My Little Reindeer

Three days in bilingual kindergarten with a substitute assistant who is new to subbing the last days before Christmas break: DONE!

The kids were pretty good today and the time went by smoothly. My favorite part was making reindeer antlers with them. They cut out the antler shapes and then we stapled them onto a headband for them. Then, if the kids wanted, we painted their noses red! They particularly enjoyed when I demonstrated this. There is not much funnier to a kindergartener than watching their teacher paint her nose. Although I must say, they looked much cuter romping around in their antlers that I ever had hope of! Perhaps antlers and a red nose is just not a look suited to 25-year-olds. :)

Oh My Gosh, Really?!

The Saga continues....

This afternoon, while subbing in the same kindergarten class as yesterday, I was asked an all-too familiar question. I was sitting next to one of the squirrely boys trying to help him along with his work when he looked up, studied my face for a while, pointed to my mouth and said, "What happened?" I told him nothing, that's just how my lip was. He then asked, "Is mine like that?" and started feeling his bottom lip. I told him, "Nope, yours is just straight, but mine has a bump." He was satisfied and I was left shaking my head at the fact that this is the FOURTH time a kid has asked me about my lip in 2.5 years! Crazy.

That's about all that's blog worthy. I'm anxious for Friday, one more day with these kiddos and then a break! :)

Tiny Dancer

Today I went to a new classroom. I thought it was going to be a kindergarten-1st grade blend (because that's what the automated voice said when I got called for the job), but when I got there I learned it was actually just a kindergarten.

It's bilingual, so since the IA spoke Spanish, she was just going to run the day. However, she had virtually no voice so had to leave after the morning class. We got a new IA, but since I now knew more about the schedule and such I actually had to be in charge! The new IA told me had never subbed before today, so he was also unsure of what he could do at a few points. Once he asked me if it was ok to tie a kids shoe for them. However, I suppose it's better to be overly cautious then the opposite!

Funniest moment of the day: in the PM class, we were having inside recess. One of the more energetic boys was all over the room doing every activity he could possibly fit into the time. After he'd exhausted his options I'd noticed he started break-dancing on the tiled floor in the back of the room. Oh my gosh, he was spinning around on his back and flipping around, feet flailing in the air (actually, he was not half-bad at it). So after about 1 second of thought I decided to just let him do it! No one was near him, and he wasn't in danger of crashing into the wall or furniture, and frankly, I was happy to see him work off some of his energy. :)

Making Pins

Today I was back at the same class as yesterday. (And let me tell you, it was nice to know about my interesting student ahead of time!)

Anyways, the day was pretty much the same as yesterday: writing, reading, health, etc. During the times when the kids weren't in the room, I was working on a project for the other teacher - making glazed ceramic hearts into pins by hot-gluing the fasteners on the back. Then, the OPE student (girl from some college doing one of her classroom observations in the years before student teaching) and I put the pins onto thank you cards in the shape of Christmas trees. I'd dicut them earlier in the day and the OPE student wrote "Thank You" on all 50 of them!

And that is about all that's of interest for this blog!

A Little Info Is Nice

I got to go to one of my favorite schools today for a second grade class. The kids were mostly good, and the day was pretty simple. The class switches rooms with another second grade halfway through the day, so I actually had two classes.

The one slight blip in the day was a particular student who was pretty rude to me. Even after a lovely speech I gave on politeness and respect, the student was still acting rudely. I was pretty frustrated. Shortly after this though, while at recess, I learned a bit more about the student's background and the reasons for this behavior. And also, that this was something they were working on. Wow, would it have been helpful to know this from the start! It did make the latter part of the morning go a little bit better though.

Santa's Spy

I subbed for the afternoon today. When I arrived the teacher gave me the plans for the day. She also told me that she'd told the students to be good, or the sub would write her a note and she'd forward it to Santa. So don't be on the subs naughty list or you'll be on Santa's naughty list too! The kids wanted to inform me of this right away too (well, the good ones at least.) However, I didn't really learn any of their names (I only had them for about an hour and a half), so there wasn't a naughty list. They weren't all angels, but I supposed no behavior was coal-worthy.

At the end of the day I had to do bus duty in the gym, supervising loads of kids who were waiting for the bus. This is a loud job. Especially when about 10 or so kids have whipped out their recorders and are practicing "Hot Cross Buns" and "Jingle Bells" at varying times, tempos, and skill-levels. Yikes! Throw in a lone clarinet and violin and you've got a symphony to dull your senses. I was thankful when the last bus arrived!

