A Sticky Situation...

...in more ways than one. Today I dealt with a sticky floor, an oilcloth with dried up apple juice, and (using the double meaning of this phrase) explaining to a parent how her daughter cut her shirt with scissors during nap....

The most prominent sticky situation was that we took up the line yesterday. Yes, I typed that correctly (that's for you mom!), the line. The line is a line of tape stuck to the floor in the shape of an ellipse and is actually a pretty important Montessori material. The children are allowed to move about on the line, and help improve their balance by trying to place their feet precisely on the taped line.

And ours...well it was broken. Yes, a line taped on the floor can break. Usually from children fidgeting and picking at it with their fingers, but also just general wear and tear from being walked on. So we decided to take it up. And let me tell that was some good tape. It did all come up nicely, but left a nice sticky line behind it. Now a lot of things in our classroom get sticky, especially around the snack area and when food work comes out, but it is something we try to avoid as a general rule. Luckily some goo be gone did the trick before the children came in for the day.

Funnily enough though, despite the fact that the children KNEW the line wasn't there, they kept walking on it. Or more precisely on the space where the line used to be. Some of them even went and go flags to go and walk on the line with. Just goes to show how deeply habits can become ingrained.

The other teacher and I did lay a new line on the floor after school, making it bigger to accommodate all the children in the class and trying to smooth it out into a more proper ellipse (which is a lot harder than you'd think!). It came out a little wonky, but hopefully the children will enjoy it. We'll find out tomorrow!

A little lopsided, but it works just fine!