Absolutely Lucy

Posted on 03/27/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

I met Lucy shortly after I was asked to foster her while her rescuer was out of town.  She was a stray that had been hanging around our school for about 4 years.  No collar, scared of people and a mom to a litter of pups.  I had plans to meet Lucy on Thursday, so from Monday to Wednesday my dog and I slept with old towels so Lucy could sleep with them and learn our scent until she came to our house.

Lucy was very cautious and curious and shook like a leaf on a windy day.  She came close enough to lick a dog biscuit but wouldn’t eat it until I laid it on the ground.  Later she let me pick her up and actually relaxed for a few seconds.  I was confident that she would settle in when she visited our house.

What I hadn’t expected was for her to be absolutely adorable and to warm up to us quickly.  My husband said I brought her into the house under false pretense.  I lobbied to keep her since she needed a new home.  I named her Lucy because of the children’s book Absolutely Lucy about a beagle.

We’ve had her a week and it has been interesting to observe her progress.  The first command worked on was “come”.  In the house she would come within about 2 feet and stop until one day she decided it would be OK to come the rest of the way.  She wanted up on the bed but couldn’t make the jump but figured out on her own how to use the trunk at the foot of the bed as her first step.  She now stands ready and waiting to take a dog treat out of your hand.  She has more to learn……..it’s like having a 4 year old puppy…..lots of learning and training to accomplish.

Watching her reminds me of a shy, timid, quiet child in the classroom.  The child that could easily go through the school year as an observer instead of a participant.  Just like Lucy, they first have to learn to trust you.  If you can get them to like you, that helps too.

After doing the usual…….. saying “hi” with a smile, complimenting them on desired behavior and asking others quietly to encourage them to play……I do the one thing that has worked for me time and time again with not only shy children but also with those that need to build confidence.

As I walk around the room during a lesson that requires writing answers, I call on various children to give the answers at the same time I am keeping a eye on my shy or under confident student.  When we reach the question that I know they know the answer to I call on them…….of course before we hear the answer we hear “I didn’t raise my hand”.  I answer, “I know you didn’t, but I see you have the correct answer”.  After a few times of this they usually begin to raise their hand on their own.  Again, I won’t call on them unless I know they know the correct answer.  I might do this all year with a child but it is important for them to be successful if they are to start taking risks.  Taking risks is how we begin to learn on our own……take the risk to take the next step.

I read  Absolutely Lucy to my class and it has opened up a discussion on how you can make friends. Bobby, Lucy’s owner, is shy but he makes three friends in three different ways but the common factor is his dog Lucy. After we finished the book we had a discussion on how to make friends.  Each child ideas on how to make friends and we turned it into our own class book with an old fashioned library card in the back so the children will be able to check it out to share with their families.  Discussing how to make friends also lead to a discussion on how to be a friend.  We talked about what they should do if another child tries to be friends with them or how to welcome a new student.

My other dog, Molly, has been helping Lucy make friends and be more social.  They are now friends with an elderly man we meet on our walks.  They have a “boyfriend” named Buddy and they stop in front of his house to see if he is going to join them.  They both snuggle up to their pet sitter.  In every case it was Molly that made the initial move and Lucy, seeing that it was a safe situation, followed her lead.  Children, like Lucy, will stay back until they can tell it is a safe situation and they will be accepted.

Lucy, now spayed and microchipped, has been taking risks 3 years of  her life and our goal is for her to learn that a warm bed and a full tummy is better than a life on the run.

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Start Talking

Posted on 03/18/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

Babies and young children need a language rich environment.  They need you to talk to them.  They need you to also talk with them.  They start learning to read by sharing books. Book Smart,  Top to Bottom, Drama, Drama, Drama! and Where’s the Duck? are all pre-reading skill discussions from the storybook aspect.

Now it’s time to discuss engaging in conversations with adults as a pre-reading skill. Having little conversations with little children gives a them a head start in the academic world.

This is what I have observed in my teaching career about children that have had many conversations with adults:

1.  They know a lot!  They are the ones that know trivia.  They know that answers on subjects that other children have not been exposed to.  They are the students raising their hands to participate in class discussions.  Why?  When you start talking to children you need topics so you go beyond the information in the storybooks and discover new things to talk about.

