I Wanted the Gold Button

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!

So I made it through my first full week of teaching these kiddos, AND planning everything myself. Well, that's not to say that the first grade team hasn't giving me tons of stuff, but still - I decided what to do.

This week was a little tougher behavior-wise than the previous week. Lots of chatting, and a few kids seem to be showing their true personalities - some of which are a bit smart-alecy. Instead of earning 11 minutes of choice time like they did last week in only 3 days - this week they only earned 6! I was sure to point this out to them too.

Let's see, oh and we did this math activity today that struck fear into my heart but I did it anyway. It involved buttons...more specifically, giving groups of kids a cup full of buttons and expecting them to work together and share. Now, if you know first graders you can imagine the results this could have. Those bright shiny gold buttons and the sparkly "diamond" ones are just to beautiful to share! Half of my time was spent supervising the activity and guiding them in the sorting of the buttons, and the other half was spent making the more covetous little ones share. After about 5 minutes one girl was sitting at her table with her hands over her face. Someone reported to me that she was crying. I went over and asked her what was going on, but she wouldn't say a word, so I left her alone and we continued. She sat like that the whole rest of the time, which was nearly 20 minutes. When it was time to clean up and line up for recess she was still sitting there. The "mother hens" were gathering around her at this point and trying to console her over whatever was wrong. I shooed them away and asked her why she was still sitting there, and said that it was time for recess. She finally lifted her head and tearfully proclaimed that she wanted to stay inside. I told her that she couldn't because I had to go outside and watch the class. I asked her again why she was upset and she wailed, "Because I didn't get a gold button! When you said to find all the shiny buttons, they got the gold ones and I didn't get any!!" To this I had to gently remind her that we kept putting the buttons back in the middle to sort again, and if she'd been watching, she could have had one next time. I also sadly told her that since she waited til now to tell me, it was too late for me to help. "We've already put the buttons away. If you'd told me while we were still playing I could have made sure the boys shared with you." Eventually she lined up for recess, sniffling all the way, and eventually forgot about her woes when we were outside.

Gold buttons. They are just that awesome.

God Hates Halloween

This is what I learned today from one of my firsties. We were talking about ideas for next months calendar pieces which we were going to make today and the idea of Halloween came up. I asked the class if anyone didn't do Halloween. One boy got up, came right over to me and proclaimed in his best serious voice that Halloween was bad, and that God hated it because it was bad and if you did it you'd go to the bad place. One of the little girls in the class (who was telling me all about it being her "church day" yesterday), heard this and looked at him and me in shock and said, "That's not true! God likes Halloween!" Clearly these two are attending very different churches.

That said, we (I) decided we'd make leaves and pumpkins. All sensibilities were satisfied.

Rest of the day was busy and noisy. I'm happy that I have the hour pull-outs on Thursday and Friday!

An Apple Weighs 47 Bears

Those multi-colored plastic bear counters that is.

Today a parent brought in 25 apples for us to use! It was very nice of her. This is the parent I probably know most now (although I've forgotten her name! oops!). She's stopped in a few times and chatted with me about the room and such. She's very positive and keeps telling me how cute it looks in the room, and how it looks organized and "like a teacher" in the room. She also kept saying this morning how she thinks I'm doing a great job and how she's glad I'm able to be there for the whole time. So anyway, I like her. But yeah, she brought apples, so we weighed one, and they kids each got one to draw a picture of on their little observation sheet.

This morning went really well. The students did 5 minutes of Read to Self today (which yes, is a big accomplishment for first grade). It so big, we wrote a note to the principal to tell her about it! The kids were so excited and proud of themselves. I hope they will be able to do it again tomorrow!

The afternoon was ok, but a little crazy. Lots of cutting and pasting going on and that always gets some kids acting cuckoo. We may be doing some more tomorrow so hopefully I don't lose my mind! :)

Yesterday was Tuesday...

