Lipstick

Before we entered our classroom for the morning I let the children get a drink.
Ok C get a drink
Ok B get a drink
Up next A, go get a drink Hun
She just stood there staring at that shiny fountain
"A get a drink!"
Still stood there
"A hurry up, your friends are waiting"
"I can't!" Came the reply
"Yes you can. Just push the button and get a drink!"
"I can't" she replied as she turned around to face me
"I'm wearing lipstick!"

Oh the life of a 4 year old

Count the Bears

As part of getting our children ready for kindergarten we have  started our first round of tests. Simple questions like what color is this, what letter is this, what number is this, etc.

Do you remember playing with plastic counters as a child? Those colorful plastic figurines that helped you add 1 + 1

We have some of those and as part of the test we asked our children to count how many bears we had

"Count the Bears
"
"1,2,3,4,5,6"
Looking down  and seeing 7 Bears was not promising
Count the Bears again please
"1,2,3,4,5,6" again skipping over the same bear
Honey, count the Bears, I said pointing to each one
As I moved my finger to each bear she counted
1,2,3,4,pause "That one is a cat!" 5,6

Next time I will be sure to use all the same Bears so they won't be mistaken for cats

The Letter F

Friday morning had arrived. 

As usual I was sitting down with my class doing group time. 

We talked about the weather, 

we talked about what letter we were talking about this week (the letter F),

then we  talked about the days of the week. 

I asked my helper to tell me what day it was. (Friday)

She repeated back to me "FRIDAY!"

Then came the excited chattering "Friday starts with the letter F!" 

YES! (this is one of those moments when you feel like a successful teacher)

Then. . . 

"Just like FURSDAY!!!"

About 3/4 of the class nodded their heads enthusiastically 

 "Fursday starts with the letter F!" they all joined in. 

I couldn't help but laugh. 

Then we had a long lesson about the difference between TH and F 

 

Road Trip to Texas

I like listening to the kids at lunch. Their simple, innocent conversations are entertaining to listen to. 

The other day I over heard some crazy plans. M and A, who are totally BFF, are apparently planning a road trip to Texas. Ha! 

Have they ever been to Texas before? no. Do they even know where Texas is? no. Funny kids. 

Apparently, "Buddy," A's 2 year old bother is going to drive them there. 

They are going to sit in the back seat M on the left behind Buddy and A on the right. Someone needs to bring snacks, a movie, and something for them to do so they divvied out the assignments. But apparently no one else can come, you know, like parents, because there isn't room with their booster seats. At that point I just started laughing out loud and M looked at me and said "it's true, nobody else will fit because our booster seats are too big" 

Dot A Do Patterns

 As part of Number week the children were instructed to: 

1: Draw a REALLY big number 1-10, enough to cover the entire paper

2: create a pattern using dot a do stamps over their number

The activity started our GREAT!

The kids drew their numbers and started making their patterns. 

Apparently the number 1 and 4 are very popular amongst 4 year olds. 

As instructed the children would stamp one color, place it on the table, grab the other color, stamp, place it back on the table, grab the other color, stamp, . .  you get the idea. 

The imagination of a child never ceases to amaze me. 

Some kids decided to get "fancy" and use both hands. One color in each hand and alternate. I never told them to do this, just watched in awe. 

Then I got distracted and forgot to watch a kid. Lets call him C. 

C sat down, excited a ready to do his art. 

I asked him to write down a number 1-10 on his paper.

I got distracted and looked away. 

when I looked back I saw a big 100 on his paper.

He had a huge GRIN on his face. He then said "I'm going to have the biggest number in the entire class!" huh,  ok! Good for him for knowing that 100 is way bigger than 10. 

Then I got distracted by another child again. 

I was listening to him doing his art. 

Thump, pause, thump, pause, thump, pause 

Blue, Orange, Blue, Orange, Blue, Orange, Blue, Orange. . . . Etc. 

