How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Kindergarten

Starting a new school year with about two working days' advance notice and another two or three days of prep time is A Challenge. Doing it in kindergarten, where the clientele is squirmier, wigglier, and generally needier than is typical in other grades is a Super Learning Experience! Doing all this while still unpacking and living out of boxes from the Big Move is a bit much, but I digress.

Now, however, I've begun to hit my stride. I don't exactly have a year's worth (or even a semester) of lesson plans or anything, but I know my students, I can remember the daily routine, and we're getting familiar with the great mystery that is How School Works. We line up. We sit on the rug. We raise our hands, occasionally, when we have something to say. We even give passing recognition to Directions. Not bad for ten days of experience under our little belts. I've begun elaborating on the basic Reading and Math curricula and can start introducing some science and art. We did little handprint paintings that became a flower garden. I remembered to sing with them, and they liked it. I'm going to do a seed unit soon (something I spotted in a recent NSTA article). We're getting it!

Friday was so sweet (especially as it came on the heels of a decidedly sour Thursday). I was introducing the class to the idea of writing stories. They would be given a paper with space for a picture on top and three or so lines for their literary masterpieces below. I started with the overhead projector and modeled thinking through ideas, writing them down, and making a picture. Turns out probably none of the kids had seen an overhead projector before, and they were so blown away by watching me draw in one place and having it projected on the screen that they not only stopped goofing around, they actually burst into applause. I kid you not. They clapped for me. Granted, my picture of a princess and her new friend the monster was pretty awesome, but still... That plus the one little guy telling me my hair looked "cute" totally made up for Thursday. Which was draining and worrisome.

Long story short, I think I like kindergarten!