December 19, 2012

Today we read one of my favorite holiday stories, Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.

It's a story about a man who has to outsmart goblins in order for Hanukkah to occur.  He is very sneaky and manages to save Hanukkah.  

After reading it, we talked a little about what Hanukkah is.  Then the kids made menorahs out of popsicle sticks.

This afternoon during project, we made latkes.  The kids peeled and grated potatoes.  

Then they pressed all of the moisture out of them.

 Then they mixed together all of the ingredients.

And at the end they ate them!  They turned out really delicious.  It was a nice way to take the whole day and talk about Hanukkah, a holiday that nobody in the class celebrates.  They asked why they learned about it when nobody celebrated it, and I explained how it's important to know about other people's celebrations so we are able to talk about them if they ever come up.  

Everyone worked together really nicely today.  It's hard, right before a big holiday and vacation, to stay focused and kind to each other, but the kids are trying really hard to keep making the right choices and do all the right things!

Snowflakes!

The kids learned about snowflakes last week, and one thing they learned was that all snowflakes have six sides.  

Today they learned how to make snowflakes out of paper that have six sides.  It involves some intricate folding.  These are the directions for how to make symmetrical 6-sided snowflakes, in case your child wants to try to make them at home!

Gas Station Commercial

Since September the kids have learned and practiced one new calming strategy a week.  They have enjoyed this so much and have repeatedly been able to use these skills while in the calming space and throughout their  day.   As you know, we often talk to the kids about their "engine".  We talk about having an engine that is too high or too low.  We always work on having our engines "just right".  

Craft day is upon us and it is a chaotic but fun day.   It is often hard for kids to keep their engines "just right" on this day.  Last year I began running a "Gas Station" for students who needed to "check their engines" and get them "just right".   This year the ideas for the Gas Station have been expanded upon with the calming strategies the kids have learned.

They worked very hard to develop the Commercial  below.   They brainstormed,  planned, implemented and then presented it all at All Pod this past Friday.   Carol took time to explain "engines" and related concepts to the whole level and then our students expanded on it and presented their video.

What a wonderful job they did!  I am so proud of them!!

Michelle

Fire Drill

Today at school there was a fire drill that occurred as a result of a dirty toaster oven.  The kids had to go outside and the fire trucks came.  There was never any danger to anyone, mostly a lot of smoke.  The kids know this happened because of the toaster oven.

Some kids expressed worry about this.  I reassured them that it is my job to do whatever it takes to keep them safe at school.  I explained how there were grownups around when the toaster oven incident happened, and that it was taken care of right away and that the fire department was notified immediately so that everyone was safe.

I know that the children trust me and believe me when I tell them that I will keep them safe.  But I know it sometimes needs reiterating.

In light of the tragedy that happened in Connecticut today, it may bear repeating often that we are always around to keep your children safe and happy.  Hopefully they won't hear about it, but it seems that somehow kids sometimes find out things that we don't want them to.  If they do hear or know or have questions, please impress upon them that, first of all, those kinds of things don't happen at our school and, second of all, that we will always do whatever we need to keep them safe and happy.

Thoughts and Feelings

There is a lot of sickness going around our classroom!  It's important to encourage your child to wash their hands and use sanitizer.  Also, keep talking to them about the proper way to cough and sneeze in order to keep germs at bay.

We've been working a lot on thoughts and feelings.  This week in centers, the kids predicted the kinds of thoughts characters they know would have.  When given a variety of choices, they predicted that Winnie the Pooh would think about Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet.  They know that one thing people think about is their friends, and Pooh was probably thinking about his friends.  They predicted that Mario would be thinking about Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi because they are his family (his brother, wife, and pet).  They like to think about their families, and that's why Mario would think about his family.  They also predicted that a cute kitten would think about food, toys, and its bed.  Some of the kids didn't know that animals don't have thoughts like people.  They thought that the cat would be excited for Christmas.  It was interesting to see and explain how animals are different from people.

Next we took pages from Where the Wild Things Are out of context and predicted the thoughts and feelings of Max, the main character, and some of the Wild Things.  The kids used clues such as their faces and body language as well as the surrounding landscape to figure out the characters' thoughts and feelings.  Even though they weren't exactly right all the time, their use of clues was appropriate and accurate.

