Kindergarten Poets

In yesterday's post I told about the magical moments that lead to a beautiful poem composed by my whole class.  I love this group so much.  They are brilliant, adorable, compassionate and truly are so excited about learning.  They love to learn and get so excited about life in our classroom.  I love them!

I promised to share their poem with you, so I got one of my sweethearts to read the poem for you.  I have known and loved this little one since before she was born!  Her mom also teaches kindergarten at my school and is a dear friend.

First a still pic.....

Now the reading......isn't she a doll??

I hope you loved it as much as I did!  Thank you to Cynthia Rylant for your brilliant words of inspiration that set these kindergarten writers on fire!  Here's to endless possibilities.....

Magical Moments in the Classroom

As a teacher, I cherish those magical moments when a class loves a book as much as I do and like wildfire, the class has developed its own incredible lesson.  This happened last week while I read In November by Cynthia Rylant.  It was amazing and an experience I couldn't wait to share with some of my colleagues that value these magical moments as much as I do!  If you don't know this book, you should!  It is amazing and full of mesmerizing verse and inspiring personification.  I always tell my students, I love it when I read a book and it leads me to think about something in a way I never have before.  This is one of those books.  It begins by describing the earth as covered by a blanket and the trees with the outstretched, boney arms of a dancer.  (forgive me for paraphrasing-I don't have the book at home with me.)  And, it ends with magical words depicting "mother earth" as kissing her children's heads and tucking them in until spring.  I am not doing it justice....you'll have to read it!

The real magic happened when my students were as awe struck as I was by Rylant's words.   They began to share their own ideas for personification and describing the change in seasons.   One student proclaimed that trees in fall are "going bald because it's like all of their hair is falling out."  There were so many ideas flowing I grabbed the chart paper and started to write them down.  Then, one student declared we needed to write our own poem about November.  (I love it!)  So, we looked at our word choice again and worked together to change 3-4 of the words to more interesting words.  Then, we organized the ideas that went together and wrote them all in order.  The poem is incredible!!  A group of students later worked on painting a large piece of paper to publish the poem.  The finished product is simply a treasure!!  I left my camera at school, but I will post pics this week.....maybe even a video of a student reading the poem.  Stay tuned!

Once again, I am humbled by the brilliance of young children.  I learn as much (if not more) than I teach. When we are open to learn, the possibilities are endless.  

What a difference a year makes

At school today we celebrated one of my favorite people in the world!  Melissa is a friend, colleague and and my Elizabeth (she knows what that means.)   July of 2009 she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  It was such a hard time.  She was so strong and we were all falling apart around her, because we felt so helpless and wanted so badly to help our dear friend.  She has endured so much and is a survivor in every sense of the word.  She had a double mastectomy, developed blood clots as a complication, had 4 blood clots in her heart and had to have open heart surgery to remove them.  The night before her surgery, I stood in her ICU room with 3 other dear friends and prayed with her and tried not to cry because I didn't want her to be scared.  She has such a strong faith and I admire her so much.  God rewarded her faithfulness the next day.  Doctors all say that she should not have lived with those clots in her heart.  They had never seen anything like it and doctors from all over came to talk to her and see pictures.  She is truly a miracle.  She is a wonderful friend, wife, mother, teacher....I could go on and on.  God knew this world needed Melissa longer and I am so grateful.

Today, we celebrated her at school with lots of PINK surprises and tomorrow we will walk with her in the Race for the Cure.  Our team at HES has raised over $1200.  Yeah!!!   It will be a special, special time to spend with my treasured friend!

 The best group of Kindergarten teachers-EVER!  Love these girls!

     I made these pink pom-poms to decorate over her teacher table before she came in the room. 

Lots of pink!

 Me, Melissa and Katy

We had these shirts made and a lot of the teachers bought them to wear today.  It was a great day!  Such a difference from last year.   Thank you, God!

Where were you?

On this day, nine years ago, I thought I lived in a land where a "9/11" wasn't possible.  Everything changed that day.  I was the director at St. Mary's Episcopal Church Childcare Center and one of the dads came in the door that morning and asked if we had a TV.  He said that something just happened to the World Trade Center.  Seconds later we were standing in front of a small television with tear-filled eyes, trying to understand what we were seeing...hoping this was all some mistake.  I kept going to the phone, calling my mom, my husband, my best friend, Bridgette, and asking them what they knew.  Every time I talked to them, more happened....tower 1, tower 2, the plane in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, the towers falling.   It was so scary.  We honestly didn't know where terror would strike next.   My son, Reed, was 4 years old and in a classroom down the hall.  I went to his classroom, sat in the floor with him and his friends and just hugged him and wished I was at home with my whole family together.  For days, I was glued to the television's endless coverage, tears flowing without ceasing.  Complete shock and disbelief and heartache filled the days and nights for all of the those searching the rubble for loved ones...for all of those rescue workers, for the people trapped for days.

