What a wonderful break! I can't say I was full of energy and ready to get back to work...I had too much fun and wanted more time off. haha! I had to remind myself it was going to be a very short week. 3 day week, yes three days because I have a workshop all day tomorrow...Woohoo!
I normally wouldn't be very happy about going to a workshop but this one I am. If anyone took any English courses at UTEP with Dr. Keith Polette, you know what a great speaker he is. In my undergraduate course of Children's Literature we would swoon when he spoke. He has a great way of keeping your attention and interest. It doesn't hurt that he's not bad on the eyes too...heehee! ~blush~ He has some great children's books he has written which relate to our Southwest area. I'll post more about him and his work and the workshop tomorrow if all goes well.
My munchkins today were very calm and it was nice. They're starting to fall into a routine which will make my life easier in the long run. We were supposed to watch President Obama's speech today but not sure what happened. The techie that I am and another fellow teacher found it streamlined on a Washington web site and the munchkins got to listen to it. To my surprise they did a very good job paying attention...well, some listened. My penguin boy, who should have been the main one listening wasn't...ugh! All my other munchkins were very focused on what President Obama said especially when I gave them the eye when he said "Listen to your teacher." It's amazing what they know and how well they listen. Many times we get looked over because we're Kinder! We had a great discussion afterwards about the things that were said and what some of the things he said meant. This was a perfect transition into the discussion of having a substitute tomorrow and they BETTER behave! We'll see what happens with that when I get back on Thursday.
We used scissors today for the first time...eek!!! Wow!! It's amazing to see the correlation of my munchkins who have no clue how to hold or use scissors with those that have very poor fine motor skills or I should say lack of fine motor skills when writing and using a crayon. The munchkins that I've notice have poor fine motor skills couldn't hold or manipulate scissors if their life depended on it! Before using the scissors we first learned how to trace their little hands on construction paper. Most of them did ok, but some hands looked like strange creatures from the black lagoon! Once we traced, then I had to show them how to hold scissors. Yes, just like anything else, many need to be taught how to simply hold little scissors correctly and then getting their little hands to manipulate the scissors open and closed. We went over the rules...no playing, no poking, no cutting hair, no cutting uniforms, no walking with scissors, no this and no that! Finally....we started, they first have to learn to place their thumb and first two fingers in the correct places. We did that over and over. Whew! That's a job in itself! A good chunk of them did very well holding their scissors while others struggled. I know I should have just had them practice cutting paper into snips and strips but I wanted to push them a little more. Well, those cute and strange little hands we traced...it was time to cut them out! Maybe 5 cut out beautiful little hands and kept the fingers intact! Another 7 or so did ok...a few fingers missing or chopped off or their hands looked like part mittens or creature hands. Haha! The other 4...ahhhhhh!!! I think that's going to be homework for those...just holding and cutting up paper and following lines to cut. Yikes!!! Their poor little hands were...hmm.. let's just say amputated! Not making a joke of any amputees but these poor little hands had no fingers and were left as blobs. I'll have to post the pictures later of some of their construction hands...they are super cute to see!
Toward the end of the day today they had a special treat...Ronald McDonald came to talk and put on a skit about Bullying. Did you know there was a real Ronald McDonald...well there is!! Heehee! It was a little scary to see this very tall man dressed in the full outfit and makeup! My sweet special "Jimmy" boy cried. At first I thought it was because he was scared of the clown. Who's not afraid of creepy clowns?!! Well, later he told me he cried because it was "too wild." They gym was packed with K-3...that's a lot of kids and he had them very active and it did get loud and crazy. This was a good indicator for me that he doesn't do very well with too much audio stimulation, but he did do ok. The kids loved his show.
We'll see how tomorrow turns out at the workshop and I cross my fingers the munchkins behave with the sub...or else! ;) Stay tuned...
XOXO's
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