Sneaky

Out on the playground this morning,

the sun shone brightly on my energetic charges.

As my students began to play,

I noticed,

spread across the lawn,

teeny tiny chalk nubs,

left over,

from another happy day.

Giving into my impulse,

I bent over and gathered up a few hunks.

Knowing I was being watched,
I started to write on the sidewalk that circles our play structure.

A sly grin stole across my face as my audience grew.

Children began to read over my shoulder as I crouched writing a sentence.

The moment my kiddos finished reading what I had written,

I squealed and ran.

Thus,
a game was born.

For about fifteen minutes ,

a merry game of chase ensued,

while my kids and I "played" together.

I chuckled silently to myself as my students drifted in and out of the action.

I made a mental note to remember this activity

for another day's "free choice" fun.

When it was all over,
Everyone was content.
And (shhhh!) we'd all practiced our reading and running skills!

May your afternoon and evening be full of fun!

If you happen to learn something lovely along the way, consider it an added bonus!

Happy thoughts to you and yours

and may you be blessed,

Today,

Tomorrow,

Always.

Kindergarten Phonics Fun

Teaching Kindergarten is a challenge. Five year old's need to move and play. As a teacher I acknowledge this freely and I rejoice in my young charges exuberance at life. However, teaching little moving atoms of energy is like finding a way to keep socks on an infant, it can be difficult.

I try to alternate "seat work" with more active times. Today was a day when I think I struck the perfect balance.

This morning, before I took charge of my children, I set up three phonics games in our gym. Later, after morning snack, I told my students about my plans and reminded them that our morning circle routines had to be completed first. With the promise of "fun" in the gym our morning exercises went fairly smoothly.

When we finished our first part of the day, my students excitedly got into line to go downstairs. Before we went into the gym, everyone sat on the stage steps and heard my expectations. Going into the gym, the excitement and learning began.

Our first game required my charges going through an obstacle path while I hummed, when I stopped, the child who ended up in the large hula hoop had to supply me with a rhyme for whatever word I threw at them. You should have seen the kids try to be in the hula hoop when my "music" stopped. It was a hoot.

The next game required partners and hopping sacks. Two by two the children hopped in sacks toward me, read the "ay" family word on my big dry erase board and taking the bags off ran back to their friends who were waiting for their turn. We read "say" and "day" and so many others and the kids seem to really love the motion.

To conclude, we practiced number sight words tacked on the walls. Today it was the number words one, two, three and four. The kids ran, slid, crawled and hopped to the numbers I called out. Today the numbers and words were shown together. By the end of the month, the numbers will be gone and only the words will remain.

After our activities, my students did a good job of calming down. We took a bathroom break and we all got a drink before we headed back upstairs. We completed a handwriting paper, a phonics paper and even a journal activity. Our center time went smoothly and our classroom was picked up and neat at lunch time.

This was definitely a wonderful day to be a Kindergarten teacher!

(and... I didn't even tell you about our fun vinegar experiments after lunch!)