Here ye, here ye! The princes and princesses of PK#2 have arrived!
This was, yet again, another exciting week of learning through creative play and adventures...
And "adventures" is a STRONG word! I think we teachers had more of an adventure than the kiddos this week!
We started off on Monday with our 'Castle Brainstorm'... We've really been focusing lately on having the kids put into words what they are thinking without having them feel like they are giving a wrong answer. In a class "brainstorm", we explain that our brains have tons of ideas that we think up and that we want to share them with our friends! So when we all can share our ideas, it's like a big BRAIN-STORM thundering together... and that's a good thing! It means that we all have thoughts about what we are learning, and we're making each other smarter by sharing our ideas. But the key for these 4- and 5-year-olds to know is that a "brainstorm" means that there are no wrong answers! Every child can feel comfortable sharing what they know and should not feel silly or sad about having to share with the class: a VERY important skill upon entering Kindergarten! This Monday "brainstorm" activity not only serves as a confidence-booster for Kindergarten social skills, but it also allows us teachers to know a little bit about what the kids know about the subject we're diving into! Prior knowledge is so very important! Fun activities that integrate multiple purposes rock this teacher's world!
Here's our Castle "Brainstorm" that we posted on the back of our door for our parents to check out!
Yes, you did just read that one of the kiddos said, "Castle have turrets." Simply amazing how smart these kids are! I've heard of turrets before, but I had to look that one up to be exactly sure what the little smarty what talking about!
tur·ret
noun \ˈtər-ət, ˈtə-rət, ˈtu̇r-ət\
: a small tower on a building
: the part on a military tank, airplane, or ship from which guns are fired
While planning for this week, I felt like there were so many different directions to take the subject! Dramatic play and building castles were two things that obviously needed to be integrated into a few of the days, but then what else to delve into? I decided that since a few of the "brainstorm" statements said things including dragons living in castles and Disney World having castles, that we would have a strong focus on "real" versus "pretend". And we all threw in the Kindergarten vocabulary with stories of "fiction" versus "non-fiction".
Overall the real/pretend discussions went wonderfully! We had the most fun during circle-time discussion on our "Dragon" day. During the dragon discussion, we talked about dragons that we've seen or heard about in books, movies and real-life. The dragons from Shrek and Sleeping Beauty were popular choices! And the class seemed to come to a concensus that dragons were all pretend. Dragons are a fun part of movies and stories, but they are not real... but then the kids' minds were blown! We showed them a picture of a REAL dragon, whose name is komodo dragon! They don't blow fireballs, and they don't live in castles. While the pictures of the komodo dragon were getting passed around, more brainstorming was naturally happening! Little comments like "It looks like a lizard!", "The dragon looks like a crocodile!", and "He's really scaley!" allowed us to talk about a special family that the komodo dragon is part of: the REPTILE family! I LOVE LOVE LOVE those kind of teachable moments where their little moldable minds are in the palm of your hand! I could see and hear the wheels of their brains turning! And that's why I'm a teacher!
With all this excitement, we had no idea what was about to come our way on Tuesday. After a fun morning filled with castles and dragons, lunch-time came and then it began. The craziness. One of our kiddos had to use the bathroom. After they went, a concerned little voice goes, "Anne, the toilet isn't working!" In teacher language, that translates to: "Anne, I'm warning you that I almost overflowed the toilet, and you should probably go get the plunger quick!" I went to go investigate the situation, and sure enough: the toilet wasn't working. Nothing blocking the plumbing, though. The flusher just wasn't flushing. So I thanked the kiddo for letting me know and asked them to wash their hands. Oh, but the faucet wasn't letting any water through! Ahh! ...This was when I realized that something was really wrong.
