Mount Rushmore- A Child's Perspective

We are teaching the Kindergarten students about President's Day this week. While reading a book to the class, Mrs. Hunter came to a picture showing Mount Rushmore. The two of us were completely unaware of the chaos this photo would cause in our classroom. One little boy spoke out," That looks like Jesus!" Mrs. Hunter and I made eye contact and then she asked, "Which one?" The student marched up to the front of the room where his teacher sat holding the open book and he carefully pointed to one of the presidents in the picture on the page. Then a little girl shouted out, "That is NOT Jesus. Jesus is dead! (As if the four presidents chiseled into the mountain are alive and well! LOL) Mrs. Hunter began to explain that Abraham Lincoln was the man sculpted into the mountain, but she was interrupted by yet another student sitting on the front row. He stood up, turned around to face his classmates, and passionately exclaimed, "Jesus is not dead!" And just like that, Mrs Hunter turned the page and said, "We need to move on." 

#ilovekindergarten 

photo courtesy of Free Stock Photos

What I Wish My Teacher Knew...

While browsing through Instagram today, I came across the following photo from the first kindergarten teacher I ever worked with. She now teaches 3rd grade and was kind enough to allow me to share this on my blog. I know you're going to love it as much as I do. Prepare to laugh!

I knew that you would laugh! 

What the child meant to say was Kendamas. Mrs. C. had to have him read it to her because she had no idea. If you don't know what a Kendama is, it is a wooden skill toy that comes from Japan and is really popular with the kids right now. You can click on the link for a picture.

Thank you so much for sharing the humor with us Mrs. C. !

Kindergarten Censored

At recess today, Mrs. C., one of the four Kindergarten teachers at our school, shared a funny story with me.

Mrs. C. has one student that she suspects may have Asperger’s Syndrome. (I’ll call him Max.) Max is REALLY smart and adorable and quirky and he did something today that is definitely blog worthy.

Mrs. C. introduced phonemic worksheets to her students yesterday and apparently she called them just that… “phonemic worksheets”.

Well….Max REALLY must have enjoyed doing his phonemic worksheet in class, because this morning he blurted out three times before Mrs. C. could stop him, “Teacher! Teacher! When are we going to do our f***ing worksheets?”

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the separate sounds in a word. It seems that Max is on the right track. He can certainly hear the beginning “F” sound.  

Hahahaha

Kindergarten 2014-2015/ Part Two

Here's a look at the end of year gifts I received from students, parents, and Mrs. Johnson's (OEK) class...

The OEK children wrote thank you notes to me on flower pedals. Pretty cute idea, huh?!

OEK stands for Optional Extended Day Kindergarten. It's in place to help children who are low and need the extra assistance. I spent an hour each day helping these kids learn their sight words, letters and sounds and writing skills. It was amazing to see each child's progress. 

Here is the "POLISHing us up so we can shine" part.  

I love, love, love my job! 

Kindergarten 2014-2015/ Part One

Another school year is over and I am feeling the love! Just take a look at the thoughtful gifts I received from Mrs. B. today...

I'm not going anywhere, but Mrs. B. is retiring.

She gave me this Coca-Cola tin sign... 

...and wrote me the sweetest letter. 

This is what I gave to Mrs. B., along with a clever card that I forgot to take a picture of (ugh).

I sure am going to miss working with her!

I will share some of the thoughtful gifts I received from students in my Kindergarten 2014-2015/ Part Two post.   :)

Special Friend of the Day- Two

Every child in Mrs. B.'s Kindergarten class has the opportunity to be Special Friend of the Day and, since all of the children have had a turn, Mrs. B. chose me to be "Special Friend" this morning. 

Last time I was Special Friend of the Day was in 2012. (Click HERE to see portraits of me from that group of students.) By comparison, I think the Kindergarten graduates from 2012 have more artistic talent than our students this year, nonetheless, they drew some pretty cute pictures. Take a look...

Never mind that I'm pig nosed and built like a box. This little girl is a future calligrapher! 

I'm sure it's obvious, but I'm going to tell you anyway. This is me getting out of my green car at Disneyland
 and Mickey and Minnie Mouse are there to greet me. 

The fact that this little guy took his time drawing my picture makes my heart melt. Usually, he is either daydreaming or hurrying to get through his assignments. (By the way, it was 'wear your school t-shirt' day.
I don't typically sport shirts with roadrunners on them.)

Here I am, riding Toy Story at California Adventure Park. I don't know what's going on in the crotch area. I was afraid to ask. 

This is me riding California Screamin'. The two girls in the box are waiting in line. IF ONLY lines were that short! 

