deck the halls

I like my room to look festive for the holidays – and this year – for the first time – we have a Christmas Tree!  I finally bought one and I took it in and we all helped decorate it the Monday after Thanksgiving!  The children were super excited!  I’d never had a tree before because I didn’t have space for one near one of our two outlets (and we are not allowed to use extension cords).  However, I rearranged my room over the summer and I finally had a small table where I could place a 3 foot tree!  🙂  I really love how the tree makes the room feel more homey and brings in a little extra color and sparkle!

I have also hung silver, glass bulbs from the ceiling. To do this I tied a length of string string to a tack and tacked in into the ceiling.  The other end of the string is tied to a paper clip and I used an ornament hook to hang the bulb from the paper clip!  They look lovely hanging around the room – they reflect the light and act kinda like tiny mirrors – some of the children have noticed if they stand under one that’s hung lower they can see their reflection!  I love the looks on thier faces when they discover this fact!  🙂  We also have the children’s art hanging all around the room (stockings, Christmas trees, candy canes, etc).

The only problem I have at the moment is we don’t have a gift for our parents!  I totally let that get away from me this year and now we will only have a week to make, wrap, and send home 20 gifts and I have no idea what we are going to do!  So, as you can well imagine, I’m a bit stressed right now!  Any ideas would be helpful and much appreciated!  Thanks!

we’re getting there

Today was a significantly better day!  We had a total of 16 kids – our high so far this week!  They seem to be getting our rules and routines down – I hope tomorrow goes even better!  It was a relief that today didn’t go like yesterday did – we are taking steps in the right direction!  I kinda like that all the kids didn’t show up on the first day of school – that way as more and more children start coming there are already some who know the rules and routines.

All of the children have now completed their first day drawings and they are being proudly displayed on our walls!  It’s interesting too see all the different drawing abilities the children have!  Some can draw people, houses, and flowers while all others can do is randomly scribble on the paper!  But I still love to see their drawings up on the wall and they do too – it helps make the room more personal for the children.

It’s interesting to see all the different approaches the teachers took to getting their rooms ready.  Most of the other teachers put up bulletin boards with posters and other art work on them.  Others decorated their room to fit a specific theme.  I like to just clean off and prep my bulletin boards with new paper and boarders (if needed) and then leave them blank.  Ready for this children’s creations.  My room looks really bare that way – but within and week or two their art is up all over!

The first month of school I do an ocean theme.  Yesterday and today the children painted seahorses.  They used florescent pink, yellow, green, and blue paint and used crumpled newspaper as their paintbrush.  I had them make the newspaper “jump up and down like a rabbit” and the texture this creates with the paint really looks neat!  We’ve also read “Mister Seahorse” by Eric Carle – and our seahorses look very similar to his!  The children were excited about this!  I really like doing this theme and so far the children seem to be enjoying it as well!  Tomorrow we will start making jellyfish!

getting closer

2 more days. I didn’t accomplish as much as I hoped I would today – but I made some more progress.  Each classroom is given two storage cupboards and I managed to clean out and organize 1 of them today.  Well – almost.  I have to finish the top shelf tomorrow.  Then move onto the next one!  I have WAY to much stuff and not enough space!  So, I’m trying to get rid of things that I don’t use or things I only use sparingly.  It’s crunch time – and hard decisions must be made!

Ms. Bennet has been a big help!  She’s made multiple sets of names to be used in various ways around the room, helped organize the cubbies for our new group, helped me with some cleaning, and taken everything off the walls and prepped the bulletin boards for the first day of school.  She has also taken the children and kept them busy so I can have time to get things done.  I couldn’t do it without her!

I think it’s finally hitting home with the children that they only have 2 days left with us.  I’ve heard comments the last few days like, “I wish I could stay in your class forever!” and “I don’t want to go to a new school!”  I’ve also been getting a ton of hugs (much more than usual) and many of the children have been very clingy!  I love this class and it’s soooo hard to let them go – but I know they will do great!  I keep reassuring them and being positive…but I know they must be nervous about what lies ahead.