Understanding

I thought I'd write about something a little different today. Since having kids I now feel like I understand the parents of my classes better. I think about perceptions of parents and kids that I had pre-kids and a lot of those perceptions have changed. I will share two anecdotes with you. One year when I was teaching I looked around at the kids in my class and they looked a mess. Especially the boys, not a single boy had neat hair, most stood up in all the wrong places and many had toothpaste on their faces. I remember walking into my friend's classroom next door and told her that I vowed to never have kids go to school with messy hair and dirty faces. Well, a few years later and I feel lucky if my hair is brushed! Having two wild boys with complete bedhead and an aversion to combs and brushes, I totally understand why those kids were a disaster. As a parent you pick your battles, brushing hair is not one worth fighting. Not to mention the marathon a parent feels from wake up to drop off at school. Get kids up, get them dressed, feed them, pack all their stuff for the day, get your own self together and try to be on time. Hair is the least of a parent's worry! One other child I had in class a while back came to school wearing pajamas under his clothes every day. His mother said he always wanted to wear pajamas and this was their compromise. Again, pick your battles! One other day I remember is one particularly emotional first day of school.  On this day many of the parents hugged, kissed and cried like they would never see their kids again. My co-teacher and I found this a bit strange. Now as a parent I get it. I felt like crying on my son's first day of preschool. Every morning, I hug both kids and tell them how much I love them at drop off.  I can truly see the reasoning and emotion behind a lot of what the parents in my class do, say and how they act. I think it has made me a better teacher. Thank you for listening to this today. I will be back with more freebees and ideas soon. Happy teaching!!!!

I'm Back!

I'm sorry for such a long hiatus! My five year old had a birthday party, then my three year old was sick, then I was sick and then we were inundated with potty training. All is now settled and I'm back. I've been working on my Lyle the Crocodile thematic unit. It will be finished soon and it will contain everything you need to do a thorough character study on Lyle the crocodile in Bernard Waber's series. Every year, I culminate this unit by having my students write an original play or puppet show depicting how Lyle got to the House on East 88th Street. It is always so exciting for me when the kids realize that the reader has no idea the events that lead to Lyle being in the House on East 88th street.  I love hearing all of their ideas. I have been doing this unit for 6 years and every year is a little bit different. One year, my assistant teacher wrote a song based on the kids ideas and they performed it at the end. It was amazing!
Besides my Lyle unit, I also do a unit on the Frances series by Russell Hoben culminating in the children writing their own songs about the character Francis. The songs are based on Francis always singing her own original songs. After Francis, I do a unit on Amelia Bedelia culminating in the children creating a life size collage of Amelia Bedelia. I put the kids in groups and each group is in charge of a different body part. The groups come together and glue their body part on giant Amelia Bedelia and then we hang it up in the hall. Lastly, I do a Frog and Toad unit culminating in a shadow box project. The students work in pairs making a shadow box of their favorite scene in a Frog and Toad story. I will be putting all these units on my TPT page in the future so keep checking! As always thank you for visiting!!