Penny for Your Thoughts

Today during Math we were "discovering the penny".

During the lesson, I passed out a penny and a magnifying glass to each child. I asked them to tell me what they noticed about their penny.We talked about Abraham Lincoln, we talked about the words on the penny, the numbers on the penny, how some pennies are older than they are or even older than me! "Even older than YOU Mrs. Collins?"

Then we talked about the Lincoln Memorial on the tails side of the penny.

Me: "Does anyone know what that building is?"

A: "The White House, it's where the presidents live.

"Me: Great guess A, but it's not The White House."

M: "I know Mrs. Collins, I know, I know, I know!"

Me: "Okay, okay M, what is the name of that building?

"M: "It's the Vampire State Building!"

Only in Kindergarten!

Epidemic Proportions

There is no denying it. I have a classroom full of tattlers. I've been trying to put a stop to this when I first noticed it in late September, just a few weeks after school started. I pulled out the infamous Tattle Jar pretty early on hoping to put a curb in their tattling ways.Maybe it comes from their competitive nature. One trying to out do the other by making themselves look good by making another look bad. Maybe they are just looking for a little extra attention, their moment in the sun!

Whatever it is, it is getting the best of me. Actually, it's pretty much driving me crazy.

Normally the tattle jar just sits innocently on the shelf just waiting for someone to come up and tell their tattle into the jar. This serves two very important purposes.

1. Everyone gets a chance to be heard because the tattle jar is a VERY good listener, and

2. It helps me keep my sanity.

But suddenly telling the tattles in the jar was just not working. I was hearing tattles all the time again. Silly things, like "he said poop" or "she broke the pink crayon" or he poked me in the a- hole." (I kid you not)!!

The tattling is pretty wide spread, but there are a few notorious tattlers.

I know who they are of course, but I wanted hard, indisputable proof.

So starting at the beginning of January instead of just telling the tattle into the jar, they had to write down their name on a piece of paper, fold it and drop it into the jar. I promised each child that I would still stick my ear in the jar at the end of the day and listen to all their little issues.

I never expected to get this...

A jar FULL of tattles. All those tattles that would normally land in my ears, and bounce around inside my brain like ping pong balls were now in that jar.

Today when the kids left I dumped the tattles, a full month's worth, and this is what I discovered...

There were a total of 63 tattles in the jar. We had 18 school days in January, so that comes out to 3.5 tattles per day. It doesn't sound like much, but those of course are only the tattles that land in the jar, I still get to hear most of them.

Most of the tattles came from girls and most of those came from two girls in particular. (I KNEW it!)

What is it about little girls?

The boys were only responsible for 7 of the total tattles, are boys more capable of rolling with the punches? It would seem so.

So tomorrow we will have the "tattle talk" again. I'll explain to them again, the difference between "tattling" and "telling". I'll pull the two notorious tattlers aside and show them all their tattles...

maybe a little visual is just what they need.

Mission Accomplished!

Way back during the first weeks of school as part of our school's Responsive Classroom Philosophy, we talk a lot about our Hopes and Dreams for a successful school year. We talk about what a hope or dream is. We discuss how it's not about wanting the latest and greatest video game or wanting to visit Water Country, but what they, as kindergarteners want to accomplish by the end of the year.

I hear a lot of different ideas like wanting to use computers, playing on the playground, or playing with trains. I got the occasional, I want to learn to read or make new friends but most involved playing in some way...I have a more than a few young little boys!

I take each child's dream, print it out and glue it onto a star that proudly hangs from the ceiling for all to see.

Because I also want to know what their parent's hopes and dreams are for their child, I ask each parent to write their dream on a paper hand with a note titled, "Help Me Reach for the Stars".

I remember asking Alexis what her hope and dream was and she knew without hesitation that it was to learn to tie shoes.

I didn't think much of it at the time, but I knew she was already practicing, not only on her own shoes but the shoes of her friends. She was determined.

