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I am posting every day during March as part of the annual "Slice of Life" Challenge for Two Writing Teachers. Check out their website for lots more reflections on teaching.
*******Is this the first day that my mind has been absolutely blank, without an idea for a blogpost? May it not be my general feeling from now through the end of the month! Writing is a struggle when you have no ideas juggling around within.
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The preschoolers returned to school this morning and we are all delighted to be together! We had some very special moments.
How about a list of things that have made me smile so far today?
- Getting a delicious gift of homemade hamantaschen (sp?) from one of my families, accompanied by huge smiles and a hug from their daughter
- Everyone so happy and excited to be back at school, big smiles all around, getting and giving lots of hugs and special cuddles;
- Hearing their snow stories - sledding, eating, building snowmen, making snow angels
- Sharing a mindfulness activity with them, one of many I learned this past weekend: first, deep cleansing breaths, then, saying "I love you" to oneself, saying "I love you" to one another, and shouting "I love you!" to the world. A very special shout out!
- The stories they tell when playing with simple counting bears - caves falling in on the bear, Goldilocks and the three bears, bears on a boat, bears in a house, monsters chasing the bears, bear shadows.
- The sheer delight of the whole class when Frozen's "Let it Go" showed up on my new mix CD - and how many of the children know every single word!
- Dancing with scarves with the preschoolers.
A great start to our week together!
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(A daily share by preschoolers in their own words)
A Story Collage by Lavinia
Once upon a time there was a bear and he was playing in the
snow. He was building a snow castle. He saw a boy, but he did not eat him because he was nice.
Then, the bear’s mommy said “Bedtime, bear, the moon is out!” and Duck’s mother
said, “Bedtime, Ducky! The moon is out!” Another bear knocked the boy down. And
the boy cried and cried and cried and cried. The boy said “No!” and he needed a
bandaid. And he had blood. They closed their eyes and it was wake-up time and
it was time to play so they zipped their jackets and put their hoods on their
heads. It’s wet outside and they jumped in some puddles, but they were jumping
in the puddles so they heard the WAOH WAOH WAOH (ROAR ROAR ROAR) noise and it
was a lion and he said “Hey! That’s my puddle you’re jumping in!” The end.
Do they have so many stories because unlike us we focus on deadlines? We should strive to be more childlike.
ReplyDeleteFor not having much to say, you said a lot, Maureen. And I need to tell you that Tara (A Teaching Life) also wrote of Hamentashen today. That has to be a first anytime of me reading of a never heard of before pastry & then seeing it again. Anyway, I enjoyed hearing all about your students, again, especially those stories.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Linda- Even though you say you didn't have much, you said plenty! The thing is that I think your room is so magical that it speaks for itself. The community! The joy! The creative learning!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what it is about today and blank thoughts. It's like the snowday sapped our creativity. Or more likely, today's energy was so intensely spent getting kids to land back at school that our synapses straight up burnt out.
In any case, thanks for the lens into the room. I miss being a big cat!