Rough Day!

Pink Room

• I spent the first half of the day with my pre-k to kindergartners. They got too competitive with the game where they tossed rope lassos onto pink jugs, so I moved them back to the carpet where I let them lay down or dance to one song. We forgot to give my partner a lunch, so we had to make up for that. 

Orange Room

• I moved to the big kids (1st grade-5th grade). They were taking part in bike day. I got everyone to park their bikes and I got the legos cleaned up (which takes a surprising amount of time). When I told everyone to put their helmets on and get their bikes so that we could park them, some of the children decided to lag behind. We did not have enough children without bikes to grab the toys, so we had to park our bikes by the tree and come back for the toys and cones. I told the children to follow me and to gather in one of the parking spaces so that we could cross the road. So many of the children were lagging behind, off task, or being disrespectful during this time, so we had a class conversation about respect and safety once we got into the room and I allowed every child to get a drink from the water fountain.When we come inside, I always have everyone go straight to the room and I send 2-3 children to the water fountain at a time so that they don't have to be silent. 
• After our conversation, the children got to have 30 minutes of electronic time or free time. I gave them an early warning that it was almost time to clean up. When it was time to clean up, I told the children to put up their electronics, clean up their area, and go sit at the tables. It took so long to clean up. One of the children made a mess at the sand station after they left their station. I made them sweep it because I had just cleaned it. 
• The children designed their own bugs for art. Most of them turned out pretty good. The students who did not listen were mad when I told them that they did not follow directions because they drew something other than a bug. 
• After snack, 3 of the children went to read to the 2-3 year olds. The other students were rambunctious, one of the children does not ever stay where he is supposed to be. Right as I almost got them settled,  half of my pink room children came in and went crazy. Once I got the pink room settled and turned back to my orange room children, my boss came in and had them play Simon Says. I probably could have gotten the situation under control in a few more minutes, but I was happy to have the help so that I could focus on cleaning the tables. 

VBS

VBS

• It was fun leading the VBS games with my family.

1. The Egg Says went pretty well but it was long. It needs to be broken up into 2 groups.
2. Hold the beach ball between your backs and walk. :)
3. Parachute games :)
4. The food relay seems to have went well. 

Peanut Allergy

• It kind of freaks me out that one of the boys in my class has a severe peanut allergy. Today a student had a pb&j sandwich in the bag in his hand and was walking to close to him. The boy with the allergy loves to hug me, I worry about who may have hugged me earlier. 

Behavior

• This is the second day in a row that I had to have my entire group sit down for 5 minutes. They were lined up and behaving until I had to chase another child down. Then, everyone went bonkers and would not calm down.
• The students have quickly picked up on knowing what I want when I count down from 3. 

Purple Room

I take my pre-k children with me to the purple room on Thursdays because the school-aged children go on field trips.

Behavior

• My child who has the most behavior problems had a pretty good day. He had about 3 times when he was up to no good. I was glad that he listened so well. I am learning that he works best when he has options. He even took a nap today even though he didn't have to.
• My students have learned that when I count down from 3, they need to be quiet. 

Giant Squid Craft

• My friend, who is in charge of the purple room, left me an activity to lead with the children. We read I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean and then we created squids. Each child got half of a paper plate, a few crayons of their choice, 4 streamers, and 2 eye stickers. They created their own giant squids. Each of child was so excited to show their parents their squids. They loved this activity. 

Phonemic Awareness

• I decided to test my students' phonemic awareness by playing what I called the color game. It started as a way to keep them quiet in the hallway. I said, "I'm thinking of a color and it begins with a _puh_ sound. What color am I thinking of?" The children had to raise their hands to answer. In this case, I was looking for purple and pink. Most of the children liked this game. They showed me their phonics skills because a lot of them answered by saying, "puh is p, purple begins with p."

Pink Room

Reading

• The students really like it when I read to them. I read with a lot of expression, move around, have them repeat after me, and walk around to show them the pictures. I read a few chapters from Junie B. Jones Graduate along with a Rollie Pollie Ollie book today.

Discipline Kids

• I like that the children who are usually in trouble love m slid them onto new e. I generally use the "kill them with kindness" method with them. They hug me when  they see me and generally trust me to be fair. This also benefits me because it helps motivate them to listen to me. 

S'mores

• We accidentally burnt s'mores for special snack. The raped grhram crackersagham crackers were burnt, so we scraped the contents onto a fresh graham cracker. I like that my partner had the kids use chocolate chips. Even though there was a lot of smoke, the kitch still smelled pretty good for a while. 

Organization

• My boss started a binder for summer lesson plans last year. I did not know about the binder so my partner only added my word document that has pinterest pictures and lists of my ideas for the thtemes. When I saw a note on the 8 hour board athat asked everyone to add their lesson plans and newsletters for this year to the binder, I went to the computer and printed off the newsletters and lesson plans from last year to the binder. I also marked each lesson plan by the room color that it was from, this will help my coworkers to find theme plans that were designed for their age group. I also made sure that the lesson plans for each room are together. I finished by adding appropriate science labs that fit the themes because I know that so many of my coworkers do not enjoy planning science experiements. 

Maternity Leave!!!

Because one of the other 1st grade teachers liked my sub report so much, she suggested that another teacher use me for her maternity leave. I will sub from the back to school night until Labor Day. I had never considered working with 1st graders long term before, but now I will work with them for 6 weeks. The interview went pretty well. It made me feel good when I walked in and the guidance counselor (who helped the principal interview me) commented that she had heard good things about me. I'm a little nervous about the behavior management and knowing when to start getting into the academics, but I am very excited for this opportunity!

Pre-K and Kindergarten

This summer, I will be working with kindergartners and prekindergartens. I like my teaching partner. I'm bummed that I don't get to go on the field trips because the pre-k kids can't go, but I get to lead music and movement with them.