Fast forward to last week. I was inspired by a post I read from My Happy Rainbow a fellow kindergarten blogger.

Kindergarten teachers tie countless shoe laces each year. We try to encourage self-help skills, like packing up a backpack, zipping zippers, putting a straw in a juice box and of course tying shoe laces.

Shoe laces are tricky things for little fingers, but it can be done. I'm sure the age of successful shoe tying has increased with the invention of velcro but shoe laces are bound to pop up sometime in their little lives. Just like clocks with hands! Say NO to digital!!

So I went about setting up my "shoe lace" club, with the promise of a special certificate, special prize and the honorable designation of "official classroom shoe tie-er!"

I knew before I even began who my first certificate would go to. She was so proud as I handed her the certificate and even prouder as she helped me hang it on the wall.

I know Alexis won't be the last, I have a few right on the cusp, but there is something so special about being the first!

Mission Accomplished Alexis, Mission Accomplished!

P is for Principal

principal

Function: noun

1 : a person who has controlling authority or is in a leading position: as a : a chief or head man or woman b : the chief or head of an educational institution

That's the official Merriam-Webster definition. But in our school we would define "principal" much differently.

We are very fortunate. We have heard more than once that our principal is the one everyone else in the district wants to work for. We don't need anyone to tell us that. We know it.

Yesterday we were told some news that most of us never expected. OUR principal, OUR Diane, will be retiring at the end of the school year.

When she told us, many of us didn't know how to react. There were tears for sure, as we all looked at each other not really knowing what to say or even if we heard her correctly.

Retiring? Really?

Now I realize this kind of thing happens all the time, but to understand the impact this is having on all of us is to understand exactly who Diane is.

Diane has been a part of our school for 30 years. First and foremost as a kindergarten teacher and for the past 4 years our much loved principal.

She is responsible for the education of hundreds of kindergarten students. Two of my own children were fortunate to land in her kindergarten classroom. It was there they got their real first school experience and I can't thank her enough for that. She loved them both as if they were her own.

She is responsible for the education of many student teachers, myself, and a good number of our current staff included.

Twenty-something years ago I was a student teacher in Diane's K/1 classroom. Coincidentally, in the very same classroom I now call my second home. There I learned exactly what a kindergarten teacher is.

Kind, caring, someone who is not afraid to get down on the floor and laugh with kids and laugh at herself at the same time. Someone who is an expert at her craft, passionate, dedicated, organized, creative, with an unbelievable attention to detail...I could go on and on.

It was intimidating to walk into her classroom as a college student, so unsure and scared. This was someone who meant business, who expected nothing less of me as a future teacher than she expected of herself.

She is what I did then and still aspire to, I'm not sure it's possible to ever become the kind of teacher she is, but I feel so fortunate to have had her as my mentor.

Four years ago when our then principal retired the search began for a new leader. Our school was buzzing. "Will she, or won't she?" We knew how fortunate we were when she did!

It was an easy transition knowing her the way we did. We had no doubts in her ability as our leader. This is no easy job, juggling all she's had to juggle. Staff, children, parents, administration, countless meetings, her own family, but she handled it all, with grace and more often than not, a smile on her face. If she did any crying (and I'm sure she shed a tear or two) it was with her office door shut because we never saw that side of her.

I heard her say today that her favorite times were the ones spent talking with kids in her office, even when she had the not so pleasant task of reprimanding them for some slip up or issue.

That's who Diane is, it's always been about the kids.

After she delivered the news, we all just sat there looking at each other. We knew we needed to talk about it but just didn't know what to say.

With our meeting over, some people lingered, but I had to leave. Not because I had anywhere special to be, I just needed to get out of there to somehow process what I had just heard. It was my last thought before I fell asleep and the first thought when I woke up in the morning.

