Catch a Bubble with Me

It's one of the best feelings to know that you taught something and it sticks to the students. I taught the kids that every time I count to three, they say, "Catch a bubble with me." And they would catch a bubble with their mouths. It is the CUTEST thing to see 21 students sitting in front of you making the bubble face! It also gets them quiet :)

I read "Runny Babbit" by Shel Silverstein, one of my favorite books, to the kids yesterday because they got so into making new silly words. Just to sum up the book, Shel flips the beginning sounds of the main words. Unfortunately, I think it went over their heads because they were trying to comprehend what I was reading to them. It was worth a shot.

A fun, but kind of unsuccessful, math activity deals with dominoes. It's hands-on and gets the kids going. They had to take the dominoes and add the top number to the bottom number. The problem was is that there was no clear bar that split the two sections...it was completely black with white dots. This definitely confused some of the kids. If you ever see any dominoes that have the white bar in between, pick them up for me and I'll pay you back.

I had a success with a very moody student. She is that student that would have to get her worksheet done right then and there even if everyone else is on the reading carpet. For some reason, I told her that I would color with her later during play time if she comes over to the carpet. She did go sit and forget that I was going to color with her. Oops.

Another success is making a light bulb turn on for a kid. This kid has trouble with beginning sounds and sounding words out. These silly little works have three letter words and so I kept trying to sound it out with him and it just didn't work. Finally, I tried the brush it off strategy. You tap your arm, beginning with your shoulder, with every sound you make then you'd brush it off to say it together. Bat: B- shoulder, A- elbow, T- wrist. Unfortunately, I forgot to review with him this morning what he did yesterday so that it would stick. Let's hope I remember tomorrow! He just needs that extra little help and he should be fine.

I have begun to notice that this one student acts up even moreso if he isn't chosen by the teacher to answer a question or partcipate. I'm going to have to keep an eye on him. He is bright and when he does do his work, it is fantastic.

Another thing that I have noticed is that these kids pick their noses all of the time and there's nothing I can do. I feel like it's fine because they are kindergartners, but at the same time I should say something because they are still learning and how are they going to know if no one ever says anything to them?

Funny stories: One of my students had uncontrollable hyper tendencies and can be extremely sensitive. I was sitting at my desk putting booklets together while the class was outside for playtime. My student walks into the restroom. Within seconds, I hear him throwing a fit! I started to freak out, but decided to wait a minute to see what he would do and to hear what he was saying. Thankfully, he came out of the restroom in tears because he couldn't get his pants unbuttoned. By the time he finished washing his hands, he was acting like nothing had happened.

That same day, while the kids were putting on their coats at the end of the day. One of the boys decided he wasn't going to wear his coat and put it in his book bag. The funny thing was is that he wore his detachable hood with the Velcro part covering his mouth. It was the funniest thing to see!