Tuesday SOL: How to say goodbye to our family?

I am participating in the
Tuesday Slice of Life.
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

This year, our hello/goodbye window is a particularly magical and happy place in my classroom. Do you know the book, by Norman Juster? In the story, grandparents have a special window in their home where children can watch everyone come and go. It is a very special love ritual. 

How to explain this special place in our classroom? It is the perfect salve for the fragile preschooler who is sad to say goodbye to their family. They no longer have time to dwell on their misery, because one must get to the window and make merry!

One quirk about our window is that it isn't exactly on the way out the door for families...in fact, when they leave our classroom, they have to back up a few steps in the opposite direction to get to the window. It's proof that sometimes going backwards ends up being a step forward. When a preschooler's face begins to sadden at their family member leaving, a classmate or teacher nudges them - "quick! let's go see them at the window!" and off we race to the window. Oh, the scenes that transpire! We blow kisses, we make silly faces, we give hearty waves. The sad preschooler becomes an enthralled preschooler, because there is so much more to see than just their family. Yes, Mom or Dad may have just left, but look! Look at everyone else! It seems like the whole school parades by the window. Older students, who once depended on this window themselves, now stop and wave and make faces at the preschoolers. Teachers and administrators stop and wave, too. If you look very closely, across the way, you can see the preschoolers in the classroom next door. There's nothing more fun than waving to these friends, who we will see on the playground later in the day. Yes, our hello/goodbye window is a place of love and joy. The perfect way to begin a school day!

Tuesday SOL Summer musings

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

Check out their website for many more reflections on teaching.

Just this week, in the midst of summer, I was sorting through my photos on my phone, collecting my favorites from recent travels. (We traveled to Oregon for the wedding of the daughter of my best friend from college; we had a great time sightseeing and hiking.) I was delighted to see not just these vacation photos, but many fun photos from the last days of the school year...and I find myself smiling in memory. 

Let me share a few with you....

The Bucket Truck

Rain didn't stop us from heading outside to play on this day. But the showstopper was this repair truck - the children were riveted, studying every move. Children call us to be present, so curious about the world, finding joy in their surroundings.

Water Play Day

Our traditional "splash day" was also an overcast, rainy day...and our location was the crumbled surrounds of a community center behind our school (scheduled to be renovated and revamped this next year!). But that didn't stop the children from having such a great time outside, enjoying the hoses, buckets, spray bottles, sidewalk chalk, and more.

The Tablecloth

We created a process art tablecloth/dropcloth for our Teaching Resident (Ms. Kim) as an end-of-year gift. The children used found objects and nature items to stamp prints all over the canvas, choosing their favorite colors. They also used fabric markers to sign their name on the cloth. We're hoping that Ms. Kim will use this cloth for 'messy' activities in her new classroom, and remember this sweet class of preschoolers every time she does.

Marble Art

The first art activity the children experienced in the Big Cats was doing marble art on a nametag. At the beginning of the year, this was a teacher-led and supervised project. Here, at the end of the year, the children ran the project themselves - selecting paper, paint colors, dropping marbles into the paint, and rolling these onto paper. Everyone had a grand time and even enjoyed cleaning the table and supplies at the end. I got to marvel at how much everyone had grown during this year. 

Balls, Cars, Blocks, and Ramps

There was incessant creativity in the block corner these last few weeks of school, as if the children were well aware that they would no longer have access to these open-ended building materials. I was amazed by the teamwork, how well the preschoolers worked together, sharing the materials and ideas.

The Family Book

This was our favorite book to read - with individual pages about each child and family, created by the families themselves. Here, the children are helping me to stuff these pages into their portfolios, so that the pages are returned home at the end of the year. But, these boys are transfixed - not wanting to take the pages out of the book but seeking to re-read the pages about each other, noticing who's who. It is amazing how much we learn about one another during a school year.

Engineering with Recylables

We had a "free for all" with the recyclables, with me issuing an open invitation for children to create and invent with abandon. 

Helping Clean the Classroom

We had created a train track out of tape on part of our classroom floor and the children worked diligently and tirelessly to remove it, to help Mr. Thomas (our Building Manager). Again, I am awed by the focus and tenacity of young children when they desire to accomplish something.