2.  They are usually the better readers in class.  Why?  They’ve been exposed to more books and more words.  They have more labels to attach to what they see and hear.

3.  They talk in complete sentences.  Why?  It’s what they hear in conversations with you.

4.  They are better writers. Why?  You write the way you talk so if you speak in complete sentences, you write in complete sentences.  You write about what you know and if you’ve been exposed to a lot of topics you have a lot to write about.

5.  They are better test takers.  Why?  If you talk and write in complete sentences you learn the skill of restating a question to answer it.  Too many times children miss points because they didn’t answer in a complete sentence.  Many times it can be the difference between a good grade or a bad grade.

Start talking!  It will spiral to a better student later.  The skills build on one another and you don’t want to wait to lay the foundation. You’ll be rewarded….your baby will look at you like you are the most interesting person in the world…..you’ll need that memory when they become teenagers!

Posted in Everything I need to know to go to kindergarten | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sneaky Leprechauns

Posted on 03/12/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

There are two reasons I like Saint Patrick’s Day.  I was a huge fan of “The Borrowers” growing up and Leprechauns fit nicely with my visions of magical, little people.  The other reason is because it is one of those school days when you can have so much fun with children.

When my children were in preschool we had a little, wooden doll table and bench.  About a week before St. Patrick’s Day they would start putting them out on the kitchen counter.  We had a miniature mug and plate also so out came the drink and crumbs.  Sometimes the next morning, thanks to Mr. Ken Doll’s shoes and a little bit of sprinkled flour, there would be footprints on the counter top leading up to the table and the milk crumbs would be gone.  Closer to the actually day, they might find a stick of spearment gum because of its green wrapper.  Along the way of eating or being generous, our leprechauns were a little clumsy and always left a bit of a mess.  Our family celebration of St. Patrick’s Day ended with a meal of stew, Irish soda bread and shamrock shaped cookies.

When I went back to teaching, the little table, bench, Ken shoes and flour found their way into the classroom.  There seemed to be more footprints going more directions and more messes.  Always a big hit. Always a lot of speculation.

This year we are on spring break and will miss the wearing of green  on a school day.  We haven’t let that stop us though.  We’ve made leprechaun windsocks and tested them on one of the windiest days we’ve had after we had a discussion about telling wind speed from flags and windsocks.  We’ve put decoy leprechauns in ziplock bags and hope while we are out of school the real leprechauns will leave us some gold (chocolate coins, of course) in exchange.  Another activity was to cut out a leprechaun hat and pair of shoes.  On an 18′ x 24″ piece of paper the hat gets glued to the top and the shoes get glued to the bottom.  The children color the body of the leprechaun in between.  They usually turn out silly and adorable!

One of the most meaningful activities we did was to write a letter to someone in the class. “I am lucky to know you” was at the top of a green shamrock.  I wrote each child’s name on a shamrock.  The children randomly picked one.  Before they began writing  we discussed how to look for the good qualities this person has and tell them in the letter. First graders are insightful and everyone ended up happy when they received their letters.

Did you know blue was the color originally associated with Saint Patrick?  Saint Patrick wasn’t Irish either.  He was born in Roman Britain and at sometime between the ages of  14-16 was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland to work as a slave.  He escaped around the age of 20.  He returned years later as a missionary to teach the Irish Pagans about Christianity and used the shamrock to teach the Trinity.  He did not drive the snakes out of Ireland.  Highly disappointed to find that out.  The children always liked that bit of Saint Patrick Day trivia.

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mardi Gras!

Posted on 03/05/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

In the 22 years I have lived in the south I have discovered Southerns love 3 things.  They love the beach, SEC football and Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras is a carnival celebration for the two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), which is the day before Ash Wednesday.  In my pre-southern exposure, I thought Mardi Gras was a parade in New Orleans….period.  How was I to know, without the invention of the internet and YouTube, that throws were involved.  Or that moon pies weren’t just a lunchbox dessert.

