Pirouettes and Pre-K Plans

Gobble gobble! Are you getting ready for the week before thanksgiving? Need a fun math activity for iPads or interactive white boards?

I finally have a new resource posted in my TPT store!

Practice counting, quantifying, and numeral recognition with this fun learning game!

Download at the link in the comments!!

👋🏼Hi. Hello. It’s been a minute.

I’ll be honest, the reason I haven’t posted in a while is this school year has been hard. And I’ve been tired. And my body just hasn’t had the energy.

However, I wanted to share that I’ll be spending this week at the Conscious Discipline Advanced Institute, where I have been invited to take a deeper dive into my CD practice.

I’m hoping for a refill in my “I can do hard things” cup this week. I’ve always gotten one when I attend Conscious Discipline workshops, and I could really use one right now. ✨

*A friend of mine shared the below post, and it inspired a lot of thoughts from me, a teacher. Here is my response.*

Dear Grown-Ups, from an Early Childhood Teacher

I know the night before the first day of school is a strange place. You go through your normal nightly routine, but this night is anything but normal.

Dinner is done, everyone is bathed, the laundry is done. Or maybe it’s not. Your kids are safe and your kids are loved, and you can always start the washer tomorrow.

When your little one put on those jammies and climbs into bed, their heart is full of wonder, nerves, and excitment. While your mind is filled with pride, uncertainty, and second guessing every choice you’ve made for your child up to this moment.

Listen grown-up, you have done enough. You are enough.

You’ve checked the check list sixteen times to make sure your child has everything they need. Because you know the feeling when you’ve forgotten something important. As your child crawls under the covers, they will ask about their lunch, and their juice, and their snack, and their teddy. And you will reassure them that all these things are exactly where they need to be for tomorrow.

And after they have drifted off to sleep, your brain will be flooded with questions about their life at school. Because whether this is your first baby to go to school, or you’ve done this a time or two before, leaving your little one at school for the first time doesn’t get easier.

I hear you grown up. I see you. I want to help ease your worries.

I am the safe keeper of the classroom. My job is to keep it safe. I will keep your baby safe.

I will stay with your child when they are in the hallway. And if they stray from the group, because young minds are curious and they wanted to know what was behind that corner, I know my coworkers will kindly help them find their way back to our classroom. It takes a village, and we are a school family.

I promise that everything about your child will be celebrated. Because we are all learning how to talk, and produce letter sounds, and how to be a person. When your child tells me their teddy is in their “pack pack,” I will calmly respond with “Go get your teddy out of your backpack.” And my heart will smile the biggest smile, because I love when they say “pack pack” as much as you do.

I have studied my roster, and the countless “all about your child” GoogleForms you have filled out since I first reached out to you. I have intentionally planned my activities and seating arrangement to make sure your child feels connected to our school family from day one.

I will teach them how to open their milk carton and their water bottle. Developing fine motor skills is a priority, and fostering independence is what we do best. When they get frustrated because they need help, I will remind them that they can’t do it YET, but that’s why I’m here. To help them now, and teach them how to do things own later.

And if they fall on the playground and skin their knee, I will hold them close, and remind them that I will keep them safe. I will teach them where the band-aids are for the little scrapes, because independence feels good. And for the big ones, well that means we get to go see the nurse. She is so nice, and she helps me keep them safe. And for the small scrapes that feel like big scrapes? Well, in those moments I will hold your baby, AND teach the class. Because teachers are great multi-taskers. But do you want to know a secret? Sometimes, I don’t have to, because their peers will do that for me. A school family bands together to keep everyone safe. Their friend will give them a hug, and hold their hand until they feel better. Sometimes that’s for a minute, sometimes it’s an hour and a half, but we take care of each other.

I can assure you that your little one will miss you while they are at school. When you walk them to my classroom on the first day, YOU will trace YOUR hand on a piece of construction paper. You will hold a paper heart close to your beating heart, and transfer all of your love. You will glue on that love filled heart, and cut out your hand. So when they miss you, they can always hold your hand, even when you aren’t there.

And trust me grown-up, they are going to miss you.

