At the end of the day I mark their folders to let mom or dad know what kind of day they had. While I was marking them "Jack" came over to me and saw that I had marked "Jill's" folder with a yellow. He said, "Why is "Jill" on yellow?" My response, "because we don't push people". He stops and thinks for a second then says, "who did she push??" At this point I'm dying laughing inside and I look at him and say, "SHE PUSHED YOU". Child responds "Oh yeah" and walks away to go finish playing with "Jill" (the same friend who pushed him earlier in the day). I absolutely love this because 2 hours before this, he was in tears over being pushed. Now, he didn't even remember it! It really make me stop and think, wow what if we were more like these precious babies. I know so often in my own life, I hold on to things I really shouldn't. Someone might have hurt my feelings and instead of letting it go and moving forward, I dwell on it. Wow...what if we all just Let It Go! I looked up this scripture tonight:
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Letting Go
In my classroom, I have three apples (red, yellow, and green). Every day, they start out on green and if they make bad choices they have to move their worm to yellow or red. Well last week, one of my precious ones pushed someone in line. They normally get a warning first, but they all know that if you push, hit, pinch, etc you go straight to yellow or red (depending on the seriousness of the "crime". lol Well so when my little one who (for my blog) will call "Jill" pushed who we will call "Jack". Well ofcourse she had to move her clip. I have such a great class this year so most of the time, everyone is on green (Thank you Jesus). When someone does move their clip, everyone knows it and it is a BIG DEAL! It can mean time out during center time which is like taking away the computer or tv to us (atlease I admit I'm obsessed with those two things lol). Missing center time is a HUGE ordeal people! I mean HUGE!
At the end of the day I mark their folders to let mom or dad know what kind of day they had. While I was marking them "Jack" came over to me and saw that I had marked "Jill's" folder with a yellow. He said, "Why is "Jill" on yellow?" My response, "because we don't push people". He stops and thinks for a second then says, "who did she push??" At this point I'm dying laughing inside and I look at him and say, "SHE PUSHED YOU". Child responds "Oh yeah" and walks away to go finish playing with "Jill" (the same friend who pushed him earlier in the day). I absolutely love this because 2 hours before this, he was in tears over being pushed. Now, he didn't even remember it! It really make me stop and think, wow what if we were more like these precious babies. I know so often in my own life, I hold on to things I really shouldn't. Someone might have hurt my feelings and instead of letting it go and moving forward, I dwell on it. Wow...what if we all just Let It Go! I looked up this scripture tonight:
At the end of the day I mark their folders to let mom or dad know what kind of day they had. While I was marking them "Jack" came over to me and saw that I had marked "Jill's" folder with a yellow. He said, "Why is "Jill" on yellow?" My response, "because we don't push people". He stops and thinks for a second then says, "who did she push??" At this point I'm dying laughing inside and I look at him and say, "SHE PUSHED YOU". Child responds "Oh yeah" and walks away to go finish playing with "Jill" (the same friend who pushed him earlier in the day). I absolutely love this because 2 hours before this, he was in tears over being pushed. Now, he didn't even remember it! It really make me stop and think, wow what if we were more like these precious babies. I know so often in my own life, I hold on to things I really shouldn't. Someone might have hurt my feelings and instead of letting it go and moving forward, I dwell on it. Wow...what if we all just Let It Go! I looked up this scripture tonight:
Monday, November 8, 2010
Be Careful What You Say.....
