Teachable Moments

It's now December.

Woah.

Last week flew by.  We finally had a normal week with no interruptions besides a Highway Patrol presentation on Friday.  Here is a quote that explains a lot about last week:

--This was after I had to tell the kids that I apparently had apes in my classroom instead of kindergarten students...

Student:  "Miss Abby, I know why those kids are being bad."
Me:  "Why?"
Student:  "Because they are sinners.  We are all sinners."
Apparently that's what I get for being in a Catholic school and for this student's dad being a Baptist pastor :)

My kids are hilarious.  This week I did some really random activities that turned into some awesome learning situations.  It started because I found a big bin of stuffed animals in the back room.  We used them to find lines of symmetry.  We also used these to work on our sight words by doing aerobics with the animals as we spelled out each word.  We used them to talk about finding equal shares today and sort them into matching piles.  I had no idea that you could use stuffed animals for so much. 

I love getting turning certain times into quality one on one time with the kids.  Some days we have a rest time during the afternoon.  During this half an hour span, I like to pull kids to help me do little tasks.  I usually pull out kids that are having a rough day.  Other days I pull out the kids that tend to get lost in the middle.  We stuff folders, put papers in binders, or move desks around the room.  It's fun to learn about each child even if we don't talk.  I pulled out one of my kid's, Emileigh, on Friday during rest time.  I had to put a progress reading check up in binders.  I would write the result on the check in list and then Emileigh would put them in the binder.  It was really funny because we got almost all the way through without talking and then all the sudden she let out a huge sigh.  After she sighed, Emileigh just gave me one of those, "why are you making me do this" kind of looks and finished her job.  We didn't talk at all.  I know it sounds weird but I love those kind of moments with my kids.