Today is Monday. Tomorrow will be Wednesday.

I realized after the students were in P.E. today that I had put the days of the week cards in the wrong slots this morning and that's what it said all day! Oops!

In other news, today was decent. There was a lot of paper cutting and gluing today. We made backgrounds for math picture problems that we'll finish tomorrow, and we started making an apple mobile the we'll also have to finish tomorrow. However, this group seems to all enjoy an art project (yay!) so no one was complaining.

The biggest problem was arguing over scissors (well, and there was that one yelling/fighting incident, but I'm trying to forget that!). The kids all have their scissors in a communal bucket even though most remember which are theirs and of course they want those ones and get very mad if someone else grabs theirs. I think we will change the scissor system tomorrow because I've about had it with that stinkin' bucket!

Apples!

Short one today since I'm trying to do about 4 things at once tonight!

Today we did lots of apple activities because it's Johnny Appleseed day! We read about Johnny, did a sequencing activity, but the most favorite thing was the apple tasting! We tried Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Gala apples (I just realized a minute ago that they all start with G!) and wrote down all the words we could think of to describe how they tasted. Every apple at one point was compared to another fruit. Apparently they tasted like mangoes, peaches, grapefruits, oranges, cherries, and lemons. However, my favorite observation was when one girl told me the Golden Delicious apple, "tastes like I love it! It tastes loving!" So yes, "loving" is one of the words on our chart. :) Then we voted for their favorites. Granny Smith was the winner!

Tomorrow we continue with our apple activities!

More Interesting Turns

Today was my third day with my class of first graders. Yesterday afternoon I moved around some stuff at the carpet area, and today I liked it so much better! I usually don't get to do rearranging (and yes, sometimes I want to!), but since I'm going to be here for another 3.5 weeks, the principal and the 1st grade team told me to feel free to move anything I wanted to! So I did. :)

In the morning we talked about the Daily 5 routine, which was new to them. Then we did mini rotations through each of the activities of the Daily 5 so they could get used to them and they did really well. Ok, for those wondering what the Daily 5 is - it's this reading/writing curriculum that the district adopted a few years ago. Among other things it has kids participating in a variety of reading and writing activities. They are: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Work on Writing (which is essentially write in your writing journal), Listen to Reading (we have Leap Pad books with pens as well as the standard book on tape format), and lastly Word Work, which is what we talked about most today. There are dozens of Word Work activities, but today I introduced making words with pipe cleaners, and writing words in a box of salt with a golf tee. Next week hopefully we can start doing more of this but I have to skim the curriculum book because I don't know all the details of it yet! (The other first grade teachers are pretty much awesome and they've been giving me tons of advice, suggestions and materials, all the while repeating how glad that are that I'm there. Which I think is funny because surely I am just an incessant fountain of questions and pleadings! haha

Oh, and today I introduced the schedule on the side of the board (I know, big deal). But, they didn't really have one before and that's something that I personally like to have in sight, even if the kids don't care. However, the class seemed very interested in it and all day long were looking at it to see when something was, and then asking me to tell them how they'd know it was the time it said on the schedule. Lots of "big hand", "little hand" talk. Unfortunately, I think it's still a little to early to try to teach them to tell time (it's only the 13th day of first grade)!

In the afternoon, we had a guest speaker from the Salem Hospital come to talk about the importance of wearing helmets and seat belts. Then I introduced a new math game, we did math centers, had recess, then had the 11 minutes of choice time that the class earned in the last 3 days. After that they packed up and went to Music and P.E. It is kind of nice to have all the pull-outs at the end of the day. Monday through Wednesday I'm done with them at 2:30, and on Thursday and Friday I'm done at 2!

