Slooooowly getting back on track...after derailing...
I am SO proud of myself for the "dinner" I just made:
Is that not just the picturesque example of after-school-special healthy?
So yeah, lack of updates because:
a) the optional 4th and 5th grade musical, which we were never even warned about, started rehearsals last week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant...Landon and occasionally Asiah and I were hanging out for about an hour before the rest of Young Writers came back. SO. I had to come up with a way to revamp Young Writers.
b) Young Writers Open Mic Night/ Open House is next Tuesday night. Planning on that one is also all me.
c) I took on Teacher Appreciation Week because it wasn't Parent Engagement, which is way more involved, and obviously between a and b that would have been beyond my limits. So it's going well -- got fifty flowers in-kinded (donated) by a sweet woman who runs a florist shop with her name in the title. Working on the food...still...
annnnd d.
D for derail.
D for I maybe might have gotten a little sick so I wasn't taking care of my elf or surroundings properly which may have led to me getting sicker.
So right now I started on antibiotics for a sinus infection that got reeeeally scary a few days ago if only because I've never had one before (I didn't realize that your sinuses had so many potential exits in the face, wth). And I can't hear out of my right ear still. You know how it feels when you get water in it? That's what it's like. And the clinic doctor gave me a referral to an ENT (Ear Nose Throat specialist) because if I can't hear out of it by Friday or so I need to make an appointment to make sure the infection, which was caused by a virus, didn't cause permanent hearing damage.
But other than that I'm good. Got together some great stuff for my Littles, because they wanted to know how I made my Prince Rei doll (which, by the way, ReDarious is still referring to as the George Washington pirate dude), and I determined to show them how to sew without bringing an actual needle to school. Yeahno.
Plastic needles, embroidery floss and letting them trace and cut their own patterns on some really soft felt and fleece I got from the ends and scraps and clearance fabric bin at Joann's... I'm going to let them choose from a bunny pattern, a bear, or an elephant, they're going to cut it out, and by that time it's going to be art class. So I'm going to take it home, put holes along the edge, and bring back a little 'kit' in a dollar-store wallet thing that includes their floss and plastic needle, and they're going to learn to sew it right-side-in and turn it right-side-out and stuff it. And we'll go week-by-week and it'll be awesome.
I had laryngitis for about a week straight, which made kindergarten interesting, mainly because I do Phoneme Segmentation Fluency interventions with them. That means being able to break words into phonemes, sounds -- being able to hear the k, aaaaah, t in cat. A lot of them have gotten much better.
Anyway, my voicelessness ended up leading us to an activity that they love, and that I love, because it works on not only PSF, but on letter recognition and spelling. It's putting it together in a perfect, applicable way. I adore it. It's a plastic ball that breaks in half like an easter egg, and inside is a small object -- like a plastic toy animal, or a piece of doll furniture -- and the foam letters to make that object.
I barely had to explain what the objects were, the kids were having fun, and homan were they learning. They were learning to break it apart into the phonemes -- and I wouldn't give them the letters until they got it -- and then they were SPELLING THE WORDS. IT IS SO EXCITING. The extra extra extra is that these are also good for oral comprehension activities for some of the students who don't get a lot of communication at home, because they'll just start talking about the objects, and if you don't it's so easy to start. "You're right, it's a hat! Does that hat fit you?" or "Hmmm what would you cook in that pot? I think I'd make spaghetti."
(By the way, the pot was my favorite because it was a bitty barbie-sized metal pot complete with lid in that dar speckled blue so much traditional country-designed cookware is in, and I discreetly but shamelessly kept digging through trying to find that one to offer it to my kids -- only I don't know what's in them either, so it was hard to keep breaking them open and peeking. >.> )
They're amazing. A. Ma. Zing. I want a set of my own. Seriously. If the whole school got together to give me a going away present that is what I would want.
...by the way, I've never had them before the meal in this picture, but Fuji apples are really really delicious.
