Summing up a month of Munchkinville in a one post blog will be a bit long or short and choppy...sheesh! Such a slacker! Haha!
Back into the land of munchkins...
Haiti was a huge topic and such a heartbreaking one to say the least. The school collected in three days, over $1,000 for the Red Cross. I was so proud of my munchkins because our class donated close to $70. Yay! Munchkins! Almost all of them donated. The disheartening part are those students/parents who didn't send in anything. Who cares about the amount...a quarter, dime or penny, just teach/show your child how to give!! I had one girl say, in her sassy little voice ~Oh my mom already donated.... Ugh, my blood started to boil. If I knew this munchkins parent couldn't afford to send in a dime then I'd be ok with it, but she's not one of those parent's who is strapped for clothing, food, or money. To make it worse was the tone she said it in. I've had problems with her sassy tone many times and it just got to me. I had little ones that kept bringing in their penny's over the three days and they didn't care if they "donated already." The adult that I think I am stooped to a child's level...ugh!!! In my sassy voice, ~Oh thank you "Hair Boy" for caring and donating again even though you donated already. Oh you did too "Blue Shoe Boy," thank you. You all have such big caring hearts. I heard myself and didn't like me very much at that moment but I couldn't believe a parent couldn't send in a quarter or a few pennies. Well, right before lunch on the second day (after I had already collected the days donation) she pulled out a dollar at lunch time to buy crap and that ticked me off even more so, I made a comment about buying junk but not giving to other children who just lost everything was not very caring. After lunch she told me she donated $0.50. It wasn't the full dollar but at least it was something. Sheesh!
Testing, testing, testing...it seemed like that was all we did in January! After gather all the testing results and looking through them, Mr. Stress Monkey come back with his friends and park it on my shoulders and back. Based on those results I'm tutoring 10 munchkins!!! 10! Who tutors 10?!! AHHHHH! I've never had 10 to tutor!! This is where I have to say...is it me? For once I'll stick up for myself and say Heck No!! There are 5 who are super at risk and the other 5 I threw in to make my life miserable! Actually, the other 5 just need strengthening in their reading. The first 5 STILL don't know all their letters and sounds or sight words...that's lack of parental involvement at home. Some parents forget they're their child's first teacher. By now they should know them all!!! Tutoring has been going ok for now. I have all 10 of them 3 days a week after school. I have them broken up into small individual groups that I work with. If I haven't gotten more gray hair, I may start suffering from twitching eye syndrome!
We celebrated the 100th day of school on Feb. 9! ~Yahoo! I shouldn't be cheering too much because that just means time is really flying. Yikes! ~When's the next break?...wait...I'm off today for President's Day. Heehee! Spring Break in March!!! Let the count down begin!
We've been covering different habitats and focusing on penguins. The munchkins surprise me everyday with the information they remember. They got a kick out of learning that the father Emperor penguin takes care of the penguin egg for months while the mom goes out to sea for food. Too bad many adult father's don't follow the penguins example. Heehee! Hearing my munchkins use the word regurgitate brings a smile to my face! They do learn! Ha! ~Does anyone know how penguin moms feed their babies? As they think, one says...~Like a bird!? ~Not quite...Penguin moms reguritate (throw up) their food into the baby's mouth. ~EEEEWWWWW gross! ~EEEEWWWW sick! Heehee! Love it! They got to watch March of the Penguins (always so sad to watch but true life) then they saw Happy Feet. I had a bunch of munchkins tapping away with their happy little feet! Cute! We also had penguin races...they had to balance their egg on their feet as they tried to cross the finish line. Fun stuff!
Valentine's Day in Munchkinville went without a hitch...
I have to share a picture of one of my little munchkins who was so proud of her new boots and matching belt! There's something with my kids and loving blue shoes! These are blue boots! Yes, blue and pointy. Wait...don't forget the matching belt and her low rise jeans! As my student teacher said ~only in El Paso! haha!
For Valentine's Day my most special gift ever in 13 years was from "Jimmy." I wanted to cry! He's been doing great for those of you who have been following our blog from day one. When his mom was pregnant with his twin siblings he started to bring two gray little bears to school and later it was only one that he would bring to school. He would bite and suck on it a lot. I had to tell him to keep it in his backpack because the other munchkins knew they can't bring toys to school so he had to follow the same rule. He kept him in his backpack and from time to time I would see him shove this bear in his pocket when they'd go to lunch. I think the thought I couldn't see it...heehee! He would also squish the little bear between his desk and the one next to him so that the little head would only be popping up watching him. It was cute to see. He wouldn't play with it, he just had it next to him. Well, Friday morning, the morning of our Valentine's Day, he came up to me and handed me his bear. ~Go put your bear in your backpack. He made a sound and motioned his bear up to me again. ~Are you giving me your bear? His little sound came out again as he nodded yes. ~That's your favorite bear. I can't take your bear. Thank you but you keep him. ~I have another one...this for you. I had to hold back the water works! My heart sank! The best gift ever...even though it's dirty, full of saliva, smells like smoke, it's still the best gift ever!
February is going to be a blur! We have our Science Fair this coming week, discussing more about President's Day, finishing up our Habitats/Penguin unit, lots of Math and Reading, tutoring and our culture celebration for Chinese New Year! Whew! This is all just next week! Yikes! Next thing I know, it'll be Spring, which means Spring Break! Woohoo! haha J/K
Stay tuned for our adventures...promise I'll blog sooner!
XOXO's
