I went into work today with my head still foggy from a four day weekend. Today was Ms. H's day off and she only briefly filled me in on today's plan which I read via online message at the crack of dawn this morning. Due to staffing complications (a now daily occurrence) the day started out a bit scrambled for everyone. My memory is terrible and our internet is the same, I decided to pull rabbits out of my hat. Since we've kept the same books in our library from our camping unit (books about camping and forest animals) I decided to pick out a book we haven't read at circle time to create some kind of theme for the rest of the day.
Book: The Kissing Hand. I read that book and after two or three pages I would stop and we'd copy the page or talk about the animals we saw in the pictures. At the end of the book we practiced making kissing hands for ourselves. I was fairly surprised at how well my Sharks were sitting, listening, and actively participating in circle. We really only had one friend who couldn't quiet follow along and it was his second day of transition into preschool! Glad they brought their listening ears to school...even if it only lasted for circle time.
I LOVE CLAY: I couldn't for the life of me think of a related after circle activity, but I want to see how my non-verbal/extra physical Shark would experiment with clay. So I had that on the art table and other centers open. I had taken classes about art for young children and a training or two related to SPED techniques and never doubted when I was told natural clay can do wonders for non verbal children. I was so happy to be able to watch this Shark quietly tear apart small pieces of clay, poke it with forks and knives, push his hands into it. He sat and sat and sat! This particular Shark is ALWAYS on the go, ALWAYS touching his friends, ALWAYS busy. Today he said the entire time centers were open after circle until clean up time at the art table. Now I know what to try when he gets handsy during the day. Hopefully tomorrow I can remember to set aside a small amount of clay just for him.
Next week: Our unit for next week is photography. I was able to get a little bit of planning in today for it, but it's never enough! I was thinking of asking to get a disposable camera for each child in my class, but at $5 a pop, that's never going to happen. Maybe I can ask to get 5 and share them. I did try on my thinking cap and thought that maybe we could create our own pretend cameras with tissue boxes and toilet paper rolls... still working that one out though. I do have a few other ideas for activities, but not nearly enough to fill up a curriculum sheet.
Positive: Good thing about this next unit is that it's the last unit of our summer program which in turn means teachers finally get to have 100% control over themes/units!
A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. -John Lennon
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