Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today...we learned how to play jacks! Another reminder of how young they really are. The hand-to-eye coordination was just not there, haha. But it was so cute! And they would be so proud of themselves for catching the ball, no matter how awkwardly caught it was.
Before I even let them touch the jacks, they had to practice bouncing the ball once and catching it; a challenging task in itself for many who just could not seem to catch anything that was smaller than your average kickball. Then we started with one big plastic jack; making modifications to the process for the kids who struggled more than others. But it was never really the jack part that was the problem, it was all about trying to catch that tiny ball! After they practiced with plastic jacks, they got to start with metal ones, and as they mastered picking up one jack, they got to try doing two, then three, then four. No one really made it past 3 or 4. But every time they did something new (even if it was just catching that tricky ball), it would be echoed by "Miss Downing! I did it! Miss Downing! Watch me!"
Thankfully, we played this outside otherwise we would have been a total disturbance to all of the other centers. We had a sub for center time, while Mrs. Brasler was observing student teachers in other classes. She was nice and great with the kids; but I definitely saw how hard it can be to come into a classroom where you aren't familiar with the kids or the routine.
Our new motivation for ideal classroom behavior is, "I don't think that's how a first grader would act..." Man, does that sentence carry power! But...I can't believe they are so close to be first graders! It seems like they just walked into Room 3 as scared little five-year-olds not that long ago. Time flies.
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