So, in 22 years this is what I have learned about Mardi Gras…………

New Orleans isn’t the only place it happens!  The debate over “who had it first” is as long as “who should win the SEC”.  Mobile, Alabama claims the first one in the United States and so does New Orleans.   I think it’s safe to say though, that New Orleans has a longer history of making it a tourist destination.

People go to the parades to get the “throws” (and maybe see the beautiful floats).  I never knew there was such a thing as throws until one of my K4 students wanted to do a Mardi Gras parade for our class.  She brought her little red wagon and while her mother pulled her around the church courtyard she threw moon pies and beads at us!  I have since learned that the Krewe (New Orleans) or the Mystic Society (Mobile) member buys the throws, which can be quite an investment.

If you want to be an active participant at the parade you must yell, “Hey Mister, throw me something!”  The favorites are beads and moon pies.  Not a fan of moon pies, but I understand that every year the Chattanooga Bakery, home of the moon pie, introduces a new flavor.  The flavor for 2011 is coconut.  Last year it was mint.  The year before that…..well, let’s just say it is the only moon pie I dream of….peanut butter.  The creamy, peanut butter center is just so much better than the marshmallow one.  Oh, and by the way, attracting attention of float riders does not require lifting your shirt!

Every year I send our pen pal class a little Mardi Gras celebration of their own.  A box full of the important stuff, beads and moon pies.  The first year I did this the classroom teacher had to ask her coworker, a southern native, about the moon pies.  She was told to zap them in the microwave for 30 seconds…can you now say “smores”?

There are many opportunities to attend a Mardi Gras celebration in our area so I don’t normally have a classroom celebration.  This year I ended up with extra beads. I didn’t want to just hand them out. That wouldn’t be in keeping with the carnival spirit.  So I threw them.  Got the correct answer?  Woo-hoo, Mardi Gras, catch this!  You’re on task? Yea! Catch the beads!  We did this off and on all day making sure everyone was recognized and caught a throw.  With an increase in listening, working and following directions, we had a very productive day and we had fun!

I hope I haven’t given you the idea that I have actually been to Mardi Gras, because I haven’t.  I don’t know why, but I never have.  I just have a lot of friends that go either as throwers or catchers.  They bring me beads, they introduce me to peanut butter moon pies, and share their Mardi Gras wisdom.  It’s almost like being there…minus the crowds.

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Listen to the Teacher

Posted on 02/27/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

My son has almost the same birthdate as my daughter, minus 24 hours and 6 minutes.  Even though they are 4 years apart in age, they are 5 years apart in school.  She was the newly 5 year old when she started school.  At the suggestion of a wise preschool teacher to give him an extra year to grow, he was the newly 6 year old starting kindergarten.

By the time he entered kindergarten he was so ready.  That extra year gave him time to mature so he was developmentally ready for the challenges.  Thank you, Miss Julie, for recognizing that he needed it!

In a typical classroom you have those children who developmentally are ready to take each new skill taught to them and run with it.  You also have those who aren’t and need the repetition over and over until it finally clicks when they are developmentally ready. Some are confident, others are looking around a bit frustrated and often times disappointed.

This is what I have observed over the years with children who aren’t developmentally ready:

1. They become easily frustrated…..who wouldn’t?  Think back to a time when you were trying to put together something and you didn’t understand the less than perfect directions.

2.  They learn to cheat…..sad to say that about a kindergartner but it happens!  It isn’t all their fault.  We make it too easy for them by placing 4 to 6 children at a table.  Children at this age want to please.  They learn early on that perfect papers bring praises.  They also learn who the “smart” kids in the class are and if they sit by someone that falls in that category they look on their paper.  Then unfortunately it becomes habit and they don’t need to pay attention.  So instead of ……..

3. Listening….. they play!  I have seen entire monologues between two crayons, listened to “Stomp” wannabes with pencil, art boxes, desk and even shoes, and watch future builders construct anything and everything with eraser tips and markers.  The one that totally amazes me though, is the little, teeny, tiny bit of paper that can entertain some children for hours! Not listening also means………

4. Not focusing!  How can you learn when you can’t focus on what you are being taught?

So if they aren’t listening or focusing…

5.  They become bored.  Nothing is making sense.  It is like me at an opera.  And when they are bored, they play and they don’t finish their work and start entertaining themselves by once again playing……..

