Blog Award

This made my day!  Thank you Cassandra at Panda-monium in pre-k. 


Here are the rules:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.
2. Include a link to their blog.
3. Include the award image in your post.
4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.
6. When nominating, include a link to their blog.
7. Let other bloggers know they've been nominated.

7 Random facts about me:
1-I love to read.
My main love is Bible study type books:  Stormy O'martin, Elizabeth George, Beth Moore.  
2-I don't think I am creative but I can't use a pattern.  For example, I sew my kids Halloween costumes. I don't use patterns.  I decide that I am going to paint fairy land.   I look at a map and I do it.  But don't ask me to use the pattern to draw, paint or sew.  I just can't do it.
3.  I love, love, love to do things for others.  RAK are all on my list!!! LOVE them!
4.  I LOVE to sing but I can't carry a tune to save my life.
5. My teacher hat is my favorite hat because it is the only hat I wear that I feel totally and completely confident in myself. 
6. I do not like spiders and yet I have one as a pet.
7.  I love watching water.  My favorite places to sit:  by a creek, on a beach, at a lake, near a river.  I just love the sound of water.  So peaceful!

So, my list of favorites:

Catholic Icing
Ms. Bassett
Let the Children play
Childhood 101
Little warriors 
Loving and learning
Kristina
Kindergarten lifestyle
chasing cheerios
Chalk talk
rainbows within reach
teach preschool
pre-kiders
growing in prek
Mrs. Goff's

Have a blessed day!

Expanding on play

 I love when my kids take hold of their learning.  I know this is my classroom blog but my own kids this summer have really helped remind me of the importance of really listening to kids and expanding upon their play.  Last week we painted b/c I was trying to show my colleges how I assessed habitats.  We have a drying rack at the house (the front door).  B came running up to me this week asking for tape.  I don't just let this three year old loose with tape.  I know I should but we are at home and he makes a  mess. 

" I need it to make my art "osem" (museum) store."  So I gave him tape.  He taped 4 pictures on his bedroom door.   Then he came running back in the living room.  "You have to come to my store."  Now here is where the listening part comes in.  If I listen for opportunities I can expand my kids play into so much more.
"B, I would love to come but I don't have an invitation."
He ran to his room to get busy.  He made the C's on the top of the first page. 
"Here's you invitation."
"Oh, thank you so much.  But I don't know how to get there."
He grabbed the paper out of my hand and returned to his crayons.  He drew map. His map was a DORA kind of map where you had to go around things and jump over things.  While I was working on getting to his bedroom, his sister came sneaking in to see what we were playing.

 She wants to come.  He runs off and makes a second invitation and map.  So when she joins she decides she wants to buy the picture instead of just look at it.  In comes math and money work.  We broke out the pennies.  She bought the dinosaur picture for 16 cents and then had 4 cents over to buy the sunset page. 

We worked on counting and recounting money.  We played this for three days before we were finished.  I only lost about 60 cents in the process.

It is so easy to expand on play but just making a statement.  I could have easily have went straight to his room with the oral invite  but had I done that I would have "lost" all this great learning!

About Mrs. J

I had every intent of starting my blog with this post and got side tracked. I tend to do that a lot.  My ADD often has me skipping from one place to the next. 

I started college bound and determined not be become a teacher.  Who really wants to teach snotty sassy kids anyway?  One by one the "more prestigious" jobs just failed to keep my interest (PR, International business, English).  I began working at a day care with a friend of mine my sophomore year in college.  They needed someone and I had nothing to do.  And there began my love affair with the 4 to 5 year old child.  At the time I was working on a degree in English but had established that high school and middle school was NOT for this girl.  I worked in  day care for nine years.  I finished my bachelor in English Lit and went back for my Master's and Teacher certification in Early Childhood Education.  

And why? 

Because of a classroom full of boys.  Ryan L, Ryan H, Drew, Ben, Thomas and Ian.  These are the five boys that will forever have a place in my heart.  These are the five boys that taught me to look at each kid as his own.  Drew taught me that we all have that thing that really bugs us (his was the seam in his sock).  Ben taught me that sometimes I have to look really close to see how the ideas that I discuss may really be played out in the items lined up meticulously around the room.  Ryan and Ryan taught me that just because we have the same name does not mean that we are ANYTHING alike.  So, don't link us.  Study us to see how we are different.  Thomas taught me that when we love someone, really love someone we will give up something special, even if it is our blanket (I still have this token of love).  And then there is Ian. 

Ian is the reason I am teaching today.  He came to me as a four-year old.  Bright blue eyes and a nasty scar across his forehead.  Ian was one of the lucky kids that survived the Oklahoma City Bombing.  He is my story.  He asked me on a date once.  I swooned.  His mom would drive us to Del Rancho.  I could sit up front if I wanted to.  Oh, I loved this kid.  He had a late July birthday.  I am one of those teachers that believes in letting kids be kids.  I suggested to his parents to give him another year before he went to school.  He was a active boy and I knew from rumors what the K teacher in his district was like.  He did not.  He went to school and by the time he was in Transitional first he was not the same kid I had in Prek.  I wanted to be the kind of teacher that let this kid be him without punishing him because he was young and active. 

I hope that the 200+ families that have come through my classroom in the last 8 years see that in me. 
I do not know where any of these kids are today.  It was before facebook. I do know that they would all be in college.  That group of boys hold a very special place in my heart. 

And me now? 
I teach at a Catholic School. I am not Catholic and I LOVE it!!!! I can not imagine being anywhere else.  I will begin my 9th year in this school come August.  In that time, I have had years where I felt like I have been a  great teacher and years when I have felt like I just got through the year.  I have come to the conclusion that we give the best to each class.  We have to give ourselves the same grace we often give to our students when they mess up.  Let's try again tomorrow.  So, here is tomorrow may your year be a spectacular one.