"Ms. Carlberg, will you teach us how to tap dance?" (Friday, 9.16)

We have some tired kiddos at the end of week number 2! I am so proud of all of the hard work they have done this week. It takes a lot of concentration, self-control, and energy to be at school for 7 hours a day after a long summer. We started our day learning about the Read Well small groups that will start on Monday. Through this lesson we also learned about the 3 B's of Interrupting: Do not interrupt a small group unless you are: 1. Bleeding, 2. Broken or 3. Barfing. The concept of barfing (pardon the crude terminology but it just wouldn't be the same without it.) was the catalyst for first, giggling and then flat out laughing. It was fun to wiggle and giggle as we learned. It gave such a new meaning to that lesson. We discussed how the kiddos can get their question answered should they have a question during small group time, but that was far less interesting as it didn't include any ridiculous words.

We also continued to learn about bullying today, which led to great discussions that warmed my heart. Yesterday we talked about the different kinds of bullying (bullying with your words, with your body, or by damaging other's things). Today we worked together to identify bullying behavior. The things that our kiddos came up with were fascinating and so true! I really wanted to emphasize that bullying is a choice, not a characteristic and I think the kiddos really understood that. ("Ms. Carlberg, sometimes people do bad things, but they won't be that bad their whole life.") Having this understanding is an important foundation for upcoming lessons about how to stand up to bullying. I'm excited to do some role playing with these kiddos because I think they will really take heart to it.

My favorite activity of today stemmed from our bully lesson. We read the book, Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon which is a book about a girl who loves herself even though others make fun of her. We all shared one thing we love about ourselves and then drew pictures. Listening to these kiddos was incredible and inspiring. Here's some of the answers:
  ~ My favorite thing about myself is my family.
  ~ My favorite thing about myself is that I am sassy.
  ~ My favorite thing about myself is that I'm a good dancer.
  ~ My favorite thing about myself is that I'm good at everything. :)
  ~ My favorite thing about myself is that I play Game Cube. :)
We will continue to do activities about ourselves throughout the year, but it's exciting to see that these kiddos have things that they already love about themselves. As I was introducing this lesson, I gave the example that I love that I'm a good tap dancer. Oh boy, did this open a can of worms! I explained it, I demonstrated it, I drew a picture of myself which was quite interesting, and by the end of the discussion I put a tap lesson into our lesson plans next week. This will be a great lesson on listening and self-control...


Books We Read Today
I Am the Biggest Thing in the Ocean - Kevin Sherry
The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog - Mo Willems (can you tell he's one of my favorite authors. Read any of his books and he'll be yours too!)
Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon - Patty Lovell

Interesting Tidbits From Our Day


After telling a kiddo "I'm not your friend!" a boy burst out into tears... "I am so sorry I said that! I didn't mean it!" How sweet!

(After telling about my dogs and how one of them passed away last fall) "Don't worry Ms. Carlberg, you will always be able to think about him. Maybe he can be in your quiet place!" (He was listening during that lesson!)

"I'm wearing DC shoes and my dad has DC shoes. And you know what else? My dad's favorite meat is steak and you know what mine is?" Me: "Steak!" "No, chicken but it's meat still you know."