Finally, after the kids had gone home and I was cleaning up and putting up some new stuff, the principal came in and asked me if I'd "like to earn some more money?" I was very puzzled as to what she was about to propose to me, but said yes anyway. She then told me that she was hoping I'd be willing to write out detailed descriptions of what we did in class each week as well as giving her a copy of the lesson plans for the week so she could send it on to the teacher whom I'm subbing for. I guess she just wants her to know what's going on in her class while she's gone. The principal told me that they'd pay me for the time it takes me to write all of that! She also told me they were going to pay me for coming to Back to School Night last night! Oh, and she wants me to take pictures of anything I change or add to the room so she can send that to the teacher as well. It is very puzzling, but nice nonetheless.

I think that's about all. I'm very glad to have a couple days off. Now I can actually have time to look through the curriculum and plan next week (not to mention my new extra project)!

Back to School Night

Well, the second day of a sub job seems like a perfectly reasonable job for the sub to meet all the parents right? Because that's what we're doing!

Today just happened to be Back to School Night at the school, and since I'm the sub until October - I get to be there.

This morning we spent some of the day making "About Me" puzzle pieces, which were essentially questions inside a big paper puzzle piece. Once they were all completed I put them together on the wall with the label "We All Fit Together in Room 23" (a bulletin board idea I stole from another class while subbing!) We also made large paper "Welcome Mats" to put at their desk for them to show their parents. It was not the most academic project, but it at least was a little more interesting then blank spaces.

I escaped for a little while after school to go home and have dinner, but then came back for the open house which started at 6:30. I got there at 6 so I could put a few last things up, and wouldn't you know it -that despite the announcement over the intercom that teachers' rooms weren't open until 6:30, I had some parents wanting to come in at 6:10. I ended up having to close the door and turn the lights off and do the last of my work in the dark. One of the other first grade teachers came in to check on me and she told me they were doing the same thing too. Haha!

Anyway, once it started it went pretty well. Some of the parents asked me things I didn't know the answer to - like what a bunch of boxes of books in the corner were for, or how their kid was doing in reading, but them seemed pretty understanding when I explained I didn't know since it'd only been two days. One parent who I meet on my first day came in and told me she thought the room looked nicer than two days ago! So that was nice.

I am very much looking forward to tomorrow! Then I will finally get some time to figure out what I'm doing all next week (not to mention plan a children's church lesson and work on my master's class!) Newsflash Vanessa: Summer is now officially over!

Things Are About to Get Interesting!

Guess what guys? I got REQUESTED to take a 4 week assignment! Today was my first day with my temporary group of 1st graders, and for the most part it went pretty well.

First, it's nice to have the other first grade teachers tell you they pretty much wanted you and nobody else. Also, it's nice to read the letter the principal is sending home to parents to say their child's class will have a 4-week sub and how she's really good.

The kids were mostly alright, although they've had a bit of an upheaval lately so they were a bit squirrelly. We practiced transitions quite a lot today and I'm pretty sure we'll be doing more tomorrow. We also will be working on the whole listen-to-the-directions thing. Today at the end of the day I gave the directions very clearly twice that they were to put books away, go to their seat and put their papers in front of them. Still some kids started putting papers in their cubbies and getting their backpacks. Oh, first grade!

Currently, I am taking a break from trying to get myself organized for tomorrow (not something I have had to do for a while!) The room is a little on the bare side, so I'm trying to plan some art activities that we can hang up that will liven it up a bit. Also, tomorrow night is Back to School Night, so I want it to look a little cuter for when the parents come. As a result, I do not know how much sense this blog will make!

Oh, and here's the real topper for the day! I was handing out the letters for the kids to take home (which were in envelopes) as we were getting ready for PE. They are dismissed from PE, so they take their backpacks with them. Anyway, I'd just handed them all out and gotten the kids lined up, and as I was going to write one kid's name on his letter because he didn't have a backpack I noticed that the letter already had an address label on it! It was then I realized I'd given them all letters address to the parents of some other student. So they all had to get them out of their backpacks and give them back to me so I could give them to the right kid! It was a little madness there for a while, but I think they all went home with the right one!