S is for Spider
It is great to be back at school today . I am MORE EXHAUSTED after sitting and listening to speakers for three days than I am when I work all day. I did learn a lot while there and was inspired to be a better teacher and in some ways.. a better person. We listened to lady speak on poverty . She knew exactly how to tug at your heart strings. She was born into an impoverished family and got married at 17 and began having babies. It was a cycle that generations of her family sunk into. Then one of her little girls went to Headstart. The Headstart teacher believed in her and encouraged her to get into an education program. Long story short today she has her doctorate and gets paid lots of money to travel and talk about poverty and it’s affects on children . I hope all of you know that I believe in you and the dreams that you have . If your dream is to be a stay at home mom then I want to help you be the best mommy you can be. If your dream is to be a teacher ( and 4 of you are dabbling or committing to that ) then I want to help you achieve that too ! We all have dreams .
All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney
We also went to classes on outdoor classrooms, autism, managing stress, using pinterest in the classroom, and so many more . It was a good learning weekend. The highlight of course was hearing Randy’s song he wrote played over and over during the general session and him being recognized for that.
Ok ! On to our day !
We used spiders to count ! As we played the spider game we were reminded that spider starts with S – like the sound a snake makes SSSSSS……
We read ” Spookly the Square Pumpkin” and made our own square pumpkins. In the end of the book that farmer has a pumpkin patch filled with pumpkins of all shapes, colors and sizes. What a beautiful garden that would make.
Mr Randy told us stories ! The kids LOVE to hear Randy tell stories.
We played in our new sensory tub filled with split green peas and halloween items like sticky skeletons and plastic mice.
In each child’s cubby ( Alex and Lilly are sharing one – one per home ) is an orange bag. Please help your child find something orange that will fit in it and return it to school tomorrow.
This is the fingerplay we are working on this week if you want to share with your child !
We ate more yummy healthy food. MOST of the kids loved the pumpkin bread and the tortilla wrap today. The tortilla wrap had strawberry cream cheese, strawberries, lettuce and crumbled bacon in it. YUMM-O ! 
We also had several new toys out on the tables today including halloween themed playdoh cutters and write on wipe off games.
Another workshop I went to was called ” Powerful Interactions.” Do we talk TO the kids all day or at them ? What a challenge to be aware of how we communicate with our kids. I was proud to be able to catch this powerful interaction between Dallas and Junior. He was missing his mommy and he and Dallas were discussing what they could do to make him feel better. Can you tell she is really listening? Love her…
Alina was counting her spiders today and her mats had 4 and 3 on them. So, on one spider web she was to put 4 and on the other web 3 spiders. I heard her say 7 and I thought that was interesting that she had added the two together. Addition is well beyond preschool expectations. I said she me how you did that. She used touch math to add the 3 and the 7. Here is a short video that explains touch points.
