Mele Kalikimaka!

Aloha!  It's 40 degrees in sunny North Carolina; how's the weather where you are? We had our first big frost of the season yesterday with my car completely covered in an impenetrable layer of ice. (But no snow; it's always winter but never snow!)  So what did we talk about with the kids? The beach, of course!  One of our teacher standards for teacher licensure...

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Healthy Holiday snack

Hello again busy teachers! It's the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, even for us. It,s easy to get overwhelmed with lists. Personally I have crocheting to do, an IEP meeting to organize, slippers to ship to a customer, materials to get together for my class, 2 shops to promote, and crafts to plan for Family Craft Day. Not to mention Christmas shopping.  Whew!...

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Stone Soup

Welcome back! I hope everyone had good, relaxing holiday.  Last time I talked about making Stone Soup and wanted to share some pictures with you.  The children loved measuring the ingredients into the soup and trying them before they went in.  It was a great opportunity to bring in numbers, more/less than, senses, and teamwork.  Not all of the children...

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Holiday Weekend Sale

Stone soup pictures are coming next week. Before then, here's a great opportunity to save some time and money!  I've put together some ideas for the coming holiday season because we're all stressed enough. Why throw lesson planning into the mix? Even better, all of my items are currently 20% off. If you shop on Monday and Tuesday, you can get up to 28% off with code CYBER....

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Being thankful

Of course we talked about being thankful this week; is there anyone who didn't? (Seriously, I'd like to know. Post in the comments).  I described it as being something that makes you happy.  For a writing activity, we asked children three things they were thankful for, then encouraged them to draw it on a turkey feather while we dictated. That afternoon, my wonderful...

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Bragging time

It's good to reflect every so often and find moments to brag on the kids. We finished up our fire station week with the book The Fire.  We talked about what was on the cover and the kids did great using descriptive words an predictions. The book itself is about a family whose house burns down and learns that the most important thing they have is each other.  The...

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Call to Arms

I'm afraid I have something shocking to tell you: there are such a thing as Preschool Worksheets online.  I know! In this day and age!  In my bio on Teachers Pay Teachers, I mention that I don't do worksheets and I stand by this.  I've even had some parents ask why I don't send home worksheets to show learning. But you're good teachers; you already know why...

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The Joys of Parenting

Sometimes the best moments come not from the kids, but from their parents.  Every year I head to the used bookstore and get a whole bunch of books to give out as birthday presents. The kids love getting something for their birthday from me and the joy on their face when they show it to their friends is wonderful.  I happened to be working late today when one of the...

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Power plays

Happy Weekend! :D By the way...have you heard of Allie Brosh? No? Then here's her latest piece on being a terrorizing four-year-old.  Some of her other posts have some profanity, but they're all amazing (try the one about the cake!) http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co...

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In the minds of 3-year-olds

If you've been following my blog this year, you know that my classroom has some special cases.  According to my director, a lot of them "need to be here." Ok, fine. I love them all but sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or go crazy. Here's a funny story of one of the 3-year-olds: A few kids in the class like to play checkers so I brought out the board this morning....

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Happy Un-Halloween!

I might not let my kids know it, but I'm a big believer in the idea that rules are made to be bent. In NC, teachers are encouraged to build on children's interests. Naturally, the children's thoughts are turning towards Halloween. There's just one problem: my center doesn't like Halloween.  Or any holidays, for that matter. I've had to get a little...creative this week,...

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This post is not Pin-worthy

 I'm sure there are other posts on this topic somewhere; at least I hope there are. I can't be the only one tired of all the cutesy stuff on Pinterest when it comes to children's art. Don't get me wrong; I can easily spend an hour Pinning, commenting, and following rabbit (Pin?) trails. There are a lot of great ideas out there. But when I see post after post about giving...

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Smile!

I was reviewing shapes this morning using some of the great ideas found here when some of the kids guessed correctly and I smiled. That's great for them, of course, but the strange part is how alien it felt. Do I really smile that little? I thought. I thought about it and even asked my assistant who assured me that I do smile. But it made me realize the power of something as simple as smiling. There's a Becky Bailey technique for calming...

