Winnie the Pooh

Yesterday Trish was wearing sweatpants that said "Winnie the Pooh" across the butt....so wrong in so many ways!

I want to go home!

Let's go back to Day 2. Taji really didn't want to be at school. He was so certain that he wanted to go home that he carried around ALL of his things ALL day. (He left most of his things in his locker the next day, and just carried around his blanket for a few weeks).

Here we go again!

I haven't added any posts lately, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been much going on. Quite the contrary! Since August 4th (my last post), I have gotten married, said farewell to my old class and welcomed twelve new two-year-olds into my life. (This all happened between the 1st and 5th of September....since then I've just been recovering!)

While the first few weeks of school were very hard...I was having withdrawal from my old class(now PRESCHOOLERS!), while coping with crying new babies (and there was a lot of crying)...things have finally started to calm down. I still get to see my preschool friends, (and they still shout at me like I am a celebrity every time they see me in the hallway or outside.) I get wonderful reports of how smoothly the preschool classes adjusted to the new school year transition, (having one full year in my class before entering preschool), and once most of the crying stopped, I realized that I have a wonderful new class.

While this years' class is completely different from last years', I think it's going to be a great year:

• Last year I had a very social class, everyone vying for attention and camaraderie, this year they are much more introverted. Perhaps this is because they are younger, perhaps they just have different personalities, in either case, there are a lot less struggles and battles with others, and we have plenty of time to teach them how to make friends.
• These new children are much more in control of their bodies...we have two children who started the year who weren't potty trained (as opposed to seven last year), and one of them is already well on his way to pull-up free days. But it's not just potty training...these kids know how to blow their noses! This is a skill I worked and worked on with last year's class, to seemingly no avail.
• Last year we had a good handful of children who wouldn't interact with me for months. I am, of course, the strange person who looks different and speaks a foreign language. Although it has taken a few weeks, my new class seems interested and excited to interact with me...and at least they aren't afraid of me anymore!
• These new children have much longer attention spans than last year. They are interested in circle time, singing songs and dancing, and don't run away to find something new to spark their interest after two minutes.

For these and many more, I know this year is going to be a great new journey.

Here's to my journey as a second year two-year-old teacher in a small, non-profit, dual-language, preschool in Chicago's Chinatown (serving low-income immigrant families who speak three different dialects of Chinese).

As always, names have been changed to protect the innocence of those involved.

Little Scientists

This summer, my class has been enjoying learning about the bugs we find in our backyard. We mostly see ants and roly poly bugs, but every day is like we've never seen them before. "Look Roly Poly!"

In this photo my class and the preschool class that was also outside that afternoon collected over 30 roly poly bugs in our bug box. This little scientist couldn't stop staring in the top of the bug box all afternoon.

Abstract American Flag

For 4th of July, the children painted in Red, White, & Blue, like the American Flag. This is our result!

Body Parts!

During lunch, I was writing a note on a post-it and got some ink on my finger. Anna noticed and said, "You write on you...shoulders?" ...At least she got a body part! :)

More Feelings!

We are still excited about feelings! This week I added a poster with different faces for different emotions, and during our hello song, the children got to choose which face described them. They loved it!

One day, Betsy came up to me and said, "Ms. Rose, angry!" (making an angry face herself)



She is holding a puzzle piece from a set of puzzles where the bear has different faces, shirts, and pants, and you can mix and match the faces and outfits. She must of been working on the puzzle when she ran across the angry face.

The Sun is Hiding!

My kids were very excited about the weather this spring, so I made 3 weather cards: sunny, cloudy, and rainy. We put one up each day to tell what the weather is like outside, and they love looking out the window and being the meterologist. A few of the children get very excited to change the card in the middle of the day when the weather changes. It gets to be confusing when it is a partly cloudy day and the sun goes in and out behind the clouds. I have described to them that when we can see the sun, but it isn't yellow, it is hiding behind the clouds.

The other day (which was a mostly sunny day), John Henry (3 and 1/2) ran up to me with the sunny and cloudy cards and said, "Eh sunny is hiding hind the cowds!" Holding "sunny" behind "cloudy" as seen:I looked outside and sure enough, the sun was hiding. John Henry went around the room showing all of his friends and telling them about the sun that was hiding.

After about five minutes, the sun came back out and he ran to me again and said, "Es Sunny! Es Sunny!" pointing to the window, holding up only the sunny card.

Future Meterologist?

Feelings!

We have been learning a lot about feelings and emotions lately. We are really working on being good friends to each other. We have read "If You're Angry and You Know It" over and over. We have new songs about feelings where we make the faces of each emotion. And I have introduced a new skill each week with cue cards (Trade, Say "Please", Share, Take Turns, etc.)

We were lining up to go outside and Regan was crying.
John Henry said, "Regan, what's wrong?"
Regan, "Brandon!"
John Henry (in a scolding tone), "Brandon, you hurt Regan!"


If you're angry and you know it walk away...
Anna and I were playing at the art center while a few other children were playing in the kitchen area. One of the other children said something about being angry. Anna heard them and said, "Eh angry and you walk away!" then got up and walked quickly away from the table. Then she walked over to the children in the kitchen area and told them several times, "Eh angry, and you walk away!" demonstrating each time.