Field Day Fun

I think we had the hottest and sunniest day of the school year for our traditional field day - but that didn't stop these preschoolers from running non-stop.

Signing the Goodbye Board

They had helped us clean the room and put away all the toys, supplies, materials. Now it was time to practice their writing skills one more time, using the whiteboard markers.

I really enjoyed this past year of teaching...I worked with a delightful group of preschoolers and their families, I had a strong teaching team, I love the physical space of my classroom in our new and permanent school building. It is fun to go down memory lane in the midst of summer!

How do you say goodbye?

This summer is filled with packing and leaving.

The children, as is true every year, packed up and left the building, knowing 

(though not entirely understanding) that they would not be preschool Big Cats anymore.

We teachers, at the school year's end, spent a busy week packing up our classrooms for our move to our new school this August.

Now, here in July, I am at my parents' house in South Carolina, packing them up to move to a retirement community up north.

Packing and leaving.

A summer filled with boxes.

A summer filled with emotions.

How do you say goodbye?

I believe it is so important to 

pause

and identify

and hone in

on all the little, ordinary actions that

comprise your life

and recognize these,

celebrate these,

embrace their significance.

That last day of school, we celebrated saying goodbye to the walking rope.

Honestly, I don't know who was more excited - 

the children, 

for whom "no more walking rope" is a matter of pride, knowing that they are now advancing to pre-K (and they will simply hold hands with a partner as they walk)?

Or me?  

I know I will no longer be using a walking rope every single day at the new building, because, 

yes, yes, yes, we will have green space right on our premises!

We lined the children up 

one last time

with the walking rope.

I emphatically asked 

each pair of children  -

Do you feel ready for Pre-K?

Do you agree that you no longer need this walking rope?

With each enthusiastic "YES!,"

I symbolically cut a ring off   

of this torn, old, worn out rope. 

"Go forth!" I encouraged.

The children walked two by two

towards the dumpster and

threw their ring away.

It was important to me that we "say goodbye to the walking rope" and

the children loved it.

Now, here at my parents' house,

I'm daring to take my Dad down memory lane, too.

I'm hoping that what works with preschoolers 

will soothe him 

and me

as well.

This isn't a family home that we are saying goodbye to.

Perhaps this makes it easier for me and my brothers?

My parents retired here and had some twenty good healthy years in this location.

But now, with my Mom having dementia and 

my Dad with Parkinson's and other physical ailments (perhaps due to all his caregiving),

they are leaving here for a retirement community

close to family.

Mom is already safely ensconced in her new home, 

surrounded by 24 hour care, and

the love and attention of my oldest brother and his family.

My other three brothers and I are here in South Carolina with Dad,

packing and

remembering.

In the midst of all the boxes,

we are going down memory lane with him,

physically,

doing routine things together,

pausing,

identifying,

remembering...

coffee at Sunrise Cafe, 

looking for dolphins at the ocean,

hush puppies and a cold beverage at South Beach,

attending church at Holy Family,

listening to Frank Sinatra, Willy Nelson, Jim Croce on the porch,

eating Philly cheesesteaks from Publix,

walking the neighborhood.

How do you say goodbye?

May it be as soothing for my 85 year old father 

as it was for my preschoolers.

My brothers (Sonny, David, Ralph), my father, and me, attempting a selfie as we begin packing.

Tuesday SOL Preschoolers don't need these books anymore

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 my rituals at the end of a school year is to re-read the children's favorite books...
some of which they have chosen for me to read,
but, several are ones that I choose...books that I simply must re-read to them. I know the children used to be attached to these, and when I read them aloud again,
I see the school year flash before all of our eyes.
I see how much the children have grown, and
I see the children's recognition that they have grown.

Let me share just two of these special books.

On the last day of school, I re-read
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.
Imagine, at the outset of a school year, how medicinal this book is for a preschooler,
offering a prescription for how to get through the day without Mommy,
holding on to her precious kiss in your hand,
Mommy is with me, Mommy is always with me...Mommy comes back, Mommy always comes back...