Once again, I'm at Disneyland. This time I'm riding Pirates of the Caribbean. In Ethan's words...
"It's the dark part before you go up the hill. The box is where that thing flashes."

 I sure am going to miss Mrs. B.!

ABC Teacher Appreciation Gift

Mrs. B. received this gift from one of her students during Teacher Appreciation Week. I think it's too cute not to share. J

Welcome Spring!

Here are a few works of art for you to enjoy, created ever so cheerfully by  Mrs. B.'s Kindergarten students...

~Watercolor Tulips~

There is always, always, always at least one child who does not follow directions. The picture below is adorable, but the directions were to orient the paper to landscape rather than portrait. :)

~Wall Flowers~

We measured each flower to be the same height as its creator.

Each student received 2 leaves to place anywhere on the stem that they desired. The leaves on the far right are my favorite. :)

Check out the look that the orange flower in the middle is giving the pink flower. Hahaha.

Korean Intern Gift

Our school is hosting Korean Interns and Miss Emma, the young lady assigned to Mrs. B's Kindergarten class, surprised me with a gift today. When she introduced herself to our class, Emma told us her Korean name, but asked that we call her Miss Emma. I suppose she thought it would be easier for five and six year old American students to pronounce and she's probably right.

Emma told me this is how you write Mrs. Lancaster in Korean (Upper Left).

Here is her sweet little message on the back of the card.

I love Emma's little Post-it note best of all.  :)

Pretty cool, huh?! It made my day.

Kindergarten Writing Assessments/ #prettyfunnystuff

Mrs. B. gave our class a writing assessment this week. She orally instructed them to write this simple sentence, "The dog sat in the sun." After the children wrote the sentence, they were allowed to draw a picture at the bottom of the page, then Mrs. B. asked me to write the proper sentence in pen underneath the box before filing their papers. At the end of the year, the students will be given the exact same assessment, hopefully showing improvement.

As you can guess, Kindergarten students enter the school year with varying levels of ability, especially when it comes to writing. Here are a few papers that I deemed worthy to share...

The paper above is a perfect example of typical Kindergarten writing. This little learner obviously knows the sight word 'the' and was able to hear some beginning and ending consonant sounds in the words 'dog', 'sat' and 'sun'.

This child did a pretty good job as well, except his poor dog has too many legs and a sore, tailless bum.

With a little help learning the correct use of upper and lower case letters and punctuation, I imagine this Kindergartner will write a near perfect assessment at the end of the year.

I love this picture. Most kids draw dogs standing on four legs, but this little guy made his puppy lay on the grass, belly up, with paws in the air AND holding a flower. Adorable!

NOW--- I saved the best for last. If this one doesn't put a smile on your face, something is wrong with you.

At first glance, it looks like this sentence says 'The dog shit', but let me share with you how to decipher Kindergarten writing...

#1- You can see that this little girl knows the sight word 'the' and the word 'dog'.
#2- You can tell that she heard the 's' sound when Mrs. B. said the word sat. 
#3- She also wrote the word 'in', she just wrote it backwards and the 'n' happens to look like an 'h'. 
#4- Obviously she started to write 'the' again, but for whatever reason, didn't get it finished. 

And THAT, my friends, is how 'The dog sits in the sun' can easily be mistaken for 'The dog shit'.  :)

Turning 50 Part 1 (Yes. It Was THAT Good!)

I did it. I hit the dreaded, milestone 50th birthday yesterday and I've got to say, it wasn't at all bad. In fact, thanks to my awesome kids, fabulous extended family and amazing friends, it was the BEST birthday I've ever had!

The morning started off great with Cody giving me a C.O. My facebook friends know the story behind this gift. For those of you who don't, Cody has wanted to get me an electric can opener (C.O.) for my birthday for awhile now and not because I need one. Cody, in all his autistic glory, has WANTED me to want one.

When I arrived at the school, Mrs. B. had these sitting on my table, along with a cute card...

She and the children sang the birthday song to me and, when the Kindergarten students wanted to know my age, I responded, "I'm a grandma, so how old do you think I am?" One little girl shouted "18!", which was much kinder than Cody telling me I was almost 100.

After work, my husband treated me to lunch at Olive Garden and, when we got home, Casey had been at our house and left a card and this gift on the kitchen counter...

A 50 dollar iTunes card for my new iPhone! Hellzzyeah! :)

AND...

Throughout the entire day (week/month/?), I had NO idea THIS was going to happen...

I had to erase the address and phone number. Obviously. :)

You will want to stay tuned for Turning 50 Parts 2 and 3. I promise it gets even better!

Beach Bag Para-Professional Gift

Today was the last day of Kindergarten for the 2013-2014 school year and, once again, Mrs. B. gave me a very thoughtful gift. When I count my blessings, working with her is right up there on the top of my list. She is a wonderful teacher and great example to me, as well as the children. 

