thinking ahead to valentine’s day January 26, 2009

I missed another day of school today.  Yesterday when I got home from church and teaching Sunday School I was so tired I wanted to cry.  Instead I took yet another nap, and decided to call in sick for today.  At the doctor, I read “Family Fun” magazine and found this fun candy necklace project.  I am still not sure if we’ll be able to pull it off at our Valentine’s Day party, but I’m thinking about it.  Here’s the link.

(Oh, the doctor told me that I’m probably having an allergic reaction to the virus I caught a week and a half ago!  Isn’t that odd — you can be allergic to a virus?  It’s not enough for the virus to make you sick, you can have an allergic reaction on top of everything else?!  Here’s hoping the Claritin works and I start feeling better, finally.)

Max’s Dragon Shirt November 7, 2008

November is Rosemary Wells month in my class.  We read Max’s Dragon Shirt for the second time today, and the children were excited to see it again, but were stumped when I asked them this question:

“Why did Max want a dragon shirt?”

A girl who we will from now on call Ruby (as in Max’s sister Ruby) said, “because he got ice cream on his shirt.” 

“Well, no, that’s not why he wanted a dragon shirt.  Why do you think he wanted a dragon shirt?”

Another girl piped up, “because he wanted to get ice cream on his shirt!”

“Hmm.  I’m not sure that makes sense.  What you guys are telling me is something that happens in the story.  But I’m asking you to think about something in your head — why would Max want a shirt with dragons?”  They were stumped, so I said, “Why does Leo usually wear shirts with pirates on them?”

Ruby saved the day.  “Because he likes pirates!”

“Yes, he does.  Leo likes pirates, so he wears pirate shirts.  He thinks pirate shirts are cool.”

Leo beamed.

“So why does Max want a shirt with a dragon on it?”

Everyone yelled, “because he likes dragons!”

After we read — and thoroughly enjoyed — the book, we made our own tshirts.  First we talked about what we like, and the children came up with lots of ideas — Barbie, Spiderman, Transformers, Dora, princesses — and then we went to the tables, where my wonderful new assistant teacher had put out cardstock papers with blank tshirt patterns on them.

A few kids struggled.  Leo HATES to draw — perhaps because he can’t, yet — so he refused to go to his table, but Amelia (after Amelia Bedelia), my new special ed assistant teacher, was great.  She wouldn’t take no for an answer, and walked him over to a separate table with her, where she drew a pirate and he colored it.  One little boy scribbled all over his paper instead of drawing, but most of the children were able to do it.

“Teacher, help!  I can’t draw Spiderman!”

I walked over to the table.  “Hmm, does Spiderman have a head?  He does?  Well, how about you draw a circle right here?  Excellent.  Now, does he have a body?  Okay, draw another circle underneath.  Great.  Now how about some arms?  Two legs?  I think all that’s left is a spider on his shirt.”

“Wow, I can draw Spiderman!”

Lola 1 drew her mother, very carefully, and then labeled the picture with her mother’s first name.  Lola 2 drew a princess, somewhat less carefully.  Ruby drew “a Barbie Head,”  a shy boy drew an awesome Tasmanian Devil, and some other boys drew a dragon, Optimus Prime & Megatron, and a scary monster.

I sent the pictures home and I really wish I hadn’t.  It would have been great to post them in the hall for everyone to see.

little mysteries September 29, 2008

Lola went to art today, on Black Day, to draw pictures with white crayon on black paper.  I had stencils for city buildings with window cutouts, so she made a lovely picture with lots of buildings.  Then she cut it into lots of small pieces.

Was this frustration?  Boredom?  The joy of cutting paper?  I have no idea.  I can’t speak Spanish and she can’t speak English.  I wished I had the time to get an interpreter, but this was right after David had been carried from the room and kicked Alice in the head on the way out, and I just couldn’t take the time.

Speaking of Alice (named for Alice the Fairy),  she said, “hey, he kicked me!” and then continued making her night time picture.  When it was clean up time I found her at the sink washing glue off her hands and then saw that at her place at the art table there was a huge puddle of white glue.

So Alice, who too had made a lovely night-time city picture, not only also took scissors and cut it up, but she then took glue and poured it all over her picture.  And the table. 

I had her dry her hands, then had her clean the table, and then modeled with scrap paper how to use the glue with just little dots (she speaks some English, but I said “Chiquita!” and hoped that made sense).  I may have called myself a good teacher in my last post, but at this point in the morning I was unable to keep the exasperation out of my voice.

I wish I had been at the art table with the girls to watch them make their pictures, and to help them, and talk to them.

Instead I was doing assessments to get ready for conferences.  With the David chaos I’m a week behind, at least. 

Note to self:  when things calm down, hang out at art with Lola and Alice.