Back to school, again and again and again! (And loving every moment!)

My very OWN kindergartner!

Kindergarten Round Up

   Welcome Class of 2027! 

Wow! It is time to welcome a new group of young learners to kindergarten.  Why we, "Round them UP" I am not sure, but just at the winter turns to spring, it happens every year; Kindergarten Round Up.

This year I have special connections to the incoming class.
I gave birth of the little braided one on the left.
 I visited the handsome young man on the right in the hospital shortly after he entered the world.  The son of a good friend, and the brother of two of my kindergarten alumni.

She struggled to nurse and was extremely fussy.
He was tiny and under blue lights to help with his jaundice.

Look at them now!

Healthy, happy, hilarious and ready to go!

Plus, they can't wait to eat the cookies served at the end of the night.

Current Kindergartners love the idea that they will  be first graders when this new class of young ones fills their classrooms.

Each year the number get bigger and seemingly farther out.

Truth be told, I feel a little older just looking at them.

However, the possibility of what, whom and how we will all be in a year named 2027, is inspiring to me.

A  photo opportunity and a welcome to our community.
We can't wait to meet you class of 2027!

Magically, Musically, Connected: Go See Peter and the Star Catcher, please!

Last night, was a unexpected school night out. I landed tickets to Peter and the Star Catcher, and took my almost ten-year-old daughter with me. 

I had no expectations.  Frankly, I just wanted to be entertained and have an evening where nothing was expected of me.  Selfish?  A little, maybe. 

Act I was a romp on two different pirate ships. A dark tone with awesome use of lighting to build the feel of being held captive.  The ensemble of 11  (10 men, 1 woman) was never still, moving flawlessly between characters. They used thick rope bent in different shapes to convey small spaces, movement of water, a boxing ring. Clearly a show you could see again and again and never catch it all.

Act I introduces us to a no-named 13 teen-year-old boy, with budding leadership skills. He meets a girl named Molly, similarly inclined but bossy and together they try to keep a trunk of precious "star stuff" away from some slimy pirates.

Act II finds the cast now on an island where wild things are happening. The colors are vivid and bold.  The movements are tamed and focused. Some are inevitably beginning to grow-up, while others choose not to. 

http://minneapolis.broadway.com

http://minneapolis.broadway.com

http://minneapolis.broadway.com

The feelings conveyed draw you in to a time way, way back when tucked snugly in your own childhood bed listening to a bedtime story.  Light airy, heavy if you wanted it to be. Think about it or don't.  Simply beautiful.

At intermission while avoiding bathroom lines (Do that many people really have to pee?), I happened to open the PlayBill and casually read the cast names.  Four lines down one was very familiar to me.  I knew he was an actor, but hadn't seen him in years.  He was my leading man in Guys and Dolls, and it was the first leading role for both of us growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Could it be the same Nathan Hosner?  The Who's Who,  led me to believe that yes, this was him.  From the balcony in the first glimpse of ACT II I confirmed with I giddiness, that yes this was him!  

What a magical thing to have our paths cross again all these years later just by chance, and even in the theater.

Mr. Hosner meets my daughter

Nathan, as he goes by now was Nate when we were kids is a classically trained actor who graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  Even with the bushy beard, I knew right away.  He was tremendous in his many roles in the show accent and all!  Marvelous really, twenty years later still so many of the same nuances as when we were in 10th and 11th grade, but now a true professional.

Following the performance, there was a post show dialogue with the cast. About a 100 or so gathered down in the first rows.  As four of the cast members introduced themselves and rattled off their hometowns, I couldn't help but call out a cheer to Kalamazoo,  and shout out my name in the process as Nate took his turn.  My daughter was mortified!  He hopped down  and we visited, took a few photos,  talked about the fabulous show. I told him of my continued connections with music and the arts, now as the teacher.

It hit me, sitting surrounded by high school drama clubs with their chaperone's waiting in the aisles, just how important it is to follow our own artistic journey.  

Here they were, with bated breath waiting to hear my childhood pal tell them what to do if they too, wanted to be an actor. 

I was there when he was one of them. And you thought just the show was magical?

Congratulations, Nathan!  You'll always be Nate, to me.

The light bulb moment of reading!

It happened!  She turned five in early November, and has been bemoaning that she is not a reader for at least three years.  Yes, that is pretty much since she was speaking in complete sentences.  I suppose that is what happens when you have a big sister and you want to do everything she can do.