Speaking with management about 10 minutes later made everything clear: we were experiencing a water main break outside of our building! We weren't the only business suffering in this situation, and there were repairmen already booked and busy that day at other places. It was now our job to quickly call every single family on our roster and inform them of the situation and explain that it was not safe to have the kids there for the rest of the day! Whew! Quite the change of plans in the middle of the day! Since it was nap-time for the kids, they got comfy and camped out in our large muscle room while Kate and I called all the parents. Not knowing when and how quickly the repairs to the water main would happen was a little frustrating for all involved... But unfortunate, crazy circumstances happen! And lucky enough for us, being a school and care center put us at the top of the list for repairs! We had the whole day off on Wednesday and were open again for business as usual on Thursday! With all the insane days off for weather conditions, we are extremely thankful that only one day was needed for repairs and not any more than that! Some businesses had to wait 7-10 days for proper repairs! That would've been horrible!
Wednesdsay was definitely not a wasted day off! I arose at my normal teacher wake-up time around 5:30 to have some much-needed coffee and breakfast while curling up on the couch and lazily watching the Today show. What a treat to have such a relaxing midweek morning! After living in Chaska for over 4 months now, I have wanted to check out the nice Snap Fitness near our house. This random Wednesday morning turned the perfect opportunity! The Snap off of Highway 41 turned out to be super-clean and beautiful, not too big and not too small. Goldilocks style. And I got to run my little heart out... making me even more anxious for this snow to go away and give me space on the roads to run outside! Sometime soon hopefully...
As it turns out, it was a very wise choice to go for a long run on Wednesday morning! I was about to fill my belly up full for lunch! Kate and I have been talking about this restaurant called "George and the Dragon" for a while now, and today we decided to try it out! One of the kiddos in our class always talked about it, saying that it was her very favorite restaurant with "mac and roni". I was confused about it at first, because "George and the Dragon" sounds like some hole-in-the-wall Chinese take-out place. Kate did her research, though, and discovered that it is actually an English pub named after King George! Who woulda thought?! So, we were definitely embracing our "Medieval Kingdom" theme even on our day off! Arriving at the pub, Kate and I were in for a hilarious surprise... Right as we walked in the door, the mother of the little "mac and roni" girl in our class was sitting there at a table with a client for lunch! Quite the coincidence, if I say so myself! She gave us her recommendations and said she would never steer us wrong in the light of "George and the Dragon" food! Kate and I got the famous "mac and roni", fish and chips, an English brew and the amazing beer-battered green beans! Best weekday lunch ever!
There was plenty of fun in store for the rest of our "Medieval Kingdom" week: take a look!
Our "Where & Who" Castles...
We, of course, got to build our own castles! It's amazing what their little minds think up!
Then, it was MY turn to build a castle for the kids! At first, it definitely could've been mistaken for a Home Depot cardboard warehouse. But after a little help from our moving boxes, some strong scissors and packing tape, we managed to make it into something that the kids could recognize as a castle! They adored dressing up, playing, reading, and writing inside of it!
Overall, a very successful week of creative learning and discovery! We're going to be flying away with some fine-feathered friends next week: it's all about birds! Anything to do with animals will rock any preschooler's world, so I'm thrilled for our Bird Week! Hopefully this means that we're calling out to all birds to come back to Minnesota and bring some spring weather with them!
And now...
KID QUOTABLES!
(random comment at lunch table)
Girl: "One time, a LONG TIME AGO, my daddy puked. And that's history!"
(lunch table discussion)
Boy: "What is this slime stuff under my tequitos?"
Girl: "It's not slime! It's chicken!"
(royal dress-up time, Girl 1 puts on her princess dress and Girl 2 looks amazed)
Girl 2: (to Girl 1) "Aww! You're adorable!"
(day after Girl's mom left for a trip to Florida)
Girl: "My mommy got to Florida already... And now she's at my uncle's girlfriend's mom's house."
*This one melts Miss Anne's teacher heart*
(right after Boy arrives at school at 8:20am)
Boy: "Miss Anne, what's for dinner?"
Anne: "Sweetie, I don't know what's for dinner at your house. You'll have to ask mommy and daddy when they pick you up later."
Boy: (Boy's big eyes looking up at mine) "Miss Anne, you can come to my house for dinner."
*Anne's heart melts*
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