Our first week together ended well. We made our jellyfish out of while construction paper and silver glitter. Monday I will attach the curling ribbon tentacles and hang them from the ceiling. It will be too cute! I’ve found that this group of children has a problem using their inside voices! Don’t get me wrong, I know pre-k children can be loud – but these children literally yell when they talk! It’s just too much for me! So I’m trying to figure out a way to work on this. Talking to them and modeling what kind of voice we should use just isn’t working! Suggestions would be appreciated!
I’m not very optimistic about all my parents either. For example, one little girls mom went up to another teacher and asked her if she was her daughters new teacher. The teacher said no, pointed us out, and we introduced ourselves. The problem you ask? The teacher she asked had been her daughters teacher all last year! Obviously, she is not a very involved mother. *Sigh* Why don’t more parents care?!
On another note, I found two big books at the local thrift store! They are not in total perfect condition (some wear to the covers) – but for $2.50 – I couldn’t pass it up! I’ve gotten my entire collection of big books at thrift stores or garage sales and have never paid more than $3.50 for a book! You can’t beat that especially since I’ve seen them sell new for upwards of $20! I just love bargains! 🙂
Teaching to Dream 
i dont’ know why parents don’t care…we are with thier kids sometimes more than they are…aren’t they worried if we are actually teaching them or sitting them in front of a tv? One of my goals this year is to get my parents involved…i have started a website…sending out more info…i am gonna try!!
when my kids in my room got to loud..i took them outside (we have the wonderful ability of having a door in our room) and sat them down and told them that we scream outside..not in a building….and we screamed…we screamed and we screamed…until we got all of them out!! then we tried again….
if they continued…i reminded..then if they continued i had them sit down and talk to me and practice thier quiet voice …
I have a loud voice, so, I have to really be mindful of modeling my inside voice for the children to follow. Something I read on another teacher’s website and introduced to my own children this summer. We measured our voices. I have a plastic ruler. I asked for a friend to help me. I then used my whisper voice and my friend helped me ‘measure’ how close she had to be to me to hear. We then measured our bubble, inside voice and outside voice. The children were very interested and we will make a poster w/ different friends holding the ruler w/ a arrow pointed to our correct length for each voice. It was amazing to find how well this worked while they were in centers. I could put the ruler next to my face and say “I wonder if I should be hearing anyone right now”…they knew. I love this idea and will use it this next school year. ~Tonya