Suddenly, in the process of working on this early childhood music CD with my friend Dave, it all has come together.  She can read!

I wrote a song inspired by her, "I can't read!" complaints.  It is called, I Wanna' Read. It is the ode to the small child surrounded by print, in book, signs, cereal and needing to know right now what they all say. 

The song goes on to teach the concept of sound blends to help children feel successful applying their knowledge of sounds to blending together similar words.  We would call these CVC words, consonant, vowel, consonant words.  Of course, we don't live in a CVC only world, but all in time.  

Even though I  experienced these magic moments with my oldest daughter, and then in my classroom many times over the past 14 years, something about the timing of this young reader gets me at the core.  

The world is opening up to her, and not just books, signs and cereal.  Putting it all together and connecting to life in print is such a milestone. 

What a lucky little girl, and what a lucky mom I am, to get to watch it all unfold.

Congratulations, my littlest one!  You are a reader now!

Getting Ready for the BIG day

Mailboxes ready and waiting to be filled with Kindergarten valentine cards.

These cans were not destined for the recycling.

One of my favorite days of the school year is February 14th. I teach in a school where many of the students have never received a valentine and have little knowledge of the concept.  Thus,   weeks of talking about friendship, kindness, cooperation; singing about it, writing about it lead up to the BIG day of passing out cards. The excitement is palpable.

Let's just say today in my classroom, that excitement. . . wow.  Is that what I experienced today? Sigh. It was tough.  We've all had those days when no matter what, the children in our lives just take things a different directions. Not my best day in the classroom, but I am ready to regroup and head back to celebrate with them tomorrow.

For several years I have been rescuing large tin cans from our school cafeteria recycling.  I use them for lots of things; drums, teaching about cylinders, as a base for paper maché projects, containers for sorting, storage of art and other supplies.

As I climb in our recycling bin, our head custodian has moved beyond asking me, "Why?"  Now he generally favors, " You're up to something again, aren't you?" I smile and invite him down to the room to see the transformation from can of peaches to said creation.  

Most recently the cans  became valentine mailboxes.  

Our school uses a special can opener that leaves no sharp edges. The kids rinsed and washed them out (though they were already quite clean), then dried them off.

They were given a large piece of paper with a heart glued in the middle.  They were to build around it  then I would tape it onto the can and then cut out the middle of the heart.

Students worked in small groups

Some kids laid out their work,
while others charged a head with an internal plan guided purely by the amount of glue they used.

 

This is after we cleaned up.

Fruit cocktail, anyone?

Some have taken on a happy clown like appearance.
 Others look a little like  they might bite.
 I suppose half the fun will be delivering the valentine cards past the friendly fangs!

They can easily be carried home in a backpack or in the proud arms of a student who will no doubt, spend the rest of the weekend admiring the contents!

Tomorrow is sure to be a memorable day for all! I can't wait!

Introducing. . .The Reader Eater

Wood Cookie no more. . . Meet, The Reader Eater!

This fall, a  colleague gave my classroom this awesome, "wood cookie"  when he spoke to the entire kindergarten during a unit of study about materials.  It has been sitting in my classroom since then.  

Kids have sanded it with sandpaper,  attempted to count the rings, (with varying final totals,) picked at the bark a bit and used it a base for various crayon rubbings.  

I knew there was more lying in wait, I had yet to figure it out.

A deliciously literate snack

Before he met his destiny, just a regular "wood cookie"

Recently, as I caught it in my glance for the 217 time, I saw it with eyes, a nose, and an eagerly waiting mouth, open for a snack. 

But, what would my students feed it?  

Garbage, recycled paper, stray mittens?  Nope, sight words of course.  

They could feed The Reader Eater, sight words on a spoon, but only the words they could successfully.

They'd have to practice reading until they could  fluently read all of the words.  Once they had mastered the 50 they need to know by the end of the year they could hunt for words in magazines. They could bring in different environmental print from home or around the school.

 In Minnesota sports words like hockey and baseball are big, Go Twins! 

How about color words, numbers, Spanish words, feelings?  

Please, someone stop me. 

Poor Reader Eater, is going to get sick!

Sure enough, it is a hit! Kids are bringing in all kinds of words for the Reader Eater, to snack on. They are having so much feeding him with their successes that I am certain they don't even realize how much they are learning. Oh, yeah! 