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Representational Drawing

With the apples last week and insects this week, I realized something: this class is amazing at representational drawing!  When we talked about sunflowers one day, the children looked at photos and recreated them fairly accurately.  This week we talked about spiders; some of the children needed help with shapes, so I gave them a few shapes to glue together. We...

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Save the drama for your mama

I thought that with 12 boys in the classroom, we'd have fewer issues with namecalling and friendship and more with rough play. Of course they do play rough and hit each other, but there's quite a bit of drama about who is whose friend on which day.  Today at the lunch table, a couple of boys decided they weren't friends and started arguing back and forth.  I...

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How to get a picky eater to eat

Every class has its own picky eater and mine is no exception.  Just by looking at something, he decides he doesn't like it.  He's especially this way with apples, so we had a happy accident today.  We're talking about apples this week and did lots of fun things like make a chart of the children's favorite colors of apple.  Today, the children got to observe...

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Confession Time

Everyone, I have a confession to make: I underestimated my preschoolers today. I know! If you've read the last couple of posts, you may have noticed it's been a rough week.  Everyone has those times when you wonder if anything you teach your kids is actually getting through and this week was one of those.   So, we've been focusing on social skills for the past few weeks: we've talked about the children, their families, making friends,...

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A Reminder

This week, it's been hard to find something good to take away so I thought I'd post some reminders on what we're teaching children during their tough moments.  My goal this year involves executive functions, which you can read more about here: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/inbrief_series/inbrief_executive_function/ and here: http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/executive-function-disorders/what-is-executive-function When...

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Mmm...pretzels

Whew! Another year ahead of me. Some kids are those from last year, some are new faces, and some moved up from the younger class. We definitely have a wide variety of learners. I'm focusing on executive functions and social skills these first few weeks, specifically calm-down strategies. I got some great activities from Conscious Discipline, so we went ahead and tried out some of the breathing strategies. So far, success has been mixed. One...

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A little better all the time

Before I get to the story, I have to give you a little background. Child A has been with us a few months and is usually resistant to cleaning up.  He also likes to throw tantrums and hit when he's upset. He's been getting a little better all the time and has started to follow directions the first time we ask. Today, child B was coloring and got upset, throwing our box of colored pencils down.  I asked him to clean up, using every strategy...

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Of course it's important!

Two children that are normally friends were having a very heated discussion in block center this morning.  It started out fine; they were playing nicely and using kind words with each other. They were both engaged in the materials.  Suddenly their voices got louder and one of them got so angry, she hit her friend.  If I hadn't intervened, it would have turned into a fist fight.  What was so important?  They were arguing over...

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Different season, same kids

I'm sure some of you heard about Tropical Storm Andrea coming through recently. Thankfully, we didn't get much except for a few thunderstorms.  Before I continue, I have to tell you about this kid that joined us in February. He's gotten better, but he literally does the opposite of everything you tell him to do. If he's already on his way to wash his hands and someone reminds him that when he does, he'll be able to eat/play, he'll stop and turn...

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Saying Goodbye

Last night was bittersweet. We had our end-of-year party and there were multiple parents crying and thanking all of us, telling us how much they appreciate us.  I was able to look on the faces of some kids that have driven me crazy all year and think, "They really have come a long way."  I looked at some who I thought I wouldn't see again after a few weeks and told them how proud I was of them.  Their funding runs out at the end of...

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Pitchoo!

We've had a lot of rain and pollen this year, so runny noses are running rampant along with sneezes and coughing.  Of course, even after multiple lessons about germs, the children still wipe their noses on their sleeves and the other teachers and I started to get the sniffles. After one particularly violent sneeze by me, one of the children said, "Amy! You pitchood!" ...

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Too funny to stop

There was a spider on our windowsill again this morning.  A small, hairy brown spider, not even that big.  I say "again" because it's not unusual to find spiders on our windowsills, especially now that it's spring.  We've even spent two weeks on good "bugs", what defines an insect, and why spiders are actually good.  Of course, you wouldn't know any of that judging from the kids' reactions to the spider this morning.  All...

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Robots and Machines

We had the usual daily tantrums from the usual kids, but there were plenty of bright spots this week as we explored machines and created robots.  The children were able to see inside an old computer and even practice putting parts of it back together with a real screwdriver.  Then we built "robots" out of junk that could fly, vaccuum, and just sit there looking pretty.  Just thinking about their wonder and amazement this week erases...

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Storytelling

I promised you all some of the kids' stories, so here are some summaries.  The site I used was Storybird and we had a blast! A marshmallow got stepped on and was about to be eaten, so Super [Name] stepped in and took the bad guy to jail with his lightning powers. Dinosuars like blue boats. People were flying in a plane so they could drive. (This one was done mainly with a language device) A cat family likes cuddling and playing with spooky...

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Grizzly Hugs

There's a boy who's been out for the last few days.  He's usually affectionate anyway and has all kinds of funny little quirks (like wearing pink tutus).  I should let you know that today was a hot, muggy, rainy day and I didn't get enough sleep last night.  I almost overslept and had to drag myself out of bed.  That's why it made my day when he gave me a great big hug and said, "AMY! I MISSED YOU!" He's going to kindergarten...

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Spiders

We did one of my favorite units last week, about insects and spiders.  I connected it to storytelling this week with a story about Anansi the spider (a nice multicultural bonus for my evaluator).  One of the kids was really into the story and asked to see "the one with the melon on it" during naptime.  He started retelling it on his own and stumbled over the name "Anansi." I helped him, telling him how to pronounce it.  He said,...

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Sorry, Sorry

I feel terrible! Almost a month since my last post!  I've been to the SmartStart conference and going through a personnel change in the classroom. I'm looking forward to having someone fresh with different views.  I'll make sure I post at least twice a week for regularity and my own sanity. Speaking of "Sorry,"  the children learned the word as part of a social skills lesson from the DINA program. Now they're saying it to each other...

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I'm sorry this one's a little late.  It's been a busy week with parent conferences and interrogating a potential new assistant.  Here are two stories to make up for it: Um...yeah Oh, parent-teacher conferences. They reveal so much!  I asked one parent what she does with her child at home and we talked about using TV as a reward instead of a main activity.  Then I mentioned how great the child is doing with starting to pick up...

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Twofer Tuesday

I missed updating yesterday, so you get two stories today! It's Monday Yesterday, a Monday, one of my assistants was out and another had put in her notice so already it was rocky.  Everything went all right until naptime, when one of  the children decided they would rather have fun with the substitute than stay quiet.  Of course, if you're a teacher, you know how quickly one can turn into many so it wasn't long before I was moving...

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Mini Quotes

Here are a few quotes from the children: "I'm a turtle! Here's my shell!" (Starts rolling on his back) "Ah-mee! I poopied!" (from a child with autism, using the bathroom with another teacher for the first time) "I'm writing a bad note home because his behavior is bad."  (We give out good notes home, not bad ones, so I thought this was especially funny. He then followed through and told the parent!) "My shoe! My shoe!" (after throwing it over...

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It Must be Spring

Here in NC, our Springs run the gamut from freezing to feeling like Summer, usually on the same day.  Today the forecast was 80 degrees; the morning was cool but warm enough to go outside, so we started the day on the playground.  It wasn't long before a parent drove up.  A boy got out of the car wrapped head to toe in his blanket, with his mother following behind him carrying the tail like a bride's train.  As they went inside,...

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It's That Time Again... We've had several children out this week and last week due to being sick.  What's worse is when children come anyway.  Today, during naptime, we had a couple of children just coughing miserably for an hour straight.  Meanwhile, because nothing ever goes the way you want it to, another child decided to stay awake and try to play with everything around him.  Soon he asked to go to the bathroom and I took...

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Salutations, salutations, salutations!

Welcome to a celebration of the little things!  A celebration, that is, of our little ones and the little things they do and say throughout the day that make every day worth it.  It's easy to get weighed down by the negative and focus on what still needs to be done and what didn't happen.  Treat this blog as a deep breath, a calm pause and pick-me-up during the day.   A few times a week, this space will hold something that...

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