Week Three - Review

We were able to begin this week off with another birthday celebration, my own!  I turned 37 on Monday and the children thought it was very funny to see me as a baby and a young girl with long hair. I did not "orbit the sun", 37 times though - I thought I would get too dizzy! We didn't have cake...and no one seemed to notice!

This week was also our class photo week. The children all smiled their best and worked hard during their photos.  I will be notifying you soon as to when you will receive the proofs.  I can't wait to see how they turned out!

We also had so much fun painting our very own solar system hat.  It amazes me how much care and detail each child takes when working on their "masterpiece", no one rushes "just to get it done"...they all work so hard. What a terrific skill to develop early on in life, especially in our fast-paced, hurried lifestyle.

I told the children a story without a book or pictures.  One class heard "The 3 Little Pigs" and the other class heard "The 3 Bears".  The children sat so still and listened to my every word - which is not always the case when I read stories from a book - they really did enjoy this. I told the story in the morning. After lunch, I re-told the story and I made some changes. It was terrific to hear them say, "Mrs. Kerr, that's not the way the story goes", or "I think you have it mixed up", "that's silly, Mrs. Kerr." Another illustration that they are always paying attention and listening to our every word!

I read the first chapter of "The Seven Little Sisters who Live on the Round Ball that Floats in the Air". It was quite interesting for the children to realize that the round ball was our planet earth and that the Seven Little Sisters are the continents! If you are interested in this book, it is available as a FREE download on google books as well as itunes. Our morning song is called Beautiful Earth and we are beginning to locate the countries mentioned in the song on the world map!  It's fun to see the children point at the map and call out the country name...and most already recognize the flag of those countries as well. The countries they are learning through the song are the United States, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Canada, Japan, Italy, Vietnam, The Philippines, El Salvador, China & Ecuador.

I reviewed with the children each letter sound. I spend a great deal of time reinforcing the vowel sounds (since they are in every word).  We learned that there are 2 types of letters; vowels (blue) and consonants (red). We also learned that there are 2 types of numbers, even (blue) & odd (red). When we count out objects we put them into "dancing pairs".  If there is an object that doesn't have "dancing pair" it becomes the "stopper".  This makes it a visual way for the children to identify if the number is even or odd.  We are also singing songs to help us remember. We also were able to discover that the word "odd" has 3 letters, and 1 vowel!  The word "even" has 4 letters and 2 vowels!  Some of the children are also reading early phonetic books, and others are beginning to read books of all kinds.  I find it so exciting when children learn to read...often it's all they want to do! With that said, I'm so happy that this environment allows for them to do this, without interruption and for the length of time they choose.  The joy of a buzzer-less learner environment!

I also wanted to mention that I am enjoying listening to your children as they work and play. I have tried my best to model kindness and encouragement with my words towards the children and often have said a sentence for them to repeat during a situation that may not be going so well on their own. I obviously have days when the tone of my voice is not matching the words I am saying. Just this week, one student asked me what I was upset about.  I told her I wasn't upset and she said "well you sure sound upset!" It was a nice and friendly reminder to me that I need to be aware of "how" I sound, not just "what" I am saying.

On the whole, we are building a nice little family unit here where the majority of our days are filled with empathy, compassion and assistance towards each other. It really is lovely to witness!

Oh, and in case anyone hears that I might be "dying", I am not sick. As we've been discussing the life cycle, death has come up a few times and in different situations. Quaid's lizard has died, one of the caterpillars died, and we are seeing dead bees. I have explained that every living thing must die. Every living thing as a different length of life cycle, some days, some weeks, some months, some years. Today during snack and completely out of the blue, one of the girls said "it's okay Mrs.Kerr if you die soon, we'll just get another teacher, but make sure you leave our names up on the wall so she knows who we are! How old are you again?"

Enjoy the first day of autumn tomorrow!