Good Old Fashioned Cut and Paste

My all time favorite valentine candy has to be conversation hearts. 

 Not the chalky ones that have been sitting in the box all year and leave a film on the roof of your mouth.  The softer style with a little edge of creaminess and a note of postage stamp flavoring; preferably the larger sized hearts. Yum, I really do enjoy them and buy them on clearance after February 14th to do "projects" with. 

By that I mean, envisioning hot gluing them to a cute picture frame or shellacking them on top of some little treasure box. In actuality, consuming them  all in 

mass, one night and living to regret it. 

Inspired by the vocabulary on my favorite candy, I set out with my 24 students to make our own set of conversations hearts. First we brain stormed a list of kindness words. I wrote them on chart paper for later reference. Then we practiced folding the paper in half, finding the spine side and making the top part of a two on the paper.  

After a good handful cut the wrong side and ended up with two pieces looking nothing like a heart, the majority started to catch on.  Better yet, those that were struggling were helped by their classmates. 

Hooray… kindness in action!  

I love it when I see that happen naturally.

 Then, I let them loose on a stack of magazines. Despite the fact that only two kids got very distracted by an old copy of National Geographic (you know my favorite candy, now here is my favorite magazine), half an hour later, all 24 students had three hearts to share.

Bummer, "K" you almost made it.  Though you do look quite cute!

This hug is like that sideways/backward hug we teacher get from behind and we don't know which student is giving it until we turn around. 

Hey. . . kind of looks like someone found the word friend and just cut it apart.

Clever, albeit only loosely following the directions. 

Very sneaky and smart little kindergartners I have this year!



Grab some paper, and magazines, and whip up an utterly delicious literacy activity.

Inch by Inch, Row by Row

A small farmer preparing the soil

Oh my, the weather has had us house bound for a long time! More polar vortex is in the forecast.  Not that I am complaining, it is beautiful and the people of Minnesota embrace activities in all temperatures. However, the children need time to run and play and get snow in their boots. Even a few snowballs in the face from time to time are essential to childhood.

What to do when we are craving the dirt?Make an early spring in your kitchen window. 


I dragged in an old pot from the garage last night and let it thaw by a heat vent. This morning, the littlest who is always up for a project, pulled some bins from the recycling. We had fun stabbing them with a meat thermometer and then picking the pebbles out of the soil. It was not your ideal soil, it was a combinations of tiny pine cones, grass clippings, birch bark, clay, and well, just a bit of soil.  Wet it, and you get mud.
                 
Scientific question of the day, Will basil grown in mud? Hope so!

Inspecting the soil/mud and making sure there is adequate drainage

"Mom, the seeds actually smell like basil!"

Tomorrow morning, I have 24 empty milk cartons waiting for me in the classroom and 24 applesauce cups.  Wheat grass will go in the milk cartons and we'll try basil in the applesauce cups.  The wheat grass grows quick, it is edible, (I actually love it, once you get past the initial taste of someone mowing a lawn in your mouth) kids can trim it with scissors and it will rebound.  Once each child has their crop in full swing I might even offer that they take off shoes and let them have a little moment with their feet on the grass. A little unorthodox teaching, I know. Maybe I won't invite the superintendent in that day. Certainly, memorable as classroom experiences go.

Suddenly afraid that there might actually be a worm somewhere in there.

Planting the crop.

Mashing down the mud with a fork

Proudly awaiting the harvest

Kids love the to watch things grow. We, their parents and teachers love to watch the kids grow. The creativity that comes from helping a child plant a "seed" any kind of seed, literacy, music, mathematical, artistic or scientific is a gift whose wealth cannot be measured.  What seed will you plant today?

Wishing you joyful planting and memorable growing season!

Rocking it Old School Kindergarten Style

My favorite assortment of instruments, that are quite likely older than me---

Okay, sometimes kids just need to bang things. Call it a primal need, but well, it is real.  Today was one of those days in my classroom.

Too cold to go outside to play.  Checked the phase of the moon, not full. Clearly my plan for quiet work with a partner literacy would dissolve into chaos.
My Beethoven slide show on the SMART board with the  serene pictures of wildflowers and mountain tops was not cutting it.  Okay, let's just bang stuff then.

I got out my crustiest half broken watermelon picnic basket and pulled out all my old school instruments. There were tambourines, triangles, maracas, rhythm sticks, assorted bells, weird jingly things that I have assigned names.  We played our alphabet chant.  We chanted our sounds.  We chanted our sight words.  We dinged and clanked along to a new song I have written called, Everyone Matters. 