The sound was correct. It meant he was alternating his colors and pausing to change colors 

I didn't feel like I needed to watch until. . . 

THUMP THUMP, pause, thump, pause, THUMP THUMP

WAIT!

Two thumps! No No NO NO NO that's not a pattern. Or is it? 

I looked over about to stop him when I saw he WAS making a pattern. 

Blue, Blue, Orange, Blue, Blue, Orange, Blue, Blue, Orange. 

Like I said before, kids amaze me. 

Then to further amaze me

Thump, Thump, Thump, pause, THUMP THUMP, pause, 

Thump, Thump, Thump, pause, THUMP THUMP, pause, 

This kid figured out a 3-2 pattern.
Way to go C! You make us proud! You will go far some day. 

 

Dance Party Turned Bad

"Let it go, let it go. . . . . "
All . . . Day. . . Long. . .
Dance party Thursday turned into a disaster.
The music was blasting
The kids were dancing and singing
Then I hear
"She's puking!"
Awesome
Turned around to see projectile vomit. Twice
Uh, I don't think I have enough paper towels to wipe that up

Egg-Napped!

Today I read the book Egg-Napped! By Marissa Montes

After I read the title I asked the kids if they knew what it meant
20 kids just stared at me with blank faces
I then asked if they knew  what it meant to be kid napped
19 kids with blank faces
C quickly raised his hand and said "it's when you go missing!"
I said "yes, so what do you think is going to happen in the book with the egg?"
20 blank stares


The plot of the book goes a little like this:
Two Geese have an egg
The egg rolls away
A turtle finds the egg and tries to disguise it
A Squirrel tries to help the geese by rolling the egg away from the turtle
The egg rolls down a big hill
It flies off the edge of a cliff where a huge hawk snags it up in the air
The squirrel is really a flying squirrel who saves the egg from the hawk
The egg plummets to the ground
The flying squirrel turns into a parachute and saves the egg
The geese are looking at the egg and waiting for it to hatch

Just as I was getting to the end of my story
C says "I bet the egg really doesn't belong to the geese and it's really a turtle egg!"

My jaw just dropped
Ha, who knew the kid picked up on a possible foreshadow
Good thought
I smiled at C and said "hum, maybe you are right, lets read the rest to see what happens"

The end of the Book: A baby goose hatches

Then C said "that book was boring"

Miss Allison, You Look Like _______

Today I wore my hair in a low, side, pony, with left over curls from the night before.

I walked into the room and the first thing I heard was

"Miss Allison! You look like princess Elsa"
(from the movie frozen)

Despite the fact that I'm Asian, I have black hair (Elsa has white) and I look nothing like her, I will take that compliment with a smile!

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!

Today, I thought I would be the fun one and play a game with my kiddos.
It was the end of the day and we were already getting bored with all of the hundreds of toys in our room.
I suggested we played duck, duck, goose.
14 wide eyes looked up at me and S asked "What's THAT?!?"
Thinking I'm the coolest teacher ever I sat my kids down in a circle on the group time rug.
I explained to them the simple rules of duck, duck, goose.
I then told them I would go first so they can understand what to do.

"duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, GOOSE!"

As soon as I said the word goose 7 kids shot up into the air, started screaming, twirled around in a circle, and sat back down, in their same spot, and stared at me, wide eyed, again. "That was fun!" exclaimed A

"No, wait! That's not how you really play" as I frantically try to re-explain the rules.
"Ok, so who understands how to really play?"
S raised her hand so fast!

As S walked around the circle she began "duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, . . . . "

By the time she was on her third time around the circle I gently reminded her to say the word "goose. . ."
6 kids shot up into the air, started screaming, twirled around in a circle, and sat back down, in their same spot, staring at me, wide eyed.

By my 5th attempt to play duck, duck, goose, the game just turned into the kids waiting for me to yell GOOSE and we would jump up, scream, twirl in place, and then laugh at our silly selves.