If you're angry and you know it stamp your feet...
Jacob was climbing the ladder on the playground equipment with two girls climbing ahead of him. Jacob cried out, "Ahhh, Ahhh!"

I walked near him and said, "Jacob are you hurt or are you angry?" Jacob finished climbing and then stamped his feet when he got to the top.

Me, "Oh you must be angry, because you are stamping your feet."

Highlights of the Week

Anna filled an entire page of her journal with "writing" scribbles in nice neat rows. Then she showed it to me and said, "I write it myself, lookit myself!"

John Henry saw another class passing by outside our window. He got really excited and said, "Look! Friends!"

Ah! Ah!

This happened a couple of weeks ago, when I was the only adult in the room. I was helping several children get toothpaste for toothbrushing, when Vito (who doesn't speak much yet) came up to me and grunted, "Ah, Ah!" very loudly.

I got down to his level and said, "What do you need Vito?" and mimiced what he had done, "Ah, Ah! What does that mean?"

Vito looked at me with a worried look in his eyes, took a few steps, then laid down on the bathroom floor and pounded his fists and feet Gargamel style.

I guess I didn't say it right...

We All Drum with the Same Hands

I love this picture so much, I made it my computer wallpaper.

I LOVE their little hands (and they love our drum)!

Do you have this at your house?

Anna (3 years, 3 months) and I play an ongoing game of "Do you have this at your house?". Food, babies, dolls, pets, toys, etc. She loves to hear about things at my house, and I like to get a (maybe accurate) account of what life is like at her house. (Just imagine how big her eyes got when I told her my sister had a baby and she said, "At you home?")

Outside one afternoon, Anna and I were reading an alphabet book. On the page, "C is for Cat" I said, "I have a cat at my house, do you have one at your house?"
Anna, "No"
When we got to "E is for Elephant", Anna got really excited and asked, "You have at you house?"
Me, "No, I don't have an elephant at my house."

Mozart Effect

Cheers
I look over during snack, to see four girls "clinking" their paper cups together as if to have a toast! So cute! (But where did they learn that?) Cheers!

Happy Accident
We had a happy accident this afternoon. We put on some Mozart quietly and played with shaving cream. The green liquid watercolor on the same shelf as the shaving cream had leaked onto the bottom of the can. There were a couple of green circles on the table from the bottom of the can, and when you wiped your hand through them, the shaving cream turned green! We also added a few drops of purple liquid watercolor to some of it to make purple shaving cream! So much fun (and self cleaning!) Very Exciting!

The best part: Regan kept shushing everyone, so we could hear the relaxing music. Very peaceful.

she have color

At lunch:
Brandon, "Anna have color," wiggling his fingers.
Ms. Rose, "Yes, Anna has fingernail polish on her fingers."
Anna smiles and points to her shoes, and says, "toes."
Rose, "You know what, Anna even has polish on her toes!" (She showed me yesterday).
Anna looks at her shoes again and smiles.
Brandon, "Victoria no color, Ms. Rose no color."
Ms. Rose, "No, we don't have fingernail polish on our fingers, but Ms. Rose has some on her toes."
Anna gasps, then demands "Let me see!"
Not at lunch honey!

the park

We finally made it to the park this week (we try to go every Wednesday when the weather is nice). We had great discussions about the birds we heard and saw on the way, and of course the stop signs.

Choice Quotes:
Anna, "I hear bird!"
John Henry, "Look, birds!" (pointing and shouting every time he saw one on the ground, in a tree, in the sky, on the rooftops).
Regan, "Flowers!" (pointing to the dandilions).
John Henry, "I see stop!" (pointing to the stop sign from way down our really long block).

We finally arrived back to school after about an hour trip, and as we walk in the front door, Brandon says, "I love Ping Tom Park!" and Anna says with a sigh, "Ahhh, I so tired!"

Naptime

Today at the beginning of naptime, I was sitting with another child when John Henry (3 1/2) said in a loud whisper, "Miss Rose, look!" I came over and looked closely as he carefully held out his finger with a little fuzz on it.
I said, "Oh, you've got a little piece of fuzz, huh?" as he transferred the fuzz onto my finger.
"Yeah" he said, as he went back to digging more fuzz from between his toes!
EWWW! (I promplty went to wash my hands.)

new to me

My cousin Katherine started keeping a blog of her student teaching experience and I thought it was a lot of fun. Teachers, especially, can relate to the fun things kids say and do. I teach two and three year olds in Chinatown, so we have lots of adventures!

*Names have been changed to protect their innocence.

Quote:
Brandon was sick for a couple of days. I asked him the next morning when he returned to school, "Brandon how are you feeling?"
Brandon (thinks for a second), "Happy!" with a big smile on his face. :)

Hilarious:
Two weeks ago, we were headed for the park (2 blocks away). We made sure everyone had used the bathroom before we left, but half a block away from school, I turn around to see Jacob pulling his pants down and peeing like a sprinkler all over the sidewalk. It would have been better if he would have gotten his pants down before he started "sprinkling"! We turned the class around and headed back for the playground at school.