"I want to go ask one of the bigger kids to read this to me," C declared today.
"One of the kindergartners?" I clarified, then set her up with a visitor's badge and sent her (and the book she wouldn't let go of) off to the other classroom. Now C isn't overly shy, but I've yet to know her to walk into the other classroom without some sort of back-up--much less talk to someone over there. But as I peeked in after her I saw her standing confidently next to the teachers assistant, waiting patiently for her turn to talk.
So when she still wasn't back in a couple of minutes I got concerned and peeked in again. C was still standing by the assistant as yet another kindergartner said that they were busy. The assistant teacher kind of looked around and I had the feeling she'd already gone through the entire list of children who could read and had come up empty. So it was on to phase 2!
"Is everyone busy? How about we go and ask one of the elementary students instead?"
So that's what we did. C was definitely more nervous going in to the 'really big kids' classroom, but she followed me in and was just ecstatic when one of the first graders agreed to come over as soon as she finished cleaning up her painting. 5 minutes later the two of them were camped out back in the 'safety' of our classroom, reading the puppy story together.
At this rate if I'm not careful I'm going to have to worry about which classroom my students are spending most of their time in!
Showing posts with label elementary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elementary. Show all posts
Monday, March 2, 2015
Friday, August 8, 2014
History was made today
Or maybe re-made?
Today I got to witness a 're-enactment' of the story of Paul Revere. I have no clue how it started. I was watching the elementary students at recess and the next thing I know a bunch of them are running around shouting "The Bristish are coming! The British are coming!". I can't say how historically accurate their rendition was. At one point there was a queen and princess who were being abducted by the Americans (pretty sure that didn't happen), not to mention multiple escape attempts by said queen and princess that ended up with one of them being raised from the dead (I KNOW that didn't happen).
However the British did lose....but for some reason the American's were the ones drinking tea....I might have to suggest revisiting that topic to their teacher.
Today I got to witness a 're-enactment' of the story of Paul Revere. I have no clue how it started. I was watching the elementary students at recess and the next thing I know a bunch of them are running around shouting "The Bristish are coming! The British are coming!". I can't say how historically accurate their rendition was. At one point there was a queen and princess who were being abducted by the Americans (pretty sure that didn't happen), not to mention multiple escape attempts by said queen and princess that ended up with one of them being raised from the dead (I KNOW that didn't happen).
However the British did lose....but for some reason the American's were the ones drinking tea....I might have to suggest revisiting that topic to their teacher.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Where they're going
Today I want to devote some blog space to the other classroom community in our school: the elementary. Currently the elementary class has 44 students. Yes, 44 as opposed to the 32 in our room. Granted there's less need for physical help, but it's still a busy room. 99% of the children in that class have moved up from the Children's house and it's incredible to see where they go, both socially and academically as they get older.
Unfortunately I don't get to see much of the actual classroom work, but I do get to see the end products. Beautiful posters on a huge variety of topics, a multitude of salt dough sculptures, numerous handiwork crafts, and (strangely) a desire to get a jump on that work in morning daycare....
The main thing I get to see is the social community that's built by having children who basically grow up in a community where they're not just stuck with other children their own age, but have a mix of older mentors to look up to and younger children to mentor themselves. This is especially apparent in the children who come for before and after school care. Most of them have had the same schedule for years and so have spent a lot of time together. They know how to work together...and push each other's buttons.
The foundations of talking out problems peacefully in Children's house can be seen when this group argues. They police each other, stand up for those who need it, and are so great about including others. Not that they're perfect. They're still elementary students and trying out different social roles, including some not so savory ones. Regardless, how they end up working together can be staggering.
Case in point: The snow fort on the playground.
Every winter the elementary playground turns into a plethora of snow forts. The four corners where the snowbanks are the highest command the most attention. Usually there ends up being a lot of small forts but this year one excavation site has become the property of nearly half the elementary class. The older children have been instrumental in the overall design of the fort but they've allowed the younger ones to help with tasks more within their abilities.
The end result? A snow fort with three rooms dug nearly down the pavement (FYI this snowbank is about 7 or 8 feet tall!) including solid stairs to crawl in and out of them, outer walls that extend for about 30 feet, belly sliding hills with carved stairs to get back up, an 'office' to check in (via snow computer since we are in the 21st century), and a newly added snowball mine with a block about 3 feet in diameter currently under excavation.
Remember these children are 12 and under. Not only have they built this impressive fort over the past two months, but they've done it by engaging about half their class in the project in one way or another. Our younger kids aren't quite up to a social challenge like this yet, one or two friends working together is about all they can handle, but I hope they'll get there some day.
Unfortunately I don't get to see much of the actual classroom work, but I do get to see the end products. Beautiful posters on a huge variety of topics, a multitude of salt dough sculptures, numerous handiwork crafts, and (strangely) a desire to get a jump on that work in morning daycare....
