and make believe

I'll drive, and 

you be in the backseat with the baby

We'll go to the doctor's,

We should stop at the store and buy those.

We'll play together.

We need these and these and these.

We need this and this and this and this and this.

We need it all.

Let's play together.

SOLSC 2015 #31: Do you make space?

Happy last day of the writing challenge!! Each day during March, I participated in the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC). My slices are primarily about teaching preschoolers. Check out the Two Writing Teachers  website for lots more reflections on teaching.

Kudos to all the slicers this month! We did it! I have loved reading your blogs!

Thanks especially to Stacey, Tara, Anna, Beth, Dana, and Betsy for hosting this writing challenge!

*******

I apologize for the huge unevenness of this daily blogging. 

I realize now - 

the very habit of writing, 

leads not to perfection but to ease. 

This was my fourth year of this writing challenge, and all my butterflies were gone - 

I always knew there was something that I could write about, I knew I would post each day.

The habit of writing makes it easier to do.

While I am proud of some of my posts, 

many seemed anemic, dull, and perhaps even "stuck." 

I know my writing is far, far from perfect - 

I dared to share it with you blemishes and all. 

Here, at month's end, I am tired. But, I am not out of ideas. I feel myself still wrestling with some topics - how might I write about these?

This daily blogging has shown me the essentialness of making space to write. 

To celebrate day 31, 

let me share a moment about this very thing, 

the beauty of making space....

Each and every day, she slips over to the writing table, and works on her drawing and writing. 

As the days have slipped by, one after another, this school year,

I've watched her begin to form the letters of her name, 

to work with stencils and then move on to draw freehand, 

to make only simple shapes and soon begin adding so many more details, 

to use only a small portion of the page and now work steadily to fill it.

She knows instinctively how to be a writer.

What do I see?

patience,

steadfastness,

repetition,

imagination,

happiness,

glow,

expectance,

perseverance,

risk,

joy,

variety, 

solitude,

engagement,

dailyness,

inspiration,

tenacity,

habit.

For me, 

she is a muse.