Academics Took Over

And that is why I've fallen behind on my blog updates. Honestly, I barely even remember Tuesday. Thursday we spent most of the day doing St. Patrick's Day activities. They got to make their own leprechaun traps out of blocks and legos, and all week they had an optional homework assignment of building leprechaun traps at home and bringing them into the class. It was the highest participation I've seen on any optional homework for the entire year. They were pretty creative; you could even see their personalities reflected in some of them. :)

I'm teaching them how to jump rope at recess, so every day I come home with this stuck in my head:
Cinderella dressed in yellow
Went upstairs to kiss a fellow
Made a mistake
And kissed a snake!
How many doctors will it take?
1...2...3...
They're doing pretty well! I get a line of all the kindergarteners from all the other classes too; they all just love the attention so they want to try whether they know how to do it or not.

We've been doing a lot of reading practicing in the mornings, and there is no other activity that makes me see how much they've grown as much as that does. Andrea and Briseida both read an entire story to me, sounding out letters and blending them together to form words. Call me a nerd, but I think it is so exciting to watch a child learn how to read. Reading just opens up this whole new world that they will have access to for the rest of their lives.

There was a lot of imagination going on this week too...leprechauns "tickling legs" and "crawling under tables," but obviously, no one can see them. They don't like to be seen by people, right? Haha, what a great holiday for stimulating story-telling.