When I walked into work this morning I knew in order for me to function I had to talk to Diane. I needed to tell her how important she is to me. I told her how sad I was but also that I was happy for her. She deserves this. Time to enjoy her family, her home, travel...SLEEP!

Her patent leather flats are going to be very difficult shoes to fill.

Our school will never be the same. It's not to say it won't still be a great place to work, that we all won't still love our jobs, but there will be something missing. None of us know Horace Mann without Diane.

So how exactly would we define the word?

principal

Function: noun

1: friend.

Yes Patrick, There is a Santa Claus

At 9-years old I know we are on the verge of Santa leaving our house forever. I am grateful and somewhat amazed when we manage one more year. After all, he has two big brothers who have been in on the secret for quite sometime now and when you are in the third grade there is bound to be some non-believers around.

I know eventually the question will come up but now I'll be ready with an answer.

This evening we were running around trying to get some things accomplished. First to the laundromat to dry three loads of laundry because the dryer has decided to stop working, to the grocery store because we are having our holiday staff breakfast tomorrow and I'm in charge of the fruit salad, and lastly to Target to buy a birthday gift and some wrapping paper.

By the time I got to Target all I really wanted to do was go home. It's cold, it's windy and my nice warm house, my couch and my laptop were calling my name.

As we stepped out of the car and headed into the store I heard someone say, "Excuse me." There before us was a woman, without a coat, holding a box of candy canes which she had made into reindeer. She asked very politely if we would like to buy one, "because I'm just trying to buy my kids something for Christmas."

I had no cash on me. I apologized but told her if she was still here when I came out, I would buy one.

I headed into the store thinking Patrick was right behind me. but then I heard,

"Mom, wait!"

I turned around to see Patrick reach into his pocket and take out the three dollars the tooth fairy left him last night. He handed it to the woman and happily took his candy cane reindeer from her.

I teared up. He ran over to me in his happy Patrick way and I hugged him. I told him how very proud I was of him and how he just made Christmas just a little bit better for someone.

He said, "now I'm broke, but it's okay."

So someday when he asks me if there is a Santa I will tell him yes, of course there is and I'll remind him of what he did tonight.

Because tonight Patrick, you were Santa Claus.

On Letting it Go

When you're a teacher, especially a kindergarten teacher you have to know when to let things go. Sometimes letting kids have their way is not such a bad thing, especially when you know they're right!

Recently I've had to move some seats around during circle time. The dynamic wasn't working. Little arguments here, silliness there, it was just time to mix things up a bit. So I moved them around, splitting up best buddies or kids that just seem to not be meshing well these days.

I had them all stand up and hold hands so we could spread out and determine each other's personal space and then I noticed that two kids weren't holding hands.

*names changed to protect the innocent

Me: "Jason you need to hold Katie's hand."

Jason: "I ain't holding her hand."

Me: "It's I'm not holding her hand, and yes you are, you need to hold her hand just like the others are doing. It's just for a minute."

Little Boy: "Mrs. C I'm NOT holding her hand because she had her hand down her pants!"

Yep, let that one go.

With the holidays upon us, we've been talking a lot about families. We talked about how some families are big, and some families are small.

Side note...I have one little girl who is constantly shouting out answers when she's not supposed to. The one who just can't hold it in. If it's in her head it has to come out. We work on this a lot. I tell her to raise her hand, but she just can't help herself. Usually it makes me crazy, but today I was very grateful!

I asked the kids to hold up their fingers to show how many people live in their house. We have some 5 people families, some 4 people families and some 2 people families. One little boy, who I know has no siblings was holding up too many fingers.

Me: "David, I thought it's just you and your mommy in your house."

David: "Well, for now it is. How does a baby get in the mommy's tummy anyway?"

Allison: "Babies are a gift from God!"

Me: "Thank you Allison!!!"

Did I care at that moment that she didn't raise her hand?

Nope. Let that go too!