Heee....and my kindergarteners have a little performance tomorrow at 6... <3 You better believe I'm there...
Is that not just the picturesque example of after-school-special healthy?
So yeah, lack of updates because:
a) the optional 4th and 5th grade musical, which we were never even warned about, started rehearsals last week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant...Landon and occasionally Asiah and I were hanging out for about an hour before the rest of Young Writers came back. SO. I had to come up with a way to revamp Young Writers.
b) Young Writers Open Mic Night/ Open House is next Tuesday night. Planning on that one is also all me.
c) I took on Teacher Appreciation Week because it wasn't Parent Engagement, which is way more involved, and obviously between a and b that would have been beyond my limits. So it's going well -- got fifty flowers in-kinded (donated) by a sweet woman who runs a florist shop with her name in the title. Working on the food...still...
annnnd d.
D for derail.
D for I maybe might have gotten a little sick so I wasn't taking care of my elf or surroundings properly which may have led to me getting sicker.
So right now I started on antibiotics for a sinus infection that got reeeeally scary a few days ago if only because I've never had one before (I didn't realize that your sinuses had so many potential exits in the face, wth). And I can't hear out of my right ear still. You know how it feels when you get water in it? That's what it's like. And the clinic doctor gave me a referral to an ENT (Ear Nose Throat specialist) because if I can't hear out of it by Friday or so I need to make an appointment to make sure the infection, which was caused by a virus, didn't cause permanent hearing damage.
But other than that I'm good. Got together some great stuff for my Littles, because they wanted to know how I made my Prince Rei doll (which, by the way, ReDarious is still referring to as the George Washington pirate dude), and I determined to show them how to sew without bringing an actual needle to school. Yeahno.
Plastic needles, embroidery floss and letting them trace and cut their own patterns on some really soft felt and fleece I got from the ends and scraps and clearance fabric bin at Joann's... I'm going to let them choose from a bunny pattern, a bear, or an elephant, they're going to cut it out, and by that time it's going to be art class. So I'm going to take it home, put holes along the edge, and bring back a little 'kit' in a dollar-store wallet thing that includes their floss and plastic needle, and they're going to learn to sew it right-side-in and turn it right-side-out and stuff it. And we'll go week-by-week and it'll be awesome.
I had laryngitis for about a week straight, which made kindergarten interesting, mainly because I do Phoneme Segmentation Fluency interventions with them. That means being able to break words into phonemes, sounds -- being able to hear the k, aaaaah, t in cat. A lot of them have gotten much better.
Anyway, my voicelessness ended up leading us to an activity that they love, and that I love, because it works on not only PSF, but on letter recognition and spelling. It's putting it together in a perfect, applicable way. I adore it. It's a plastic ball that breaks in half like an easter egg, and inside is a small object -- like a plastic toy animal, or a piece of doll furniture -- and the foam letters to make that object.
I barely had to explain what the objects were, the kids were having fun, and homan were they learning. They were learning to break it apart into the phonemes -- and I wouldn't give them the letters until they got it -- and then they were SPELLING THE WORDS. IT IS SO EXCITING. The extra extra extra is that these are also good for oral comprehension activities for some of the students who don't get a lot of communication at home, because they'll just start talking about the objects, and if you don't it's so easy to start. "You're right, it's a hat! Does that hat fit you?" or "Hmmm what would you cook in that pot? I think I'd make spaghetti."
(By the way, the pot was my favorite because it was a bitty barbie-sized metal pot complete with lid in that dar speckled blue so much traditional country-designed cookware is in, and I discreetly but shamelessly kept digging through trying to find that one to offer it to my kids -- only I don't know what's in them either, so it was hard to keep breaking them open and peeking. >.> )
They're amazing. A. Ma. Zing. I want a set of my own. Seriously. If the whole school got together to give me a going away present that is what I would want.
...by the way, I've never had them before the meal in this picture, but Fuji apples are really really delicious.
Heee....and my kindergarteners have a little performance tomorrow at 6... <3 You better believe I'm there...