Jakob is a child with special needs and was in our classroom the entire year. Mrs. B. wanted to include his name in the poem, because Jakob, like Cody, is very routine oriented. He made sure Mrs. B. and I did everything just right. That included saying "Good morning, Mrs. Lancaster!" as part of the morning calendar. 

Here's a peek inside the bag. There is a beach towel, ball, bubbles galore and a couple of drinks. Mrs. B. knows how much I love my grandsons. I probably talk about them too much, but I can't help it. They are the little loves of my life. :)

Real World Problem Solving

During math this morning, one little boy was having a particularly hard time following directions, so Mrs. B. asked him to sit next to me. When math time was over and the students were asked to put their worksheets away, I looked down to see him hurriedly adding this to his paper...

The worksheet (about 3D shapes) was meant to help students learn the difference between a cone and a cylinder, but this little boy observed more. In his "real world problem solving" he recognized a need for something that nobody else seemed to notice. I choked back tears as lyrics from the children's songbook from church came to my mind:

I'll Walk With You

Lyrics: Carol Lynn Pearson

Music: Reid N. Nibley

If you don't walk as most people do,

Some people walk away from you,

But I won't! I won't!

If you don't talk as most people do,

Some people talk and laugh at you,

But I won't! I won't!

I'll walk with you. I'll talk with you.

That's how I'll show my love for you.

Jesus walked away from none.

He gave his love to ev'ryone.

So I will! I will!

Jesus blessed all he could see,

Then turned and said, "Come, follow me."

And I will! I will!

I will! I will!

I'll walk with you. I'll talk with you.

That's how I'll show my love for you.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This was my day yesterday...

The button came off my pants and I didn't have time to sew it back on or change before work, so I safety pinned them (which was a hassle every time I had to go to the bathroom).

When blow drying my hair, I knocked a dried flower arrangement off of the wall. I couldn't vacuum up the damn mess, but I made sure to throw what was left of the stupid thing in the trash.

I dropped Cody's Twinkie Minion Valentines on the floor. Some of them came apart, but repairing them would have to wait.

While teaching a group of kids during work circle, the secretary, via the florist, delivered these roses to me...

They were from my husband. The children loved it. So did I!

I couldn't drive all over town  holding a beautiful flower arrangement, so I had to leave work 15 minutes early to drop off the flowers at home before going to my hair appointment. 

Once I was home, I threw together half a sandwich and a Diet Coke to inhale on the way to the salon.

While sitting under the dryer, I received a text from Katelyn and Casey saying they were at my house waiting for me. Katelyn had forgotten I told her the day before that I wouldn't be home.

I ran late at the salon and had to ask Casey to stay at the house and get Cody off of his day program van. 

I had barely been home 15 minutes when Chase dropped off my grandsons (whom I love dearly) for me to babysit.

Doing me a favor, Casey closed all the doors in the hallway to keep the toddlers out of mischief, then he went home and left me alone with the two little boys and Cody.

I fixed and fed them grilled cheese sandwiches and popsicles for dinner.

I decided to attempt to start Cody's bath, but found his bedroom door locked...from the inside. I had to wait for Don to come home from work and help me unlock it. 

A mutual friend called to let me know Mrs. B. was in the hospital and we would be having a sub for Valentine's Day. 

Once the grand kids went home, I finished fixing Cody's valentines, vented via text to my mom and sister and got into bed by 9:15 without shedding a single tear!

I tossed and turned and when I was finally able to sleep, I had nightmares about Kindergarten and substitute teachers.

The morning, however, has come and gone and somehow I survived. 

That's the GOOD and BAD. In case you are wondering what the UGLY is, it's my attitude sometimes. I really am blessed. I have a good job and great family and friends. 

THIS makes it all worth while...

Treats from the Students

A Coke Calendar from Casey/
A Pie and Turtles (My Favorite Candy in the Whole World) from Chase and Talitha

...and a Thoughtful "I Love You" from My Husband of Thirty- One Years. :)

Kindergarten Bulletin Board for December

Each December, after reading Twas The Night Before Christmas to her students, Mrs. B. puts up this bulletin board...

The Children Were Nestled All Snug In Their Beds

Typical sleepover. Some are asleep, but most are not.

The kid in the middle looks like he's wired on a Red Bull and sugar. I don't think he
will be dreaming of sugarplums. In fact, I don't think he'll be dreaming at all.

Top to Bottom: Mrs. B., Mrs. A. (our afternoon aide) and me.
Notice that I'm peeking out from under the bed and not tucked inside it. :)