In September, I read this one book over and over to particular children,
for whom the process of letting go,
saying goodbye
to Mommy, to Daddy, to Grammy, to whomever,
was so, so difficult.

Now, at the end of the year, how unnecessary this medicine! Look how big these preschoolers are! Ha! They don't cry when their family drops them off in the morning.

The Kissing Hand, so unnecessary now, yet, dear and familiar to these children.
They bask in its retelling, studying each page intently... their eyes saying, "I remember."




The children and I had a similar experience with my re-reading of
The Hello/Goodbye Window by Norton Juster (illustrated by Chris Raschka).

I have such a window in my classroom,
where the families can give one final wave or blow a kiss to their child at morning departure.
Every year, at some unscheduled point,
maybe late fall, perhaps mid-winter,
the ritual goes stale, unneeded, no longer relevant.
The once forlorn child now readily immerses herself in her friends and the morning activities,  paying no mind to the window.

(It is a bittersweet moment for me when I see a Dad standing outside the window, mentally begging his child to look up, as if thinking - "Look, see, it's Daddy - one more wave, Daddy's leaving!" Ahhh, but she is playing happily in the room, her goodbye is done. Dad leaves without her noticing.)





This is the growth of a preschooler - not on a specific timeline, but absolute.

Happy summer!

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.

What about lunch together?

It is Tuesday and this is a "Slice of Life" (SOLS) for Two Writing Teachers.  Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.

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I am determined to write a "slice of life" today, having missed last week . . . and topic after topic has crossed my mind.

Last night, I thought . . .

. . .I'll share about the fun we are having with our Ezra Jack Keats author study.

Next, it was morning, I was rushing out the door to work, and I thought -
oh, that blogpost would need extensive work/time, something in short supply today. . . there's so much I want to share about this curriculum . . .

. . . I'll simply share about our special time last week when . . .

. . . we all watched Pete Seeger sing one of our favorite class songs - Inch by Inch [Garden Song]. (This was one of those rare times when all of the Big Cats were riveted, engaged, and focused, together, trying to see the small laptop screen and hear his voice through very weak speakers. It didn't seem to matter that everyone was all smushed together - everyone was happy to hear Pete Seeger. Should I also share about how choked up I got when we all sang "Inch by Inch" together, afterwards? So sweet!)

Next, the school day was underway, and our time in centers flew by as children sponge painted beautiful pictures in red, yellow, and orange; everyone's hands were covered with paint, even the floor was speckled, and I thought this is what I should share about . . .




 . . . We have really been enjoying messy process art activities over the past few weeks . . . how much children love paint, whether using brushes, rollers, sticks, sponges, spoons, straws...they cannot get enough paint! 

Next, we were outside on a short walk, to the turn-around tree, enjoying some very rare fresh air, and I thought . . .

. . . Oh, wow, I really should write about the challenges of too much indoor play . . . how this affects kids . . .

Then, it was lunch time and I was in the whirlwind of washing hands, finding seats, helping to open lunch foods, finding straws and extra spoons, racing out of the room with a couple children who simply couldn't wait one more moment to go to the bathroom, when I returned to the room to find   . . .



Hughie's Dad seated at the lunch table with Hughie and his classmates. 
Totally unexpected. 
And, totally delightful. 
Was it just my imagination, that 
the room was decidedly calmer than just a few minutes earlier, 
before I had raced the children to the bathroom?
All eyes were on this new, surprise adult. Dressed in a nice business suit, no less! 
He told me that he was in the area, 
that Hughie had a difficult goodbye this morning and 
he thought it would be a nice surprise, 
to have lunch with him.
Was this okay?
Oh, yes!
Totally unexpected.
And, totally delightful. 
He sat in a child-size chair - and it looked absolutely natural. So right.
Hughie was beaming. 
His table buddies were full of chatter, questions, and antics for Hughie's Dad.
No one rushed their lunch.
No one threw away their lunch without eating (as is sometimes the case).
All eyes were on this new, surprise adult.

So, there, that's my small slice of life today - the magic of an unexpected lunch guest.

Totally unexpected.
And, totally delightful.