Hugging Miss G

Every day we have a word of the day, and during our morning meeting I record it on our word wall. Afterwards, I ask the kids to give a few examples of sentences using the word. In the last month or so, every single time Josh gives an example, it somehow revolves around "hugging Miss G." For instance, if the word was "they" Josh would say, "They went over to hug Miss G." Or if the word was "where," he'd say, "Where can we go to hug Miss G?" Today he even said something about hoping I would come to his house and give him a hug.

The really funny this is that he rarely ever hugs me. 

Testing Day

Today I administered two different reading tests for twenty minute blocks of time to twenty-one students. Needless to say, I am exhausted.

My co-worker told me that first graders make a huge jump after winter break in their reading abilities. And while I haven't seen this with everyone, some of these kids have made tremendous growth - to the point where I actually don't understand how it happened. In terms of actually getting to see learning and change, first grade is the most rewarding. Though I also often doubt how much or little I have to do with it...

Kids Say the Weirdest Things... Part 2

Jake and I were having a conversation about how his four year old sister is sarcastic when he said this: 

"When I was a baby I was sarcastic. I was laying on the floor with no diaper on, crying, and then I finally fell asleep."

End of story.

Kids Say the Weirdest Things... Part 1

The following conversation took place, out of the blue, at reading group: 

Kendal: What about my destiny?

Me: What about it? What is your destiny?

Kendal: It's where I mess around! 

Thinking Hats

We had a fundraiser today where the kids could pay a dollar to wear hats during the school day, and the money goes to helping out one of our paras who broke her ankle and doesn't have health insurance (ouch!). Nathan, who was wearing a baseball cap with a shark on it, put both hands on top of his head and said, "I'm frustrated because this covers my thinking." "Well... what if you wear it backwards?" I suggested. He replied, "No. The only thing that helps is if I push it [his thinking] out my mouth." 

States

Today I gave my kids their own personal mini dictionary (as in about 20 words per letter of the alphabet) so that they could have a place to record and look up their sight words. In the book, there is an "about me" section. Abbie came up to ask me what it said where it was printed: "My state or province." I read it and then said that we live in states, not provinces, and then asked her what state we live in. She gave me a blank stare for a moment, and then guessed, "... the American flag?"

Post Break

I had an absolutely wonderful break! I spent the first week and a half of it just hanging out with family and friends, playing and resting. Then for the last 4 days, I went to Florida to play at Disney World and Harry Potter World for 4 days with two of my best besties. It was a very magical and delightful vacation! 

I'm still recovering from it, though, because I flew home really late Sunday night and then went back to work Monday morning. Yipes! Luckily, we didn't have kids again until today, so I had a couple of days to readjust and make plans. 

My kids were a dream today! I think it was partially because I'm implementing a few new positive behavior systems, and they always buy into those things big time right off the bat. I've also heard that first graders come back from Winter Break making huge growth, so I hope that's true with my group.

Either way, I genuinely missed them and am so happy to get to spend all day with these crazy little bugs again. What a turn around my attitude towards first grade has made in the past couple of months! I can say that I am genuinely so happy with my job now.