The First Few Days!!

DAY 1 -

Wednesday was my first day of teaching Kindergarten. I have no experience in teaching this age group. My student-teaching experience was spent in 3rd and 4th grade classrooms and I thought that it would be sufficient for I never saw myself or desired to become a Kindergarten teacher. I should have known better! Luckily my first year teaching in Melba provided me with the experience of a preschool/special education teacher and I definately pulled from that experience while preparing for this adventure. I have to say that now I am excited for this age group and am so thankful that I was able to remain in Melba this year and spend my days off with my own children. What a blessing!! I'm sure that this year will provide itself many life lessons (for myself and my students) as well as many fun stories and projects that I will share with you all.

It began - the first day of Kindergarten. Little 5 year-old children coming through my door eagerly anticipating the beginning of their journey through education. I was so excited to see their smiling faces and to meet their parents. All seemed like it would go exactly as I had planned and I seemed to feel myself relax a little as I looked at these children and somehow thought to myself, "piece of cake". That is until the bell rang, the parents left and I was left with 19 5-year olds staring at me waiting for their first instructions. I remained calm even though my insides began to churn and my brain began to think of what in the world was I going to do with them? Where do I start? What do I say? So, here is my first day outline with a few sidenotes for your reading pleasure.
1) Line practice - ALL DAY LONG!!!!!!!!!!! Watching the person in front of you seems like a great way to have them stay in line if they knew what "front" meant. And it seems as if they are more interested in their surroundings than the person in front of them. I thought they were doing great until I looked behind me to see a sea of Kindergarteners, anywhere from 1 foot to 15 feet seperations between them in nothing that resembled a line whatsoever. We practiced and practiced and practiced. And I think I said "We need to have patience" probably every 3 min. And they probably don't even know what "patience" means. FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!

2)Pledge of Allegiance - Explaining this seemed to go well and I even had one little guy who knew it!! Awesome!

3) Go over the rules - Apparently they all seem to think that if they are naughty they get sent to the principals office. When I told them that they would be missing some recess time for being naughty I had a little one ask me what recess was. Awesome!

4) Discipline Plan - My students have to pull cards if they are naughty. They try to stay on the green card all day but if they are naughty they turn it to yellow which results in a 5 min. loss of recess. And red means loss of entire recess and call home to parents. After explaining this in great detail and I thought they all understood I had a Kindergartener willingly walk over and turn his green card to yellow. "He likes that color better."

5)Morning activities for our reading program - Passed out name cards for them to wear. Whose idea was it to give 5-year olds namecards to where all day long? I really don't feel like making new ones each night and no matter how often I tell them to quit playing with them it still happens - constantly.

6) Bathroom break - this went pretty well. I was pleased.

7) reading - this was around 10:15 a.m. and these kids have done nothing "fun" yet so I began to get questions like, "Can I go home now?", "When is lunch I'm hungry?", "Why haven't we painted yet?", When are we going to "play"? and comments like, "I'm bored", "I'm thirsty", "I need to call my mom", "I don't like to color", "I hate books". During this time I became more and more tense - headache dully began.

8) recess - went great - except that I was missing two students when the bell rang. They had lined up with the other Kindergarten class.

9) lunch - went pretty well - had one little boy forget his lunch in the classroom so he had to wait until after lunch to eat. Some kids wanted seconds and some decided that they weren't hungry and wanted to save their lunch until later.

10) P.E. - during this 15 min. short break I ran back to the classroom to try and prepare for the afternoon with these kiddos. I think I ate something but can't quite remember.

11) Afternoon - the most difficult part of full-day Kindergarten. We spent it doing some free-time which they LOVED, read some books - enjoyed a snack and spent 40 min. preparing for the "end of school". Getting backpacks ready, bus necklaces on, room in order, etc . . . .

12) Bus lines - we were supposed to get out there before the bell rang because I needed to get the Kindergartners in the bus lines before the "big" kids came out. Didn't happen!! We were out there early all right but the bus signs were not up so it was stressful once they did get them up. Luckily - all the kids got on the correct bus.

13) Went back to my classroom and took a few headache pills. I think I'm going to need more energy for this job. I'm so glad that it's every other day.

DAY 2:

A whole lot better than Day 1 - I think I was more prepared and they were as well. I was more firm with my discipline and didn't let them get away with much.

Morning: Went great - made friendship salad with the kids and then did some morning reading activities. Only heard one student complain that she was bored. No kids lost at recess!

Lunch: One student didn't like standing in lines so he sat down at a table and I realized that he was sitting there with no lunch only after all of my students were seated and eating. He also did not show up for class after the bell rang and having no aide to help me I couldn't go searching for him. They finally found him in P.E. with the other Kindergarten class.

Afternoon: Again this was the difficult part of the day. We did some math, had free-time, read books, had a snack in which the conversation turned to wedgies somehow. Apprently you can lick the fruit roll-up and your fortune appears. I don't know where the topic of wedgies came from except that one of my boys was calling them fruit wedgies. I asked a student if she knew what a wedgie was and yep - she did - and was pleased to share with the rest of the class. After snack was over I had a little boy say, "I ate my snack but didn't get a wedgie". Oh heavens!

End of the day: Went a lot better as well. Kids on the bus were in line early and I was stressfree as far as that goes. I think that this Kindergarten thing won't be so bad afterall. I am already beginning to love those precious kiddos and all of their funny antics.

Sidenote: It's amazing to me how quickly I can loose a Kindergarten class - I'm in the middle of talking about how we got ready for Kindergarten and my question to the class was, "How did you get ready for Kindergarten?". I called on one student who said, "My favorite cartoon is Spongebob!" - Ummmm . . . from that point on my class was lost - lost to a sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea. It took me probably 7 min. to regain their attention back to the subject at hand.