Fire Drills

Interesting day today.

One of the first things the teachers at the building told me today was, "Keep your coat handy." Apparently the school has been having freak "fire drills" all week. The alarm just goes off unexpectedly and since it's not planned, the fire department has to come and walk through the building. Today it went off at 8:30 - right before I'd taken attendance! So I had to count kids and just hope I had them all.

Other interesting thing was at the end of the day. A kid's dad came to pick him up about 10 minutes before the bell rang and when I asked if he'd already checked him out he said no. I told him he had to check him out at the office if he was taking him early. He acted like he thought this was a strange request and informed me, "I'm his dad." I told him that I couldn't let a kid leave unless they'd been checked out. He reluctantly went. I just kept thinking how opposite his reaction would be if I HAD let his kid leave when someone he WASN'T supposed to go with!

Quack, Quack, Quack

Today, I helped kids make paper "gingerbread" people.

Oh, and I read a book with three boys and helped them do a worksheet.

And I listened to a girl read my about 5 books in a row. She was very eager.

I also used the pointer to point to words on a chart while we sang a song.

And....that's really about it.

I had a student teacher! She did everything. I'm just there to make it legal and get paid for nothing. It's an awesome thing. :)

Also, today was the Civil War football game between the Ducks and the Beavers. And if you can't decide if you're a Duck or a Beaver, you can just be a Platypus - so I'm told. :)

Much of the students and teachers were decked out in their green and yellow or black and orange today. Some were considerable brighter than others! The kindergarten teacher apparently is a big Duck fan, because on the way out of the school at the end of the day she had her whole line of little guys quacking away! Unfortunately, Beavers do not much such great sound effects.

We Need More Skinny Rhombuses!

I worked for the afternoon today at the same school as the last two days, but in a different classroom. I haven't subbed in this room yet, but I already knew some of the kids from the literacy rotations.

It was a pretty simple day. When I got there they were just going to recess. I picked them up a half-hour later and took them to get lunch. They had lunch in the room and I walked around talking to them. After I took them up to dump their trays we went right to music, and from there they went to PE. So I had an hour free to get ready for the next activity. When we came back to the room I showed them how to do an art project and set them loose. They were gluing "pattern block" pieces onto Christmas themed pictures. All the tables kept running out of the "skinny rhombus" shape, so I spent a lot of the time going around and fishing more out of the big bag of shapes and giving them to tables. They did pretty well, but were really noisy, and a few of the kiddos were not very nice to the kids next to them. Thankfully, by the time I was starting to get annoyed it was time to go home! :)

Vampire Bats and Birthdays

I was back in the same room today as I was in yesterday. The day went really well because the biggest trouble-maker of the class was absent today!

A few stories for today:

This morning I was treated to a conversation among the students about whether bats, vampire bats and/or vampires were real. Some were genuinely shocked when I told them that yes, vampire bats are real and that they like to drink blood mostly from animals. This then prompted one boy to begin a lengthy explanation that yes, I was right (thank you, child!) and that they liked to bite ears but vampires bite your neck even though they're not real, but if they were real that's where they bite you because that's where they bit people in the movies and turn them into vampires, but vampire bats can't turn into vampires 'cause that's not real either. :)

After this discussion, I took attendance. That was when we learned the naughty child was absent. This prompted many students' head to snap up to confirm what they heard was true. Then I heard a smattering of little voices exclaiming "Yes!" over the fact that this student was actually not there. Tells you something about him that even the kids are relieved to have a break!

And one more tiny tale for the blog before I sign off: when I was in one of the neighboring classrooms during the day I noticed the class' birthday chart (that lists every kid's birthday by what month it's in and what day). I noticed that one of the girls had the same birthday as me. I've subbed for this class, and knew the girl from then and she's one of the sweetest things ever! When I went to pick up my class from recess I saw her in her class' line, so I went over and told her I just found out my birthday was on the same day as hers! Her eyes got really big and she got this giant smile on her face and she just giggled like she thought it was the most amazing thing ever. I saw her a few other times that day and every time she grinned hugely at me like we shared some big special secret. :) Oh my gosh, she's so cute. I want a whole classroom full of her!