-Insert Interesting and Mind blowingly Fascinating Title Here-

So. It's conference week this week and I was in the normal class this morning, but not in the afternoon. I got there super early so I got the chairs down and put the play dough and the other stuff out (paints and marbles for some reason that was unknown to me at that moment). Then I just chilled, listening to music and doing some sudoku puzzles until one of the teachers came in. She seemed surprised that I was there so early and seemingly had been there for a while (which I was). She got some other stuff that the class would need for that morning and I helped to get the stuff. I was introduced to DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNN!!!! The Magical Storage Closet Area Thinger.....Okay so it's really like a basement, but whatever. Not the point. When we came back upstairs, I hung out in the room, enjoying my loverly coffee and an addictive sudoku puzzle. Not too long after, a women came in with her daughter and it turns out that she was a substitute while the other teacher that is normally there was doing conferences. After talking with her for a while, the kids started coming in. They did their normal free play with the play dough and painting (with orange and yellow paint) and what not and I played with some of them. Then it was circle time.


They did their normal thing of naming the day, color, month, and talking about the helpers and all that other good stuff. Then they got into today's lesson. Feelings . They talked about happy feelings and sad feelings and what makes the kids happy and what makes them sad and what makes them excited and all that other good stuff. Then they read a story called "Feelings" by Joanne Brisson Murphy. It was about how this kid feels things in the day (happy because of the sun waking him up and sad cause it's raining). After the story, they were allowed to go off and play, but they had to do the daily project.

The project of the day was they had a marble in pink and purple paint. There were to use a box type thing and roll the marbles over a piece of paper shaped like a heart by shaking the box around. It actually turned out to be pretty cool. The pictures where really awesome and pretty with cool designs and stuffs. After all the kids did that and after some playing, it was time to go to the rumpus room. While in the rumpus room, there was a little girl who fell and bit her lip really hard and she left, so it was just the substitute teacher and I there, watching all the little kids. It wasn't really all that hard actually. Just pay attention to what the kids are doing and make sure that they're playing nice and taking turns and yada yada yada. It was actually pretty cool to do that because I felt like I was an actual teacher and not just a visitor here to play with the kids, which is how I feel sometimes (speaking of feelings). The teachers really include me in the things that they do, and I help out with getting things ready for the kids. It's like I'm a teacher, but at the same time, it feels like I'm just there to play. I don't really think it's anything the teachers can help with, it's just something that crosses my mind sometimes. Anyways. After the rest of the kids played for a while and after they had come back to the room, they played some more, then it was time to clean up and do their second circle time.


This time, they read a book called "I Was So Mad!" by Mercer Mayer. It was about creature and how when he wanted to do something, it seemed like every time his mom or dad or grandma or grandpa would say no. Then it turned out that he was allowed to do something at the end. A cute story really. Then, they talked about what sad faces and happy faces and excited faces looked like and the kids were allowed to come up to the front of the circle thinger (if they quietly raised their hands) and make a face and the other kids had to guess what feeling was being portrayed (again, raising their hands quietly). After that, it was snack time which was pretzels and water (quite good really). The little girl who had hurt herself before couldn't eat the pretzels because they hurt her lip too much. She just sat in my lap until her mom came to get her.

There wouldn't be any afternoon class in the room I'm normally in because of the conferences, so I went into the room next door which was kids who's birthdays were just after school started or where for some reason unable to move on to kindergarten (so like, 4-5 year olds). I stayed there during the lunch bunch and met the teachers and talked to them about what I was doing there and why I was doing it and all that good stuff and I helped them get ready for the afternoon class. I was to put cloak faces on these pieces of construction paper that were the cloaks (like grandfather cloaks) and I helped cut some paper for a different project. After lunch bunch, the kids started coming in. I was nervous. I wasn't sure if they were going to like me or if they were and what if they don't and all this other stuff (did I leave the toaster on...).

The kids seemed a little unsure of me (being new and all, they were weary which is normal). There were a few kids that were okay with me right off the bat and talked to me, which was nice. Like in the room I'm normally in, the kids were allowed to play and interact with the other kids until it was circle time where they talked about the helpers and the date and month and what their theme was for the week. It was nursery rhymes. They talked about their favorite nursery rhymes and then they were allowed to go off and play. Then, to the rumpus room!

While in the rumpus room, I noticed something interesting about this group of kids that I didn't really see with the other group. They had picked best-friends and who would be in their little play groups. There were two boys who are both only children and they are the best of friends. They're always playing together, sitting together, all that good stuff. Also, there was a group of girls who were all playing together and there was an almost leader type person of the group. One of the little girls was very smart and she seemed to be the main leader of the pack of girls.

After they had to come back to the class room, they had another circle time and sang their morning song and I was introduced and they talked more about nursery rhymes and which ones they liked and what nursery rhymes sound like (they rhyme). They they talked about their daily project. The kids were to make a mouse that would go up the cloaks that I had put together during lunch bunch and they were to add ears, a tail, eyes and a face to the mouse, as well as make the cloak look like the cloak in the story. They were to write the number 1 ("the cloak struck 1"), and they were to add the hands of the cloak. Then they were to put the cloaks in their bags and then they could go and play again.

I was impressed by this because when I was their age, I'm not sure if I would have been able to stay focused long enough and remember what to do with the mouse thingers. These kids are pretty smart. Some of them don't really want to do things when they're told to and they don't really listen to the teachers to much, but all in all, they seem like a pretty sharp bunch of kids. After they did their projects and played, they sat on the rug carpet thing and listened to some nursery rhymes out of the book, "Mother Goose" (classic kids book). During their circle time, the teacher from the other class who wasn't there came in and asked about how I was doing and what I thought of working with kids this age. Then she asked me what she should say to some of the parents about what they should do with their child to help them more. Which I found odd and kind of random, but none the less, it was slightly entertaining. She had also come to give me a copy of the flyer she handed out to the parents about me being there. It says...

"Dear Parents,
We would like to inform you that we have a student from the Graham school helping in our classroom for the rest of the school year. She is a senior doing her "walk-about" this semester. She has an interest in early childhood education. Her name is Andrea Koester ("Annie"). You may have heard your child talking about her. She started with us last week. We are happy to have Annie in our classroom; she is a lot of fun and has been enjoying her time with the children, When you see her, introduce yourself, she already knows all the children's names!"

I thought that it was pretty cool how they sent that out and the fact that they spelled my name right (extra cool points!). I really enjoyed today, being able to work with the older kids and see what it would be like teaching that age group.

Picture total for the day : 4
Note to self: scan some.

Until next time
Annie
~Tuesday February 26, 2008~
Yay another long one!