I can assure you I will notice when your child starts to fidget with nerves…because I fidget too. I will show them where I keep the fidgets in the classroom, and teach them that it’s okay to use them when they need them. I will teach them how to use their voice to express their feelings. Their feelings of fear, anger, and sadness. Feelings of happy, excited, and calm. I will teach them how to ask for help when they need it, and I will notice when they do something on their own for the first time.

I will make them feel seen, important, and needed.

I see you grown-up. I feel you. I know this is happy-hard.

You have done the best you can with the tools you have to prepare them for this moment. Take a moment to look at the beautiful human that you have created. You did it! And you have done a remarkable job.

At school, I will show your child love, and kindness, and respect. We will celebrate the big things, we will celebrate the little things, and we will celebrate everything in between. And we will have oops moments too…oh so many oops moments. And when these oops moments happen, I will remind your child that they are still beautiful to me, and no matter what, they are worthy of love.

Grown up, I know you have lots of questions about the future, and I don’t have all the answers. But what I can promise you is I will love your child with my whole heart and then some.

So when you leave them at my door tomorrow, I do encourage you to treat yourself. Because whether drop off was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey, or difficult-difficult-lemon-difficult, guiding them to this point is quite the achievement.

And when they hop in the car at 2:20, they are still your baby. They might be a little dirty and a little more independent, but at the end of the day all they want to do is be loved by YOU.

With love and well wishes,
Your child’s teacher.

✨E•M•P•A•T•H•Y✨

💕 Social Emotional learning is at the root of EVERYTHING I do in my classroom. I am way more interested in helping my students learn how to be a human in a social setting than anything else.

🔎 I found this note from one of my babies last year as I was unpacking my classroom, and it reminded me of my “why.”

😢 The day before I received this note was a hard day. During rest time, I was on a phone call with one of my education coaches (Ms. Sonya), and I started crying. I could have left the classroom to compose myself, but I intentionally stayed. Teachers have bad days too, so I decided to take this as an opportunity to model for my students how to handle heavy feelings. I tell them every day it’s okay to cry when you’re sad, and I wanted to model that to be true. I took some breaths, used my blanket, and several students “wished me well.”

🖍 The next morning, this sweet kiddo brought me this note he made at home. He told me that he hoped the day was better and he loved me. He did exactly for me what I would have done for him if HE had a bad day.

🥺 Of course I teared up a bit, and I put this note in a special place.

Teachers, listen, you do NOT have to be completely put together every day to be the best teacher you can be. You are going to have bad days too, because you are human. You never know, how you handle your low moments in front of your students might be the most impactful lesson you teach all school year.

✨That was helpful!

💕Classroom Jobs help establish a sense of belonging in children. Meaningful jobs are SO important because they make each child FEEL important.

💡Here are some great ideas for getting you started on your job list!

➕What jobs do you find most helpful in your classroom? What would you add? Some of my ideas will be in the comments!

👋🏼 Hello! This is me wishing that hanging up a bulletin board was as easy as clicking

🖱 *align center*

🖱 *distribute horizontally*

What are you putting on your bulletin boards for back to school? Drop your ideas in the comments below! ⬇️

✨ If you need a happy-feel-good-in-your-heart story, keep reading.

💕 Savannah was one of my students when she was in pre-k. I just want to shout from the rooftops how GENUINE this act of kindness is. This girl’s heart is made of pure gold.

🎉 I’m always willing to take a moment to celebrate good humans.

🟢 I got the green light today to contact my new pre-k families! I’m going through some pictures to share with them, and I think this one sums up me quite well.

💥 I’m loud.

✨ I’m a lot.

💕 I’m unapologetically me. And I am so ready to love your child with my whole heart and then some.

While I’ll be so sad to see the summer end, I am so excited to start another (more normal) year of partying in pre-k! 🎉

One of my goals this coming school year is to intentionally use this structure more!

Have you started thinking about next school year yet?

What are some of your goals for the 2021-2022 school year?

▶️When was the last time you pressed PLAY on YOUR learning?

gets you up and moving in EVERY training session! Because adults learn through engagement too!

💕 I refer to the kids as “tiny humans” all the time, but I think I’m going to start referring grown-ups as “tall children” because sometimes I think we forget that we are the same creatures just stretched out a bit. 💕

The Safe Place is an intentional learning center for practicing self regulation skills! Some days, I find myself in the safe place more than any kid. ⭐️🎈💧🥨