Today I pulled out my letter tubs for us to practice our letter sounds. For those that don't know, a letter tub is a little tub that has little "toys" that all begin with the same letter (example the R tub: racoon, robot, ring, etc). I pulled out the R, M, and F tub for a game. I gave each of them a toy and they had to figure out where it belongs. They take turns finding the right spot for it. Things were going well and they had so much fun playing it. Then I get to my last group....I gave one of them the mop and asked them what sound they hear in the beginning...He says mmmmmm; mop and places it in the m tub. As he does this, he said, "get in there you sexy mop." I thought surely he did not just say the word sexy. So I asked him what he said. His response; "I said sexy mop". I did what any teacher would do. I asked him where he heard that. His answer: "My mom says it to my daddy". hahhahahahahhahahhahahha. This made my day. All I have to say to you moms and dads out there is to be careful what you say....you never know when your five year old will repeat it ;)
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Dr Jean Sure Knows What She's Doing
No cute story today, but I did have to share this little tip for all my teacher friends. It might even work for you moms out there too. Last night I was looking at Dr. Jean's website. If you don't know who Dr. Jean is and you are a kindergarten teacher....well then shame on you! :) jk But serioulsy, you should really get to know her. I would have never survived kindergarten or teaching for that matter without her. So back to last night....I was looking on her website and I found some AMAZING tips. I thought I would try one today.
While on the playground one of my littles ones comes up to me with little tears in her eyes. I look behind her and notice that one of my other little ones is standing mighty close to us with some mighty guilty eyes. I asked her what happened and she said that someone pushed her. Well...it doesn't take a genious to figure out who it was (aka the little one standing mighty close to us). One thing I've noticed about those littles ones. When they do something wrong, they don't go and hide like us adults would do. They get as close to the teacher as possible (thinking we don't notice) so they can hear what's going on. So I call the other child over and ask him if he hit her. Ofcourse he tells me that he didn't do it. What child, while on the playground where they could sit in time out, would admit to hitting another. So I did exactly what Dr. Jean suggested and said..."well.....did you hit her, just a little bit?" I don't know if it was Dr. Jean or his memory suddenly came back to him, but he immediately remembered that he did hit her "just a little bit". So thank you Dr. Jean for being so Brilliant and you'll be happy to know that he still had to sit in time out, but "just a little bit".
While on the playground one of my littles ones comes up to me with little tears in her eyes. I look behind her and notice that one of my other little ones is standing mighty close to us with some mighty guilty eyes. I asked her what happened and she said that someone pushed her. Well...it doesn't take a genious to figure out who it was (aka the little one standing mighty close to us). One thing I've noticed about those littles ones. When they do something wrong, they don't go and hide like us adults would do. They get as close to the teacher as possible (thinking we don't notice) so they can hear what's going on. So I call the other child over and ask him if he hit her. Ofcourse he tells me that he didn't do it. What child, while on the playground where they could sit in time out, would admit to hitting another. So I did exactly what Dr. Jean suggested and said..."well.....did you hit her, just a little bit?" I don't know if it was Dr. Jean or his memory suddenly came back to him, but he immediately remembered that he did hit her "just a little bit". So thank you Dr. Jean for being so Brilliant and you'll be happy to know that he still had to sit in time out, but "just a little bit".
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Dazed and Confused
While walking in line today, two of my precious little ones were what we teachers call "having a little trouble"...that's code for playing in line. :) So we get back to class and the others get to go play while I kept the two boys back to talk to them. I simply asked "what's going on....why were you playing in line?" One of them quickly tells me how sorry they are and that they will do better....the other one and I quote, "well............(long pause)...........my brain just got a little confused.......sometimes that happens ya know"....and this is why I LOVE MY JOB!! This definately made my heart smile and I hope it does the same for you....more to come soon!
Friday, September 17, 2010
T is for Truly to Hard!
