Reasons to Like Four Year Olds (9)

This week has been crazy! I was out of work on Monday to visit the doctor's for my allergies.  When I got back on Tuesday I had to explain to the kids what was wrong.  I said that my head feels like a balloon from all the snot that was inside of it.  The next day the kids asked me how I was feeling: "Do you still feel like a balloon?" I had to explain that I was not quite feeling like a balloon like I did the day before but I still had snot inside my face.  A few minutes later while they were playing in their learning centers, I was blowing my nose.  One of the kids came up and asked me, "Ms. Brenda, when is your snot going to go away?"

Sorry to Disappoint

This time it will be different
This time I promise
This time I mean it
This time it's true

Sorry

This time I got interrupted
This time I wanted to
This time I tried
This time it wasn't meant to be

Sorry

Next time I will follow through
Next time
I promise

Diversity in My Classroom

No, I'm not talking about racial diversity.  I'm talking about diversity of the learners in my classroom.  I have a couple that are high and a couple that are low but most are in the middle. Today I witnessed something wonderful that happened when one of my higher lever learners began to help one of my lower level learners.

He was reluctant to put the blocks away because he said he didn't know how.  "I can't do it all myself," he said.  A couple of other children heard this and decided to help him out. While he was putting the blocks away on the shelf just anywhere they would go; the others were putting them away neatly on the labels. One of them saw what he was doing and said, "No, that's not how you do it.  This is how you do it." She continued to show him how to put them away "the right way." He started getting excited saying, "I can do it!" She then said, "Yes.  You're getting to be a big boy. You're learning!"

Okay, so this isn't necessarily an academic learning going on, but it is learning.  But those of us who teach four year old know how important learning how to clean up is.  And for those of you that teach elementary school, this kind of learning is the beginning of organizational skills.  This episode reminded me of the power of kids teaching kids, not only the teacher teaching the kids.  Kids learn as much from each other as they do the teacher if they are given the right opportunity.