Thankful.
Nov 20
As I said ‘Goodbye’ to my sprouts today, I got lots of hugs and one friend even asked his mom to bring him back to the classroom to see me one more time. Sigh. There is so much I am thankful for this year and truly feel as if my cup runneth over. I am thankful my students come in everyday eager and ready to learn and when they’re not, they let me ‘in’ to try and help...
Popcorn angel.
Oct 13
My new school’s PTA does Popcorn Fridays to raise money. Kids bring in 25 cents and get a bag of popcorn for snack. Now I have lots of kids in my room that I knew, for whatever reason, wouldn’t be able to bring in a quarter. A little guy came up to me and said, “Mr. _______, today is popcorn day! But I don’t have a quarter.” His face visibly deflated and I felt...
Better.
Oct 05
Wow – what a day. Today was our Butterfly Celebration and it went off without a hitch. The icing on the cake was our first butterfly came out of it’s chrysalis a couple of hours before and we were able to release it as part of the celebration. Amazing… but that wasn’t the most special part of my day. As part of our conferences next week, I’m working with each...
The Giving Tree.
Aug 31
Well I’m mostly done. I jetted in this morning for a couple of hours to do some last minute setup tasks and came to the conclusion that I will truly never be ‘done’ so I came home and decided to try and enjoy the long weekend before we hit the ground running next week. One of the last things I put up today was my ‘Giving Tree’. I’ve always been a firm...
Reunited.
Apr 17
When I started teaching kindergarten, I was amazed at how affectionate my sprouts were. Some more than others, but it was rare to find a child who didn’t want to hug me at least some of the time. As that first year progressed and we learned more, the hugs just increased. One little guy, Sage, was a serious hugger. He literally was at my side grabbing me in some fashion most of the...
Plaidypus Pattern.
Mar 29
I’ve written about it here and here… there is something about the platypus and this story and the ensuing plaidypus that is just magical. I copied this pattern from another kindergarten teacher (who no doubt copied it from someone else…) so I can’t really take full credit. Yes, that’s my handwriting on them, and probably not my best either, but it’s...
Plaidypus.
Mar 27
This week we are reading Plaidypus Lost (really, an amazing book) and making our stuffed platypus animals… so sweet, it’s really one of my favorite activities we do all year. I burned myself with the hot glue gun a few times, but it was totally worth it… each year I’m reminded of this post I wrote the first time I made these with my sprouts… As part of the...
Odd.
Mar 02
Oh how I love getting email from readers… here’s one recently sent: Hi there! I am a first year education student and I too am planning on teaching in a younger year classroom (anywhere from k-5) and am wondering whether you found that being a male in that position has caused you some difficulty? I know there are some parents who find it, for lack of a better word, odd that a male...
Reminder.
Dec 10
With conferences behind me and time to reflect, I can’t help but think of one resounding common theme across all my conferences… ‘How is my child doing… socially?’ Yes, with all the push on academics, discussions of the national Common Core, and everyone talking about kindergarten being the new first grade, again and again, what parents want to know is – does...
Over?
Aug 07
So, if I go into my classroom tomorrow to start getting ready, does that mean summer is officially over? Ugh. My classroom was tiled this summer, so everything was gutted and placed in the hallway and is in a large pile in the center of the room right now. Maybe I’ll take a picture of the heap of stuff. Luckily for me, I don’t have to tackle it alone. My fearless partner, Mrs....