So this week we learned the letter T as in Tiger. We have only been in school a few weeks and so our little ones are still learning exactly how things work and we are still learning what all they can do by themselves. FYI, don't give them paint by themselves this early in the year, ask them to paint a rainbow, and expect it to actually look like a rainbow. It will actually turn out looking something like this:
So this week I decided to take a break from the paint and since we were learning the letter T, I thought it would be fun for them to build some type of tower out of stick blocks. I put the blocks in one of their centers and let them get creative. Some of them turned out really good and most of them had so much fun doing it; notice I said most of them. I was doing something with my reading group and when I looked up I noticed that one of my little ones, was just kind of sitting there. He had blocks in his hand and had discovered that he can make really cool noises while moving them, but NO Tower had been built. The bell rang to switch groups and when he got to my group next I asked him why he didn't build a tower. His response: "well.....I tried......but it was truly to hard." It wasn't that he didn't want to, or that he was tired...oh no....it was truly to hard. I mean how can you even get mad at that?? :) So my plan for the upcoming week(and hopefully Adam will not read this lol).....I think when it comes to laundry and cooking and whatever else comes up...it is going to be truly to hard! I'll let you know if it works for people over the age of 5!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Cake...good for the heart, not the jeans!
Alright...I know some of you are thinking that this girl just likes to eat. Although I do love me some cake; and pretty much anything that is sweet....here is what "sometimes we just need to eat a little cake" actually means.
Well last year, I had one of those change your perspective Forever kind of moments. It's kind of cool how God can use the smallest most insignificant thing, and make it into something so BIG! I was out on the playground with my class. It was one of the last days of school and so my kids were getting ready to be big 2nd graders. If you aren't a teacher you may not know this. But when you teach kindergarten, you tell your kids that we gotta be ready for first grade; we need to practice reading, and put our good listening ears on, etc. We have to be ready for first. If you teach first grade, you tell your kids that we gotta be ready for second grade and pratice that reading, etc. It is one of the many teaching tricks that I have learned. Well my kids were getting ready to move on up and show those second grade teachers how smart and responsible they are. Well we were outside on the playground on the second to last day of school and I was talking to one of the teachers (who happened to be in second grade). As we watched the kids play; one of my kids came up to me and said, "look Mrs. Walsingham, I made you some cake." I looked down and sure enough there was a big bucket of dirt. She had made "this cake" just for me! I then had to decide, do I play along with this child (and possibly make myself look silly in front of this other teacher) or do I tell her that "we don't eat cake in first or second grade, now go play with your friends." The decisions we have to make on a daily basis :) Well, yall know me. I put my hand down and took a big ole pretend bite of that dirt cake and told her how delicious it was. She hugged me and went on to make some more cake! It may have been just some dirt cake to her, or maybe to you. But that day, that little girl reminded me, that sometimes we just need to stop what we are doing and eat a little bit of cake. I know that as teachers, we get so bogged down with all the standards, grades, papers, plans, meetings, ect that we have to do; that we forget to stop and just enjoy spending a little time playing and having fun with our kids. I also know that as a wife, I get bogged down in trying to keep up with laundry, dinner, paying bills, etc; that I don't always stop to enjoy the little things in life with my husband. The list can go on as a daughter, friend, mother, father etc. So, my challenge for this year. Instead of worrying about all that BIG stuff anymore, I'm going to start to enjoy the little things in life that fill your heart with joy. I'm going to start to stress less, and laugh more. I'm going to stop, slow down, and eat a little bit of cake...and then I'll hit the gym :)
