"Ugh, that was worse than Thanksgiving break!"

It almost doesn't seem fair that I get to A. spend my day with these kiddos and B. get the joys of witness all of the hilarity that ensues in Room F! I was greeted at my door this morning not by usual greetings, but by at least 3 children talking about their holiday break...at the same time. At one time I counted 7 kiddos all tugging on my clothes and talking away. It was exciting to hear about how each of our kiddos spent their time away from school. When a kiddo said the above comment and I asked him why, he said "Well it was like 10 times longer!"

I was suprised at how seamlessly we transitioned back into school life. We took very little time today re-teaching our routines- moving in our classroom, lining up, getting and putting away tools, sitting on our carpet, Read Well logistics. The kiddos were very proud that they remembered these details and this pride made for a successful day! We did struggle to get our brains in gear though...myself included. I asked the kiddos this question during math: "Start at 14 and count up 7. What number do you land on?" As a disclaimer, this is the exact type of problem we have been working on all year and I know for a fact that we can all do it. Instead, I gazed upon 15 faces that looked at me as if I was speaking a different language. One kiddo even sighed and said discouragingly, "Man, this is haaaaard."Have no fear however, after a few problems we started to remember how to do this.

We continued to study different types of families today by reading the book Pink by Nan Gregory. In this story, the main character wants a pink doll more than anything. Her family can't afford it so she starts working and saving only to find out that someone else from her school bought it. This is a powerful lesson for our kiddos in how sometimes we don't always get what we want and it's ok. It was interesting to hear the stories of the kiddos and of the things they wanted. We will continue our discussion tomorrow about how we can cope with disappointments like this and how we can support each other.

Books We Read Today:

Pink by Nan Gregory

Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long and David Shannon (In honor of our poem this week that teaches us that a and r say "Ar!")

The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers by Lisa Ernst
THANK YOU TO MARCIA AND JOHN O'DUGGAN FOR THIS GREAT BOOK! WE LAUGHED ALL THE WAY THROUGH IT!



Interesting Tidbits From Our Day

"Ms. Carlberg, santa was creeping in my house! Can you believe it!? I didn't even hear him creeping around!"

[After making a joke which I'm sure wasn't as funny as I played it off to be I stated, "I have some sillies in my brain today.] *Putting his hand on his hip, "Umm, you have sillies in your brain EVERYDAY not just today!"


"It's time to go home already! What is it with all of this leaving?!"