Last year, after a two week holiday break, I found it almost took me a month to get my classes back into shape in terms of following classroom rules and the environment itself. It was as if they have never been involved in any kind of social group setting of children their own age and the idea of sharing was equivalent to finding out that Mondays really do suck. Eventually, I was able to get that resolved and by February, things were back to normal again. This year, it's been completely different and I am really trying to figure out why and how this happened.
Not only has every single child, including those really young ones, matured - but they've gone to a new level of following directions, they listen, get along with one another, and they actually want to hear what I have to say during their "learning lesson" at circle time. For instance, my three day groups were learning about winter weather this week and yesterday I was teaching them about dangerous conditions. This included sleet, ice storms, cold temperatures/windchills, blizzards, and avalanches. I used one of my favourite teaching tools to do this which is printing off 'real' images of each aspect worth discussing and show them to the kids. As we go through each picture, we talk about them. That's it. I say my thing, they ask questions, and we talk about those answers. FYI: The concept and discussion on avalanches, was intense. No one interrupted during those conversations - no one. Only times were when they asked those open-end questions. Awesome! (As a teacher, these are the best learning moments you can accomplish.)
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| "Whoa..." was the usual response. This was one of the photos I used to explain what an avalanche was. Not only was it determined that it looks unsafe, but that picture was decided and deemed as a Rocky Mountain picture. More specifically, "it's somewhere on the way to Vancouver". ..Sure! |
Don't get me wrong - I love how this week went. In fact, I don't want to dwell or brag about it too much in case it jinx's it. But at the same time, I find it so odd as I'm not typically use to it. Even all those years working in childcare, it was always anticipated that the first couple weeks were going to be and were tough. This was the week I was suppose to be hating every second of and instead, I loved it!
Fingers crossed, this smooth transition continues onward.
Winter Clothing is the Devil
If you work with children, whether it's in a school, preschool, daycare, out-of-school care, drop in, Hell - even if you have kids of your own, you know the agony of putting on winter clothing before going outside can be a nightmare. Especially in group settings, you have to at least expect a 15-20 minute process of putting on outdoor winter clothing because of the number children you have to help get on their bulky snowpants, find missing hats at the bottom of their backpacks, or locate the mate of the $40.00 mittens they decided to bring or else you're going to hear it from the parent at pick-up time. By the time it's all said and done, you have children piling on top of one another because their learning what it's like to be a sumo wrestler, the ultimate whine of "I'm too hotttttttttt!", and the ones who sit on the floor up against either a piece of furniture or wall, zoned out because the comfyness of the snowsuit has mellowed them out. Oh, and you haven't even put your stuff on yet. Awesome again.
Here's some tricks I've learned:
1) Getting in patient can lead to independence: Independence is key with the smallest assembly of getting ready for outside. Making them wait their turn in line for help actually ends up them tired of waiting and attempting to do it themselves. Eventually, they get how to put on their own things and the next thing you know, they're only coming to you to do the zipping of the zipper. I tend to let this happen with the ones especially who I know I can do it. It's frustrating at the beginning for them - putting things on backwards, getting twisted up, or stuck - but they get it. And your 'getting ready' time has literally been cut down.
2) Upside Down Jacket Trick: Again, this reflect independence, but it works perfect after a couple of attempts. It's about laying the jacket down on the floor (has to be upside down but upright and you stand behind it - make sense?), put the arms in, and flip over the head. BAM! You're coat's on!
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| Do this wrong, and this is what you get. Expect to see this at least four times. Guarnteed. |
3) Backpacks hide EVERYTHING..according to the kids anyway: They easily say "I don't have snowpants" and start putting everything else on to realize by the time everything is on, there was snowpants at the bottom of their backpack after all. Sigh. Key and repeated statement to make BEFORE they all start getting ready: "CHECK YOUR BACKPACKS. IT'S ALL IN THERE!"
4) Dots in boots: I just learned this one really helps and is brilliant. In each child's boot, you place a dot side to side, so they learn which foot goes in which boot. They have make sure before they put them on that their dots in their boots are side by side. When they are, then they know their feet will be going in the right boot. Don't tell me you enjoy hearing 20 voices asking the same question: "Is this the right foot?".
5) Lost and Found box is your saviour: Need I say more?
Stay warm this week, everyone. It's suppose to be a cold one!
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