The main thing I get to see is the social community that's built by having children who basically grow up in a community where they're not just stuck with other children their own age, but have a mix of older mentors to look up to and younger children to mentor themselves. This is especially apparent in the children who come for before and after school care. Most of them have had the same schedule for years and so have spent a lot of time together. They know how to work together...and push each other's buttons.
The foundations of talking out problems peacefully in Children's house can be seen when this group argues. They police each other, stand up for those who need it, and are so great about including others. Not that they're perfect. They're still elementary students and trying out different social roles, including some not so savory ones. Regardless, how they end up working together can be staggering.
Case in point: The snow fort on the playground.
Every winter the elementary playground turns into a plethora of snow forts. The four corners where the snowbanks are the highest command the most attention. Usually there ends up being a lot of small forts but this year one excavation site has become the property of nearly half the elementary class. The older children have been instrumental in the overall design of the fort but they've allowed the younger ones to help with tasks more within their abilities.
The end result? A snow fort with three rooms dug nearly down the pavement (FYI this snowbank is about 7 or 8 feet tall!) including solid stairs to crawl in and out of them, outer walls that extend for about 30 feet, belly sliding hills with carved stairs to get back up, an 'office' to check in (via snow computer since we are in the 21st century), and a newly added snowball mine with a block about 3 feet in diameter currently under excavation.
Remember these children are 12 and under. Not only have they built this impressive fort over the past two months, but they've done it by engaging about half their class in the project in one way or another. Our younger kids aren't quite up to a social challenge like this yet, one or two friends working together is about all they can handle, but I hope they'll get there some day.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
What were they thinking?
This blog comes in two parts today to answer the question, what were they thinking? Please enjoy in any order.
A child's story-
So I talked in an earlier post about how we have some job slips for the kids to draw at the end of the day so they can help tidy up the classroom. Now I don't expect them to get the job done perfectly, but every little bit does help. Usually it's great, the 'dust a shelf' job slips have been especially popular, which is great since dusting is pretty low on our teacher to do list and the children do a great job of it. Another job we have is 'check for dull pencils'. The child is supposed to pull the dull pencils out of the color coded holders and put them with the regular pencils to be sharpened. Well this is what I found today when I went to sharpen the pencils-
Now I'm not sure if the girl who checked the pencils just has really high standards for sharp pencils, didn't quite understand the word dull, or just really liked taking each pencil and placing it the big container. Either way, she did take out the dull pencils and they did get sharpened...so mission accomplished right?
An adult's story-
It was recess, I was spending the last half-hour of work playing four square with the few remaining elementary students (tough job isn't it?) when a car pulls up. A dad for one of the elementary students had arrived and the student quickly ran inside to get her lunch box and homework. Instead of just standing by the fence and waiting, the dad gets in line for four square and asks how to play. I don't know who was more shocked, the children who explained the rules to him, or his daughter when she came out and saw him playing with her friends. He stayed and played for a good 15 mins to her absolute delight. Four square isn't a hard game to learn or play, but when the area you are playing in is bigger it helps to have longer arms and legs. This student may have been one of the younger ones, but having dad there more than made up for the difference.
I still don't know why he decided to come and join our game, what he was thinking. But the elementary children were very impressed and stepped up their game to keep up with him.
A child's story-
So I talked in an earlier post about how we have some job slips for the kids to draw at the end of the day so they can help tidy up the classroom. Now I don't expect them to get the job done perfectly, but every little bit does help. Usually it's great, the 'dust a shelf' job slips have been especially popular, which is great since dusting is pretty low on our teacher to do list and the children do a great job of it. Another job we have is 'check for dull pencils'. The child is supposed to pull the dull pencils out of the color coded holders and put them with the regular pencils to be sharpened. Well this is what I found today when I went to sharpen the pencils-
Now I'm not sure if the girl who checked the pencils just has really high standards for sharp pencils, didn't quite understand the word dull, or just really liked taking each pencil and placing it the big container. Either way, she did take out the dull pencils and they did get sharpened...so mission accomplished right?
An adult's story-
It was recess, I was spending the last half-hour of work playing four square with the few remaining elementary students (tough job isn't it?) when a car pulls up. A dad for one of the elementary students had arrived and the student quickly ran inside to get her lunch box and homework. Instead of just standing by the fence and waiting, the dad gets in line for four square and asks how to play. I don't know who was more shocked, the children who explained the rules to him, or his daughter when she came out and saw him playing with her friends. He stayed and played for a good 15 mins to her absolute delight. Four square isn't a hard game to learn or play, but when the area you are playing in is bigger it helps to have longer arms and legs. This student may have been one of the younger ones, but having dad there more than made up for the difference.
I still don't know why he decided to come and join our game, what he was thinking. But the elementary children were very impressed and stepped up their game to keep up with him.
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