Well last year, I had one of those change your perspective Forever kind of moments. It's kind of cool how God can use the smallest most insignificant thing, and make it into something so BIG! I was out on the playground with my class. It was one of the last days of school and so my kids were getting ready to be big 2nd graders. If you aren't a teacher you may not know this. But when you teach kindergarten, you tell your kids that we gotta be ready for first grade; we need to practice reading, and put our good listening ears on, etc. We have to be ready for first. If you teach first grade, you tell your kids that we gotta be ready for second grade and pratice that reading, etc. It is one of the many teaching tricks that I have learned. Well my kids were getting ready to move on up and show those second grade teachers how smart and responsible they are. Well we were outside on the playground on the second to last day of school and I was talking to one of the teachers (who happened to be in second grade). As we watched the kids play; one of my kids came up to me and said, "look Mrs. Walsingham, I made you some cake." I looked down and sure enough there was a big bucket of dirt. She had made "this cake" just for me! I then had to decide, do I play along with this child (and possibly make myself look silly in front of this other teacher) or do I tell her that "we don't eat cake in first or second grade, now go play with your friends." The decisions we have to make on a daily basis :) Well, yall know me. I put my hand down and took a big ole pretend bite of that dirt cake and told her how delicious it was. She hugged me and went on to make some more cake! It may have been just some dirt cake to her, or maybe to you. But that day, that little girl reminded me, that sometimes we just need to stop what we are doing and eat a little bit of cake. I know that as teachers, we get so bogged down with all the standards, grades, papers, plans, meetings, ect that we have to do; that we forget to stop and just enjoy spending a little time playing and having fun with our kids. I also know that as a wife, I get bogged down in trying to keep up with laundry, dinner, paying bills, etc; that I don't always stop to enjoy the little things in life with my husband. The list can go on as a daughter, friend, mother, father etc. So, my challenge for this year. Instead of worrying about all that BIG stuff anymore, I'm going to start to enjoy the little things in life that fill your heart with joy. I'm going to start to stress less, and laugh more. I'm going to stop, slow down, and eat a little bit of cake...and then I'll hit the gym :)Friday, August 20, 2010
Teaching Kindergarten Keeps You Young!
Well I had a something funny happen to me this week. Adam and I had our pictures taken by the wonderful Carrie Ann Smith a few weeks ago. I have one of the photos in a frame in my classroom. Here is the picture:
On Wednesday when we walked into the room from lunch, one of my kids looked over and said "Is that your dad?". hahahhah....it made me feel OH SO GOOD. Sorry babe, but I couldn't keep this cute story to myself ;) Well the day just kept getting better! As we were walking to the bus loading zone, I saw one of my students from last year. Keep in mind, this student is 8. Ofcourse I stop and say hello and give her a big hug....then the same student from earlier looks at me (and my little 8 year old former student) and says "is that your sister?" hahahahha. I LOVE TEACHING KINDERGARTEN!! Clearly this young precious one of mine has NO concept of age...but I'm just going to pretend that he does, and thank God for moments like this that make your heart smile. Well I definately learned one thing for sure....teaching kindergarten may not always keep you young, but it sure does make you feel it!
On Wednesday when we walked into the room from lunch, one of my kids looked over and said "Is that your dad?". hahahhah....it made me feel OH SO GOOD. Sorry babe, but I couldn't keep this cute story to myself ;) Well the day just kept getting better! As we were walking to the bus loading zone, I saw one of my students from last year. Keep in mind, this student is 8. Ofcourse I stop and say hello and give her a big hug....then the same student from earlier looks at me (and my little 8 year old former student) and says "is that your sister?" hahahahha. I LOVE TEACHING KINDERGARTEN!! Clearly this young precious one of mine has NO concept of age...but I'm just going to pretend that he does, and thank God for moments like this that make your heart smile. Well I definately learned one thing for sure....teaching kindergarten may not always keep you young, but it sure does make you feel it!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Sometimes we just need to eat a little bit of cake...
Well I've actually turned into one of those bloggers....this could get very interesting :) I have gone through a lot of changes in the past few years. I started dating someone right after college and he was so completely wonderful that I married him. He is oh so very patient (which you will see) and I love him so very much! I started teaching and although it had some bumps and challenges on the way, without a doubt I know that God has me right where he wants me. I was put on a budget (thank you Dave Ramsey) and it has completely changed our life. We are debt free and living on envelopes. You know you're on a budget when you get excited about going on a date to Sonic! Did someone say brown bag special? ;) I don't think my life has any crazy interesting things going on...but I wouldn't change any of it for the world. So get ready because you are about to get all sorts of stories (and most of them will be completely random)....from stories about love, friendship, envelopes (yes, I said envelopes), to who knows what else...I hope you like geting a taste of me and my crazy but simple life...for there is one thing I have definately learned....sometimes we just need to eat a little bit of cake (more to what that means later).
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