September 11, 2001 was a day when I became a little less naive.  That sense of security was replaced with fear.  I remember having to fly on the 6 month anniversary of the attack to visit my grandmother who was ill.  I was scared to death.  Eyes scanning the crowd and other passengers.  I could not stop thinking about how all of those victims on those planes that day were just going about their normal lives when terror intruded.  Years later, I flew into Boston at the same airport some of the 9/11 terrorist had flown out of that morning.  I couldn't help but think about the unsuspecting passengers flying with these evil men that morning.

Today, I remember and I pray.  I pray for those who lost their lives and the heroes we lost that day as they tried to fight fires and rescue others.  I pray for those who lost their loved ones.  I pray for those that live with hate-filled hearts, that God will touch them in a way as to remove this hate and evil from their hearts and souls.  I pray for our country and our leaders and pray that they do what is necessary to protect us from terrorist.  I pray for our military men and women who risk their lives and sacrifice time with their loved ones to fight for our freedom and security.   I thank God for every day I have with those I love.  I pray that we never see another day like 9/11/01.

I'm So Glad I Asked

Assuming is not always good, especially with little children.  So many times we assume that we understand what they need or want or are trying to say....but more times than not, we don't know until we ask.   Every time I take the extra minute and ask why? or inquire a little more with my kindergarteners I am pleasantly surprised.  So many times kindergarteners seem to say things that are completely unrelated or off topic.  But if you ask a few questions, they will explain how they reached that point.

Most recently in math, we have been working on attributes and sorting.  After some whole group discussion and work I sent the kids to their tables to work with manipulatives and sort.  They could decide on the attribute they would use to sort.  As I walked around the room, I could see who obviously got it and who obviously did not.  As I stopped to work with those who were confused and made my way around I encountered a student who is very bright and very "with it" but appeared to be making long lines of random colored cubes.  There were 2 different colors in one line and several different colors in the other lines.  I stopped and knelt down and said, "Tell me how you are sorting and the attribute you chose."  She responded, "I am sorting kinds of colors.  These are the dark colors, these are the medium colors and these are the light colors."  I smiled and was so impressed, and was so glad I asked.

Sorting kinds of colors-light colors, medium colors, dark colors

I was also able to learn more about another student.  He was making stacks of colored unifix cubes.  I could have assumed that he was sorting by colors, marked it in my notes and moved on.  But I am so glad that I didn't.  I asked him to tell me about his work and he said, "I was going to sort these colors but then I decided to make small buildings and tall buildings and then sort the buildings and the attribute is how tall they are."  Wow!  I love hearing all of their thinking and reasoning.   So, once again, I'm so glad I asked!

sorting tall buildings and short buildings

Such amazing kids and I'm looking forward to a year of endless possibilities!

The Top 10 Best Things About Teaching Kindergarten

1.  Where else can you go to work and be told that you are beautiful and loved at least 5 times a day?
2.  Whenever you dance, 5 year old think you are cool!
3.  A band-aid or bag of ice solves most ailments.
4.  There are always laughs.....a million a day.....one day last year, a student across the hall walked in to the room one morning and exclaimed, "Okay, who was in my dream last night!!?"
5.  Five year olds still believe they can do anything you believe they can.
6.  It's easy to think you're a comedian when your audience is 5.
7.  The world through the eyes of a 5 year old is an full of wonder and awe.
8.  I doubt many people work with a room full of people who consider it a prize to get to sit by you.   I do!
9.  Children are resilient and forgiving and loving and are peace-makers by nature.
10. I have a great excuse to sing silly songs, read great books and go to recess EVERY day!

I could go on and on.  I work at an awesome school with fabulous parental support, surrounded by loving, dedicated teachers.  I'm blessed to begin another year doing what I love!  Everyone should be so lucky!  Happy new school year to all of the kids and teachers out there who will soon begin a new year of learning!

Wish they all had a start like this....

At only 7 months, she is listening to stories and turning the pages of the board books.  The best part is that when you finish a book and close it, she cries (without tears) in protest and stops immediately when you begin another book.  This is music to my teacher heart!   Between the 3 adults here Saturday night, she was read about 15-20 books (many repeated several times with which she was thrilled) and she expressed this dislike for the end of reading time and contentedness when reading resumed each time.  It was incredible!


I wish all parents understood how important early literacy is.  This sweet baby girl is my niece, Alex.  She is very fortunate to have wonderful, loving, educated parents who have been reading to her since before she was born.   Along with loving parents and an aunt that is a kindergarten teacher and absolutely head over heels in love with her -Alex is covered when it comes to enjoying books.   All children deserve this start!  Early reading not only is a comfortable, bonding time with young children, but it also advances cognitive development.  It helps a child to develop language, vocabulary and concepts of print.  The kids that have these early experiences begin school with everything they need to learn to read.  And, as a kindergarten teacher, you can quickly tell who has been read to and who has not.