6.  They get in trouble because they are keeping the teacher from teaching, and their classmates from learning.

7. And the worst…..their self esteem falls.  It doesn’t take them long to figure out they aren’t on the same level as their classmates.  They want to be.  They want to get the 100 on the Wednesday spelling pretest.  They want to be the one to read the directions to the class. They want to be successful.

Help them!  If the teacher suggests you give your child a extra year to mature, there is usually a good reason.  In “Don’t Break The Table” I posted that in a classroom, maturity levels are very evident.  You see your child mature everyday and celebrate their successes but in a classroom where the majority have already accomplished those successes, the immature child stands out.  They struggle.  If that is your child, you should have ………

Listened to the teacher!!

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s Still Greek

Posted on 02/23/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

I love baby babble.  It’s just so darn cute.  You can’t help but get caught up in it and babble back.  I think the cutest sight is to see a baby with a book, babbling away, patting the book and thoroughly enjoying the moment.  Eventually, the babbling turns into sounds and the sounds eventually form words.  It’s a process, a slow process.

Learning to read, is also a slow process, in the beginning. Breaking and understanding the code is the key to success.   TMI, or too much information, can cause problems later.  It is better to learn one thing well in the beginning than to learn everything at once and not remember it.

When I have preschoolers that are just itching to read but not developmentally ready for it, I teach them one thing.  “A” , both upper and lowercase.  Right now I only want them to know the name of the letter because that is how we are going to use it.  I do tell them, however, that when the “A” or “a” is standing alone it becomes a word and the word is pronounced just like the letter name.  Then we might play a game where the “A” or “a”gets picked out of a group of letters.  When the child becomes comfortable with recognizing and saying the letter name then we begin to read.

So we sit down with a book that I know has the word “A” and “a” in it and I say, “I am really tired of doing all of the reading, so if you could please read the word “A” for me everytime we come to it, that would really help.”  As I am reading I am also tracking and in the beginning, I let my finger slow down at the word they are going to read.

Now

! $)&^  (*   &%  !  #&^

becomes

A $)&^  (*   &%  a  #&^

and the decoding has begun.

At this time you can slowly start teaching your preschooler the letters of the alphabet in order.  You are only teaching letter names.  “B” and “b” come next because it is the order of the alphabet.  You work with A, B,a,b a lot before you add C,c.  They need to be recognized in a crowd, put in alphabetical order and  called by name.  Add one letter at a time, know it well, before going on to the next.

They do not need to be written…that is another skill entirely.  TMI

Posted in Everything I need to know to go to kindergarten | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Brush Your Teeth, Mr. President

Posted on 02/18/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

A couple of weeks ago I made the decision to spread out one week’s worth of work over a week and a half.  Valentine’s Day was on Monday, our busiest day with enrichments and next week is only 3 days because of President’s Day + one.  My plan would give us extra time to do some fun activities that always seem to get lost in the busy month of February. We could have a bit of fun and also be a bit more relaxed.

We have already had a visit from the dentist to talk to us about dental health but I haven’t had the time to have my class make the teeth puppets that are always a big hit.

Tooth Puppet

It seemed kind of silly to back track on dental health when President’s Day is just around the corner.  At some point in my lesson planning I decided to combine the two and the teeth puppets became George Washington’s dentures.  Naturally, this led to an internet search for a picture of the actual dentures which led to George Washington’s denture trivia.

I know, they are a bit disgusting to look at.  These babies were not made of wood but metal, wire, ivory, bone, gold, and animal and human teeth.  One tooth was actually his own.  The upper and lower plates were connected by springs.  They were uncomfortable to wear and if he relaxed, his mouth would pop open.  His dentures distorted his face and are believed to be the reason for his stern look in so many of his portraits. 

When he was 19 he had all of his teeth.  But as an adult, it was toothache, after toothache. The cure was to pull them and finally by the time he was inaugurated as the 1st President of our country, he had only one tooth left.  Even though he didn’t have the best dental habits, he made sure his horse’s teeth were brushed every day.

The father of our country was toothless!  That was shocking news for 6 and 7 year olds. So for our final project of our Presidential/Dental connection, each child to wrote young George a letter telling him how to take care of his teeth so he would’t lose them.

