I worked in two classrooms today. In the morning I was assigned to a room where I was filling in for the lead teacher, and the para had no idea the lead teacher would be out. It was a great time. We had a day of "winging it" where we read stories, had the kids play with puzzles and blocks, and enjoyed a nice snack break. It was amazing to watch the various specialists come in and work with the kids on expressing emotions, stretching exercises, sharing news from the weekend, all the fun stuff that makes preschoolers love school.
In the afternoon, I helped a class have lunch, clean up, have their rest period and then we worked on the letter B. B is for boots! The kids all practiced making the letter B, and then they had the chance to draw whatever they could think of that began with the letter B. Babies and butterflies and balloons and beds and blue/black/brown and birds and bananas and on and on and on. We talked about going to the Beach to have Burgers and Brownies. Brett was especially proud that his name starts with B. Such a fun day.
We topped it off with a story called "I'm Not Ready" about a little owl's first day at preschool. Well, if I've learned anything teaching, it's that pacing is everything! The kids cleaned up from the B exercise to quickly, that I knew we needed to stretch out the story. I've also learned that phrases like "raise a silent hand" are most helpful if I don't want to leave with a headache. So after each page, we asked a question about the kids and related it to the story. "Who's mom tells them to hurry up?" "Who gets really excited when their friends come over to play?" "Who, like Baby Owl, is ready to go home from preschool?" The kids ate it up!
I would teach preschool full-time if not for one small (huge) thing... the boogers. I can't stand the boogers!
Tomorrow is another day. Who know what job will come up, if any job will. I feel so lucky to have had today with the preschoolers. Teaching is supposed to be fun. Learning is supposed to be fun! I'll be thinking about this while I apply to jobs for next year, and especially as I interview for them.