Today we did some role playing.  A few children came up in front of the class to act out scenarios and the rest of the kids held up either red or blue thought bubbles to show their thoughts about the scenario.  It turned out that the kids had red thoughts about humming and interrupting during instruction.  They thought that a person that would do that was rude, selfish, and weird.  They also had red thoughts about a person who, when playing tag, didn't stop to help someone who fell while playing.  They had blue thoughts about someone who fell during tag, or someone who fell in general, though.  They distinguished well between feeling bad FOR someone and feeling bad ABOUT someone.  They did think that someone who fell should be more careful, but more overwhelmingly they felt bad for them.  They had positive feelings about someone who asked for help when they didn't understand something.  They thought it was good that they were getting help and also felt like the person who was asking for help would be happier after getting it.  They also felt positive feelings about someone who would ask to use the calming space.  They were happy that someone would get the chance to calm down or feel better.

I asked if anyone felt negative feelings towards someone who fell, like "UGH, THAT PERSON IS SO CLUMSY!" and they all said no.  They even asked why anyone would think that being clumsy would garner such an "UGH" anyways!  I also asked if they would think that a person who asked for help was not smart, and they all replied with variations of, "Everyone needs help sometimes!" and "Nobody knows everything!"  The last question I asked was if they thought people who needed to use the calming space were weird.  Again, there was some variation on, "Everyone needs to calm down sometimes!" or "We all need space!"

I especially liked this conversation because I know that at times all children can be self-conscious about needing something different from others.  I felt really good knowing that the kids in the class seem happy that they all get what they need, no matter if it's something different from what they need.  Even the kids who hardly ever need accommodations seemed almost offended that I would suggest that anyone would think that needing something different was weird.

It's nice to have such a kind and supportive group of kids.  If your child is expressing concern that they are being seen as different, or are worried that because they need something that others don't, that the others think they're weird or somehow "bad", please use this information to help them understand that their peers are glad that they get what they need and are happy when they do.  In the end, all of the kids in the class, whether they're best buddies or merely acquaintances, just want each other to be happy!

As a teacher, I don't think I could ask for anything more from a class of students.  I love how they support each other and think of each other.

Week of 12/3/12

Last Friday Michelle and I went to a conference to learn more about Social Thinking and how to better implement it in the class.  We already do a lot of things that were discussed at the training, but we did learn some new strategies and ideas of things to include.  This week we started learning about thoughts and thinking.

First we discussed what thoughts are.  The kids came to the conclusion that thoughts are pictures in your brain that are private and can be shared.  Next we talked about what kinds of thoughts people can have.  They talked about sad thoughts, and glad, happy, excited, frustrated, and mad thoughts.  We started to call them "good thoughts" and "not-so-good thoughts".

After that, we made brain bubbles for everyone.  One side was blue, and the other side was red.

The blue side stands for "good thoughts."  The red side is for "not-so-good thoughts".  Sometimes now we'll say, "I'm having a blue thought!" or "I'm having a red thought," and see if the kids can figure out what emotion goes with that color, and what's causing each type of thought.  We're working to make the kids more aware of what others are thinking, and how they affect the thoughts and feelings of others.

From here, we plan to work on scenarios using the colored thought bubbles as well as figuring out what characters in books are thinking and other familiar popular culture characters.  

In project yesterday, we started to make our annual calendar.  Here's a tiny sneak preview!

This calendar is farm themed and we make it in conjunction with the farm.  Jonny came and taught the kids about the farm in different seasons (some we have experienced and some we have not).  Then pairs or individual students made pages for each month.  These will be on sale soon, and all proceeds will be split between our project and Friends of Holly Hill Farm.  Be on the lookout for an order form!  We also planted garlic and covered a bed with straw.

The next couple of weeks are typically among the most difficult weeks for children.  Knowing that holidays are coming that include vacation and presents can make it very hard to concentrate and focus at school.  We're constantly talking about keeping our engines "just right," and it would be very helpful if you could also continue to have conversations with your child about their engine, too.