No one accidentally dinged or clanked a classmate.  Our door was closed securely, so as not to bother any classroom that was not fulfilling their daily primal banging of things during literacy time.  No 40-year-old tambourines were damaged in the process and everyone had a meaningful literacy experience, and an Advil. 

Just kidding. . .maybe.

A Simple Joy We Never Knew to Appreciate as Kids

I took my kindergarteners outside today, after over a week long frigid stretch.  We have had this crazy polar vortex weather, forcing three days of school closing in Minnesota in one week. 

Finally another seven inches of snow arrived this morning, but brought the temp to a balmy 17 degree. That is  flip flop weather in the Land of 10,000 lakes.

My students were a little, well nuts, actually. We really needed  time to explore the snow piles on the edge of the playground.

We headed out and played until most had soggy mittens.  We returned to classroom pink cheeked and I turned on my hot pot, for hot chocolate.  We lined up the wet boots in the hallway and as the students drank their hot chocolate, I sang them some of our classroom standards with my guitar. I am quite certain that not one knew to articulate an appreciation for their teacher deferring their math lesson, to get some much needed fresh air. But, they sure knew it was fun, and so did I. Our math will still be there tomorrow.

Thank you, Pete Seeger, for many musical memories

Pete Seeger, Where have all the flowers gone?

We all have early memories music. 
Music programs at school or church where we were dressed in our very best and forbidden from doing anything messy until we made it though looking presentable. Practicing for piano lessons with that slightly or seriously scary piano teacher, depending on the day. 
Singing at the top of our lungs because it always sounded better in the bathroom with the door shut.

With Pete Seeger's music I am transported back to 1981, lying on my back and combing patterns into the carpeting while listening to my parents record player over and over again. When I heard, Where have all the flowers gone, as a child, even at a young age I knew it was about growing up and changing.  Years later, in my teens when it became one of the first songs I learned to play on my own guitar I listened more heard it as more of a protest song about doing the things we "have to" because it is what society expects. Now in my 30's I hear it much again like I did when I was five,  things move on and life's cycle of things we both can and cannot control, though we may try.  Regardless, it has brought me many years of peace. 

The ideas that were so prevalent in the music Pete Seeger both wrote and played were inspiring for many generations of people and I continue to hear the message of the preciousness of life and how at every turn, we all matter.   Peace to you, and thank you, Mr. Seeger.

Sing your heart out

You can tell just by looking, there is pure joy in this picture. In the moment after is was snapped, the sisters pulled the blanket over their heads and erupted into a scrambling thrashing pile. Then moments later the outdoor concert we were at at the community band shell began and they were sudden statues.  Transfixed by the music on stage and the familiar connection they had to the songs from the Sound of Music, my girls began to belt along. The little one giving it all her gusto not caring what people on picnic blankets next to us were thinking. The older one clearly more carefully censoring herself and performing the music as she'd expect to hear it.  Regardless, both singing their hearts out.

We all have our own connections to music.  Something that brings us back to a certain place or time in our lives.  A certain person, even. I've heard it said that smell is the most powerful sense, but I'd like to believe that sound is a close second.

When we sing, we feel something; sadness, longing for a time or place, love, regret, joy.

There is always singing at our house. 
Singing in the kitchen. Singing in the bedrooms. 
Singing in the bathroom. Singing in the backyard.
Don't forget the car singing. We are loud, deliberate and joyful because music makes us feel, singing makes us remember, singing makes us happy.

Where it all began. . .

My first day of school! I wasn't excited just to use that amazing Snoopy lunch box for the first time. I loved school, and I didn't really even know what it was.  I knew I loved helping both of my parents in their own 1st grade and 5th grade classrooms late in the summer when they were getting ready for the new school year. I knew I loved the idea of sitting in a desk and the smell of boxes of crayons, pencils and erasers in the dark supply room in the office. I knew I loved the idea of learning.  Sure I did, I was a teachers' kid. The kid of two teachers in fact. School was my life at home before my own school life even began. Now, as I step into my own kindergarten classroom each day I cannot imagine a life without school. How lucky I am to be doing exactly what my heart told me, when I was five-years-old!  Now, each day I get to help other five-year-old and six-year olds learn to love school, too.