At the end of this week I was beginning to feel like it was time to get over being mad at everyone at Balsz. I still don't want to be friends with everyone there but I want to make an effort to be part of the community. Maybe I will go to staff breakfast this week or something like that. The main thing is, I need to stop pretending that I still work at Griffith and accept my fate as a Balsz employee.
A few ideas. I have been using magnets as the way for kids to get up and go to the bathroom without asking. Each student has a magnet with their name on it and when they need to go they just get up, stick it on the door and go. What kills me is that some kids need to go ALL the time. And some kids go for a long time. So to regulate this a little more I am going to give out two chips for the morning and two for the afternoon so the worst offenders can start regulating how much they are using the restroom. For the most part it is working really well but for those few kids that go every 20 minutes something needs to be done.
Another thing we started this week is filling in the hundred grid (beautifully made by Bret) one row at a time each day. One of the things that they are required to be able to do by the end of first grade is count to 100. So I thought I could break it down a little bit by doing one row each day and they could get a good look at the numbers and practice saying them correctly. Hopefully they will be able to figure out that the next number after forty-nine is not forty-ten. I want to make a hundred grid for each kid to practice saying to themselves in the morning when I am taking attendance/dealing with whatever needs to be dealt with each morning. Hopefully no more new students...
On Thursday the music teacher was absent and there were no subs so I did music in our room for a half an hour. It was so FUN! We sat in a circle on our beautiful rug and sang lots of cute little songs. We have been practicing the ants go marching so that was good. The kids love who stole the cookie from the cookie jar and old macdonald had a farm. We also sang Mr. Sun and a classic I forgot all about, the itsy bitsy spider. The kids were so engaged for the whole time and I think we bonded that much more.
I actually missed the kids a tiny bit this weekend. I recovered my chicken soup with rice tape this weekend so I am excited to play it for them tomorrow. I don't know if I mentioned that we say the appropriate month each morning but we do. It is fun for me and great fluency practice for the kids.
It's a full week this week. Only my second one as a first grade teacher. We are starting to publish our writing this week in preparation for a little party I want to have with the parents that can come. They are so serious about their writing it is hilarious.
Sanitary hugs and kisses (thanks Aliya for that cute sign off),
Miss Bee
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