We have a little bit of free choice everyday. On Fridays if they've had a good week I give them some extra free choice sometime during the day. Today, with no specialist to go to I decided a little bit of free choice to start the day would be a good thing.

I pretty much try to stay out of their play, I think kids need to work out their own issues of sharing and negotiating all by themselves without adult intervention.

Sometimes little arguments break out and unless they get too big or physical I just watch and let them figure it out, which they usually do.

This morning I was watching an argument that was becoming quite heated. I was ready to jump in there and "fix" it. I walked over a bit closer just to listen.

Jennifer: "No, If I have the pointer then it's my turn!"

Laura: "It was your turn last time."

Jennifer: "But I really want a turn."

Laura: "It's not fair, give me the pointer."

Jennifer: "I got it first."

I was just about to take the pointer from Jennifer before she decided to use it as a weapon when I heard...

Laura: But I NEVER get to be Mrs Collins, it's my turn to be her!"

I smiled, walked away, they figured it out and I let it go.

Tis the season

It's here. The time of year when things both at home and school start to get really busy. It started two weeks ago as we began to prepare for our school's annual Harvest Fair. It's our staff's way to make a little extra money for our students. We have a white elephant room, craft room, and jewelry table. The kids come in with fists full of dollars ready to be spent on little treasures. They shop til they drop or run out of money which ever comes first.

My son usually comes home with some little "treasure" from the jewelry table that makes its way under the Christmas tree, usually with my name

on it. Since I've had children at my school since 1996, I have quite a collection of trinkets!

Not a week later, my fellow kindergarten teachers and I found ourselves preparing for our annual kindergarten feast. This is a long standing tradition at our school. It takes a solid week of preparation. Making place mats and costumes, designating which class will be Native Americans and which will be Pilgrims, and grocery shopping to buy ingredients for making cranberry sauce, butter, and corn bread.

We ask each child to bring in a salad vegetable so we can make a salad stone soup style!

The day before our feast is spent cooking and inevitably every year at least one of us burns the cranberry sauce, or fails to turn the heavy cream into butter but the kids have a great time.

The morning of our feast we put our salad together, trusting the kids with plastic knives, sometimes the tomatoes are turned to mush and the carrots are responsible for breaking more than one knife, but it's good fine-motor practice!

Then we give the "eating with manners" lecture.

When to say please, when to say thank you, how NOT to say ewwww that's gross and how to just leave it on your plate when it's something you don't like.

"Mrs C what's that stuff?"

"It's cranberry sauce, we made it remember?"

"But it doesn't look like cranberry sauce."

"It is, trust me. Try it you might like it."

"No thanks, I only like the one that looks like the can."

So we lined the miniature Pilgrims and Native Americans in the hallway with their place mats and forks in hand. Mouths were watering as they awaited our principal to deliver her annual thankful speech.

It was then that I realized that maybe I didn't do a very good job teaching the kids about Pilgrims. My little Native Americans were seated first as the Pilgrims from across the hall filed in.

"Mrs. C who are they supposed to be?!?"

And then they dug in. Turkey, Salad, Cornbread...some were more adventurous than others, but when all is said and done, they won't remember who taught them that u always needs to follow q or that 3 apples take away 2 apples equals 1 apple, but they will remember their kindergarten feast.

With Thanksgiving festivities over, it's time to focus on the December holidays. The kids know what's coming and they are already talking about all things Santa.

I let it slip the other day that I knew Santa's phone number.

"How do you know Santa's number?" one little cherub asked.

"Oh Matthew, don't you know, all teachers know Santa's phone number."

"Really?"

"Yes really."

I'm sure he's still pondering that little bit on information.

"Hey Mrs. C, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?"

"I don't know, let me guess. Fire Fighter?"

"Nope."

"Ummm, doctor?"

"Nope."

"I know, a teacher!"

"Nope, I want to be an elf!"

"An excellent career choice just remember me when you're a famous elf."

After all... it's not what you know, it's who you know!