Week 2 school updates

Maybe I'm posting a little too frequently but I know myself and that if I don't do it now I won't remember to write it down later.

Jocelyn entered the van this afternoon, sniffed around and declared, "I smell pizza!" I guess it was pretty potent pizza from yesterday. No batgirl or batman today though. She really likes doing her pin punching work at school. She finally started doing her water work, which from what I gather, involves a bowl containing water. The kids are supposed to put a dry sponge to soak up the water and the wring it out into the bowl.

Yesterday, Kayla clung onto George for dear life at drop off. The school staff is quite prepared to handle these situations; Kayla's PE teacher is stationed in the lobby for this very reason. Upon observing that George needed help, the teacher offered to walk Kayla to her classroom. Kayla was crying. The teacher, with all the best intentions I'm sure, said to George, "Just a word of advice for next time, keeping the goodbyes short and sweet makes saying goodbye easier on the little ones." George was just like, gee, you think? Fortunately today's drop off was much smoother. Kayla walked to class by herself and didn't turn around once to look back. Even the PE teacher noticed and made a comment like "What a difference in just one day!" Halfway down the hall, a little blond girl took notice of Kayla, tapped her on the shoulder and waved excitedly at her, and they walked the rest of the way together.

Kayla's school uses the Responsive Classroom approach to discipline. Ok, discipline is not the right word because RC is so much more than that. It's a philosophy towards building a safe environment and classroom culture for all students. I'm partial towards RC bc I used it in my own practicum in college and used some components (like morning message and morning meeting) when I taught 3rd and 4th grades. In kindergarten they practice a lot of morning greetings as a way for kids to learn each other's names. They go around and greet their neighbors twice. Apparently Kayla is too shy to do the greeting the first go around. She joins in the second time though.

Remember having classroom jobs that would rotate weekly? Kayla's job this week is the line leader. Her teacher said last night that Kayla is a GREAT line leader and that she takes it VERY SERIOUSLY. She even did an impression which made George and I laugh because we could totally picture Kayla leading the line that way. Last night I asked Kayla about her job and she got really serious and said, "I walk very quietly without talking to show the other kids how to walk quietly too. Because I'm the leader and I have to set a good example." I asked if her teacher had told her to do that, and Kayla replied, "No, I already know because I was a line leader to go to the bathroom at preschool." There we go again with her constantly referencing preschool.)

This evening we asked Kayla to demonstrate how she leads the line and it was exactly as her teacher had done. She put her arms straight down, by her side, and even made a bubble with her cheeks (this is a very commonplace practice among primary grade teachers to help kids to not talk in the hallways). It was hilarious watching Kayla do this and I almost want to ask the teacher if she can record this happening at school for us. Hahaha. I may have to settle with recording Kayla demonstrating at home.