We All Need Some Kindergartener Confidence - 05/14/19

Because third graders were doing state-wide testing, I got to hangout with the kindergarteners this morning for the first time, which was very exciting for me. As they were introducing themselves to me, they went around saying their names one by one until one girl said "I'm Chloe and I'm cute" and another one goes "I'm Sadie and I'm beautiful." I'm thinking maybe we should all start introducing ourselves with that kind of kindergartener confidence too. What better way to do it? 

I arrived in the middle of the kindergarteners' read aloud story time. Because I had never spent time in that classroom before, the kids were both surprised and excited to see me. When I sat down on the carpet, the kids started slowly and discreetly shifting towards me until they were sitting right on my lap and there was a little flock of kids around me. I knew some of the kids from gymnastics, but kids that I had never met before also came over and sat with me just to go with the crowd. It was very sweet. We then got ready to go out for recess, this is when the fighting over hand-holding began. About half of the class wanted to hold my hands, so this is where my only having two hands caused disputes. From lining up to recess, through recess, and right up until lunch, I had both hands occupied by tiny hands of rotating kindergarten students. They kept trying to make me run everywhere and jump off the bleachers, but because I am old and tired, I told them I couldn't do those things because I didn't know HOW to run or jump. They got a real kick out of this. I acted amazed when they showed me their running and jumping (and backwards running and backwards jumping), and they kept trying to teach me how to run and jump. 

"So you start like this with one foot in front, then you put the other one in front and you keep switching!"

"But I can do that already, that's just walking"

"No but you do it fast like this"

"Oh! Like this?" *fast walks*

"No you're just walking!"

"But that's what you told me to do!" 

Little sweetums. According to their teachers, I'm the new "it toy" or "big candy" for the kindergarteners. Now there's a title to wear with honor. 

First grade was exciting for me today because I was doing my presentation about Hong Kong. When the words came up on the screen, all the kids were like "What's a H...o...ng K...y??" Presenting to first graders is a blast. They get super excited and engaged, and they are constantly raising their hands to ask questions or make comments. This was encouraging to me because I felt like they were interested and pumped up about a place that is so near and dear to my heart. While most of the kids had travelled out of Andover before, they were astonished to hear about life in Hong Kong. You can hear the "woahhhh's" when I show them Hong Kong for the first time in the video. They had a lot of great questions about Hong Kong that I had never even considered before. After that, they were making paper dragon puppets and listening to stories about Chinese culture. It was kind of like a China-immersion class, which I thought was very sweet. It made me feel very welcomed and appreciated. I also got to get more experience with being up in front of a whole class, which I haven't gotten to do a lot yet. I have mostly been working with individuals or small groups of individuals, which I love, but I think this experience is important too. I had a lot of fun in first grade today. Enjoy some questions and comments from the presentation:
"The longest plane ride I took was 2 minutes. It was so long!" *teacher: "that's so short"*
"Can I point to Hong Kong on the map?" *points to Antarctica*
"Can you go back to Hong Kong before you graduate and get us all a pet from pet street and bring it back to us?"
"Is the population of Hong Kong 130?" "Is the population of Hong Kong the number at the end of the universe?" All very good questions. 

Back in third grade, they were having free time after their testing, so students were reading, writing, playing legos and drawing. I hung out with a few girls that were typing their own original stories. Two of them that are working on a story together are planning to sell their book at Jakes once it is finished. I requested that they finish it in the next week and a half so I have time to buy it. These young authors have people lining up to buy their book before it's even been published. They asked me to help them with editing their stories, so I helped them with spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I also got to help with illustrations for the soon-to-be-sold-at-Jakes book. I agreed to help them read it and edit it once it's ready. I love the collaborative effort in this classroom. They have a very creative and awesome story coming together, but I'm not going to give any spoilers. You'll just have to pick up your very own copy of "Wonder Pedal: by Bria and Ada," which will be in stores soon. If you're lucky, they might even sign it for you.

Gymnastics today went as normal for the most part. I set up this class the same as yesterday and it ran smoothly for the most part. I had one young man start crying because a girl had "tagged him too hard" and I did panic a little because he was scream-crying. He told me that it didn't hurt though, so I wasn't really sure how to help him. He said he was only crying because she had tagged him too hard, so I had her apologize and wasn't really sure what else to do because he said he wasn't hurting anywhere. He wanted to be left alone for a little bit, so we let him be, but he was back in the game, laughing and smiling after about a minute. Still working on what to do with myself in those situations. Other than that, kids went through the stations and did a great job. We worked on making our forward rolls tighter, we practiced our cartwheels, and I have 4 kids in my Tuesday group that can now kick into handstands all on their own! I'm proud. 

I had my last session of Mandarin with my Tuesday group today, though they begged me to do one more session next week. I'm not sure yet. I bought them all picture frames to do stained glass with as like a final gift to them for being such awesome students. I did all the prep work of the frames last night, tracing and outlining the words so they could dry overnight etc. I picked a few special characters and had each kid pick the one they wanted, the rest will be for the Friday group to pick from. They all picked words that either resonated with them or they just thought looked cool, either way worked. Will picked wisdom, Kaitlyn picked peace, and Ada picked courage, all of which line up perfectly with their personalities. They each picked the backgrounds they wanted and we went on a field trip to the library to pick up the printouts. Then we went back and I taught them how to trace the lines they wanted, and stain them with the paint and glue. They all turned out way better than I could have hoped. I was delighted and I think they enjoyed making them. I hope they keep their stained glass pictures just as a small memento of our little Mandarin club. I'll still see them at school and around this last week and a half, but I'm going to miss these guys so, so much. They deserve all the wisdom, courage, and peace in the world.

Time: 8:34
Hours: 8
Total Hours: 114