The Triumphant Return

Monday the 16th marked the return of our newest member of the class, little Dipshika. She had been out all last week do to surgery required to remove her tonsils. yeesh!

But the day remained a very fun one, as the kids continued the art projects they had begun Friday, and a little math project was done up by the board. Ms. Aerisolphal had a bunch of number cards ranging from 1 to 29. First, she asked various students whether the number she was holding up was a "teen". If it was, then that student was to go and pin it up on the board where they think it might belong if that board were a number line from 10 to 19.

Once the number line was set up, various students took turns mixing up the cards and having the rest of the class guess on what about the cards had changed.

That's when I had a great idea.

After the little number line game, while all the kids were back in their seats working in their math books, I quietly snuck up to the board and replaced the 12 with a 21.

It took only a few minutes for bright little Aidan to quietly point it out to Ms. Aerisolphal. So, after math time, Ms. Aerisolphal let Aidan inform the class of his observation, and then let the class puppet Heidi the Moose, complement me for surprising the class in the name of learning.

All in all, the day turned out great. The kids are beginning to write multi-sentenced papers, and their math problems are getting more and more complex. Soon, they may be even smarter than me!

Names and Valentines

The kids are learning how to write their first and last names! It's a little difficult for a of them, getting used to having TWO names instead of one. I can't help but feel kind of happy for them, I've got four!

The kids are also advancing their Valentines Day preparations. I was able to assist them in making cards by gluing and taping on things like stickers, streamers, ribbons, and colored tape. The only rule was: they couldn't use markers.

It was the first chance I had to truly see just how creative these kids could really be.

  

OH! And we celebrated a birthday! It was either Henry's or Aymen's, I get the two confused all the time. We all sat around the piano while Ms. Aerisolphal surprised us all with the birthday song we all love!!!

Tuesday was a great day, and I have no clue what to expect for Thursday!

R-I-C-E. Rice? You're last name is Rice?

I swear, after today, I will publish these blog posts as soon as possible, if not immediately, after my work at Hubble is done.

The clearest thing I can remember from Friday the 6th (other than the Rider Pride dance that is) was the new game Ms. Aerisolphal has started with the kids.

The object of the game is for the kid whom she calls on to look at the helper for that day, and spell as many letters of their last name from memory. If the helper can guess the name correctly, she get's a point. The kids love it, and it allows them to get some early practice at writing their "full" names.

I'm sorry if it's not a lot. The weekend was tough and the memories faded. As I said, I'll work better at writing these sooner.

Preparing for Lover's Day

With Valentine's Day just a week-and-a-half away, all the kindergartners sent most of Wednesday the 4th preparing their valentines.

Although I have my reasons for both liking and (sort of) dreading the onset of this special day, old memories of childhood Valentine's Days were rampant in my mind as I watched the kids use cut-out hearts to design beautiful little baggies that would one day be filled with candy and little notes of friendship.

Our new student, Dipshika, seems to be doing better and better getting used to her friends. She's spending more and more time with Lupita and Emily, the other two ELL students in the class. My hopes are high that, by this time next week, it'll seem as if she'd been there from the beginning!

Friday's coming up! One of the more amusing days for the class it seems. I can't wait to get back!

Crashcourse Ketchup

Do to extraneous events I did not have time to properly document the events of Thursday the 29th. So on today's post, I describe both.

A Thursday of Lit- wait...- of GLORIOUS Significance

Today was the 100th day of school.

School's been going on for such a long time many of us can barely remember the exact events of the first day! But that's not a true way to experience the number 100.

So how can such a thing be accomplished?

By showing it, of course!

Every student was asked to bring 100 somethings to school and share what 100 of said somethings looked like.

As a first example, each child made a necklace of 100 fruitloops to wear and, eventually, joyfully consume.

After the necklaces of sugar came the presentation of the objects. We had a whole slew of examples from cereal to legos! Paul even brought 100 starburst for everyone to share!

It was a day of much joy, much amazement, and much sugar.

New Names, New Faces

Today, Monday the 2nd, Ms. Aerisolphals classroom was graced with the introduction of a brand new face.

Her name was Dipshika, or, in other words, something akin to डिप्शका, a name which means "soft light". Of Indian decent, her math skills are quite good, only she needs a little help with understanding non-numerical symbols, and she seems able to handle reading and writing rather well too.

I see a lot of good things in Dipshika and I hope she can be confident enough to join her new class as a fellow friend and schoolmate.

Lupita even offered Dipshika her coat when the room got too cold. That lifted a lot of Dipshika's shyness. I can't wait to see all the students again!