If they follow their own advice they will be smiling a full set of pearly whites for years to come.

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t Break The Table!

Posted on 02/18/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

I have a confession to make.  When I had my first child I thought she was the cutest, smartest child ever!  So when she went to kindergarten I had all the confidence in the world that everything would be just fine.   After all, she was 5 by the cutoff date for kindergarten.  Her preschool teacher said she was ready because she could “draw the man”.  Not quite that simple.  There was this little problem of her chronological age and developmental age not quite being in sync.

Her chronological age (the measure of time from birth to the present) said she was ready. Her developmental age ( a measure of maturity) said “just barely”.  So in a classroom where she was newly five and others were almost six, any immaturity that she had stood out.  Did it bother her that she wasn’t as mature as some of the other children in her class? No, she was happily enjoying her adventure in kindergarten.

Even though she didn’t catch on to concepts and skills as fast as her classmates intelligence wasn’t the reason (dubbed the math nerd in high school).  She just hadn’t reached the point in her development to do some of the things her older classmates were mastering.  It’s sort of like the planets needed to be finally aligned and then it would happen.  I still remember the day she and her little brother were leaning on the sill of an opened window looking at a book and it clicked.  The it, in this particular incident, was the concept that letters make sounds and sounds go together to make words.  She came to me and ask if the word she was pointing to was “hot” and when I said yes, she beamed!  The code had been broken.

What I learned from this and other experiences with my children was that it doesn’t matter how much you try to get your child to learn something, if they haven’t matured to the level of the activity they won’t be able to master it.

When I teach something in school I expect at least a few children in  my class not to master it.  They just aren’t ready.  It doesn’t make sense to them.  So during the school year I reintroduce concepts so that if it is the right time for them, they will have their  “now I get it” moment.

Parents need to do this also.  I once had a little boy in my kindergarten class who was very young.  His father was trying to help him count pennies and nickels.  He’d show him, the little boy would do it with dad’s guidance and then the dad would want him to do it on his own and he couldn’t.  The dad got so frustrated that he slammed down his fist onto the kitchen table and the glass top shattered. The table could have been saved if dad would have just stepped back and said, “Ok, we’ll try this again in a few days (or weeks)”. Shoe tying falls into the same category as well as a lot of other skills.

Don’t push, let your child grow and by all means, don’t break the table!

Posted in Everything I need to know to go to kindergarten | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Snowman On A Stick

Posted on 02/10/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

 

The hot topic among the 6 and 7 year olds this week was ……..snow!  Snow in the forecast.  It would snow Wednesday night.  Will we have school on Thursday? On and on and on…………….

Naturally, it didn’t snow.  Once again we missed the forecast.  Once again some schools and businesses jumped the gun, not for cancelations but for delayed openings.  And once again, nothing happened.

Disappointed children showed up to school.  Little did they know, they would be building snowmen!  Edible snowmen!  Three marshmellows, a little fruit roll-up, two stick pretzels, a chocolate star, a kabob stick and a bit of icing later and a snowman is born!

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t Laugh!!!

Posted on 02/09/2011 by teachlearnlaugh

Seems like a funny thing to say, doesn’t it, especially since laugh is in the title of my blog.   I love to laugh and have shared some side splitting, tear producing laughs with my children. But…… there is a distinct difference between laughing at something funny that happens and laughing at a situation where your child is misbehaving!  There’s a time to laugh and a time to discipline. 

There are some very simple consequences of your bad behavior (yes, you are behaving inappropriately).

1.  you are telling your child what they are doing is acceptable

2.  other adults around you are saying to themselves “stop laughing and make your child behave”

3.  you are making it hard for your child to be in a group situation because they now think that everything they do is cute and everyone around them should enjoy the show (this includes teachers, coaches, and other parents)

4.  your child isn’t learning the meaning of “no” and when they become teenagers…….well, when they sneak out, you only have yourself to blame

5.  you’ve lost respect

Don’t set your child up to be the child no one wants their child to be around or the child the teachers dread seeing on their class roll.  Raise your child so others will love them as much as you do.

Posted in Notes from the teacher's desk | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment