Who Knew?

So Friday was an interesting day. As any teacher will tell you, the week before Christmas break, Spring break & summer holidays are BRUTAL! The kids are so done. The teachers are so done. Everyone just needs a break.
Well this starts happening even earlier in an Early Ed room. So on Friday my kids were D-O-N-E. The youngest ones (2.5-3 yrs old) spent most of the day completely spaced out. They would begin to pull off their mittens, then just sit there, staring into space until I tapped them on the shoulder. We played a game where they pretend to sleep for about 1 min, and none of them wanted to get up!!
In the afternoon, my little J had a rough day. For the first time in 2 months he bit one of us. One of my poor EAs got it pretty bad on her arm. So while she went to get disinfectant & ice, my other EA had to sit with J in his modified form of a "Time Out". This left me with 7 wired, exhausted kids who all wanted to see what was going on.
Salvation arrived in an unusual, unexpected form. A box! A delivery from Scholastic to be exact. I had been expecting a set of Teacher Resource books I had ordered for awhile now and it chose that moment to show up at our classroom door.
Not knowing if this was going to work or not I promptly made a BIG to-do about this "present" arriving. How exciting! How wonderful! Let's see what's inside! What could it be? Etc. etc.
I was terrified they would lose interest the second I opened it and they saw not toys, games or even picture books, but Teacher Resource books. I needed to buy all the time I could get though.
So we all plopped down on the floor, slowly peeled off the tape & one by one, pulled out the books.
"Look! This one is full of fun crafts we can make! This one has lots of cool pictures!"
I B.S.-ed with the best of them. And lo and behold, they bought it! They must have sat there flipping through these books for a good 5 mins! And for a room full of special needs preschoolers, that's a miracle!
It just goes to show. You never know where a miracle is gonna come from. And don't underestimate the value of a little excitement and enthusiasm! ;)

Explain, please!

Some days, well, most days, I wish I could ask my kids to explain what they just said. Two perfect examples happened this week.

I was helping one of my little girls so I was crouched down beside her. She rubbed my shoulder and said, "You're nice and clean."

Ummm...thanks?

Waiting around after school yesterday for a little guy to get picked up after all the other kids had gone. As I mentioned in a previous post, his favourite song is "Eye of the Tiger". Well, he attempted to explain the song to me. A few quotes of what he said.

"I like the punching part. The girl punches."

Me: "I didn't know there was a girl in the song."

"Yeah, a girl and a tiger. 'Eye of' is the girl and 'tiger' is the girl. 'Eye of' is trying to beat 'tiger' so that's why there's punching. Like this." Began punching the air.

Again, ummmm...

Christmas in Preschool Land

In my classroom we love Christmas. When I set up the tree and had it ready & waiting for the kids to decorate on Monday they were SO excited! Even more excited the next day when they realized they were still allowed to touch & play with the tree & move around all the ornaments they want.

Our gift wrapping centre is also a HUGE hit. Who knew so much fun could be had from some scotch tape, tissue paper and boxes?

More Snippets...

As I walked to the printer down the hall from my classroom I overheard a few first & second graders discussing their play plans for recess:

"So we're playing wedding, right?"

"No, first we have to have a rehearsal!"

"I'm the flower girl!"

"Come on husband, hurry up!"

I tried to m

ake it around the corner before bursting into laughter. So sweet!

We have dress up clothes in our room right now and boy are the kids into it! They mostly fight over being the puppy & kitty. One little guy was dressed up as the puppy & another asked him, "What's your name, puppy?"

"I'm Music Dog. I sing my favourite song."

He then proceeded to "bark" his favourite song. It took me a few seconds to recognize it (give me a break, he was barking it). It was "Eye of the Tiger"! He was unmistakably barking "Eye of the Tiger"!

I got some awesome pics of the kids in various costumes for our yearbook. My perso

nal fav is of our twin boys posing together, both dressed as princesses. Love it!

Below is a pic my EA took of my after the kids had dressed me in a lovely paisley vest and purple lei.