Walking around at recess, Kimberly came up to me and said, "Miss Downing! Fabian pushed me!" Fabian came running up shortly after her and I said, "Did you push her?" And he said, "Miss Downing. Kimberly broke my heart." Trying not to laugh, I asked if she had pushed him in the chest or if it was like an inside hurt. He looked at me dumbfounded and said, "Well I'm sad!" The levels of cuteness were just too high; kids really do say the funniest things.
Today was Science Center day...with magnets! Again...the look of utter amazement on all their little faces was the best part. We related it to last week's discussion on force, and how magnetic force is an invisible pull on metal objects. We talked about how magnetic force can be so strong that it can work through things that aren't magnetic; and illustrated it by putting two decent magnets on each side of their hands and seeing how they stayed in place because the magnet pull was strong enough to go through their hand. Then we talked about how all magnets have a North Pole ("like where Santa lives") and a South Pole ("like where the penguins live") and how they are attracted to their opposite ("North and South want to be friends"). When you try and put a South Pole with a South Pole, they don't like that and they repel. They got to put a magnet on their hand and put a repelling one underneath and watch the magnet on their hand roll over.
In case you weren't aware, this stuff is better than magic. They get to play with it on their own tomorrow and they are SO excited. And once again, I was just floored at their abilities to relate it to things in their own lives - magnets on the refrigerator, things they'd seen in TV shows and movies, toy trains that they have at home... And once again, it was applicable to ALL of them. They were all interested and excited and proud of the fact that they could work with these magnets and produce the effects that I was asking them to. Ashley, one of our ELD students with the most severe struggles, was communicating and excited to be learning something - a rare and heartwarming sight for me in her classroom behaviors.
Today was the first day I had to walk a child to the office who was being overly disruptive in class. Mrs. B was very fair in the opportunities she gave him to improve his behavior, and it was only after a sequence of disciplinary that he found himself being marched to the front office. He was first given a warning, then asked to leave the carpet area, then the classroom, and then to the office. He obviously wasn't very happy about it by the time he wound up in the office, but I explained to him that he wasn't bad, but they way he was behaving was unacceptable and disruptive to all of his learning friends in Room 3. He ended up losing his recess after some inappropriate behavior on the playground...but this isn't a normal thing for him. Makes you wonder what might be going on that is different in his typical routine...
Thursday should be a normal day...but coming up, we have my birthday and Valentine's day that will be spent in Room 3. Stay tuned!
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