Teaching is teaching, whether it be 10 kids or 32, the pythagorean theorem or number recognition, college all the way down to preschool. I am a preschool teacher who must defend herself often. Some folks think all we do is play all day, but the work we do in early childhood education sets the foundation for all future learning. They couldn't locate an item on a map if they didn't know their spatial relations, people. This is for another post. I'm feeling good today. I've had my coffee. Today, I will let you know that as a preschool teacher, I completely slack off the last week of school!
Hold on, hold up, listen. I have a class of 19 children between 3-5 years of age. My center also has all-day daycare attached to the preschool, so these buggers are with me for 8 hours on average. I'll tell you about that another time, too. So completely slacking off the last week is not a possibility. If I did nothing, I mean, really nothing, someone may actually die. Whoa. Really? Yup. Me doing nothing = a 3 year old wandering out the building, onto the street, which may mean death. Geeze, this is getting rather morbid...
So the checkpoints have all been entered, the parent conferences have all been completed, the children have memorized their songs AND hand movements for the preschool celebration on Friday, we are DONE. After reading a post about the end of year teacher time, I felt compelled to share mine. Do I adhere to a lesson plan? Nope. Do I take any notes or anecdotal records? Nada. Do I take photos for documentation? Only if they're rockin' selfies! This week is party time!
Music
First and foremost, it's a dance party up in here, and I'm not talking Raffi or Laurie. This is when Ms. Daisy pulls out all the genres of safe, totally appropriate pop, reggae, calypso, disco and R&B, baby. Yes, I'm teaching ... teaching music appreciation! Here are some of our favorites:
--Jump in the Line (Shake, Señora) sung by Harry Belafonte. Get your bag of instruments out with this baby. All the shakers you can find! It gets really loud with this calypso beat and the kids go wild. It's awesome.
--Can't Stop the Feeling sung by Justin Timberlake. This is a current pop favorite from the movie Trolls. I think all their parents play it at home because they know all the words, and the dance moves become serious as they all pretend to be Justin. Anything, and I mean anything, to use as microphones are good for this song. They are a must.
--ABC sung by The Jackson 5. My kids are primarily African-American and are already familiar with Michael Jackson's music, but usually not from this era. They completely freak out when they see a photo of him as a young kid just like them. The dance moves are fierce with this song ... from me, of course.
--We Are Family sung by Sister Sledge. An oldie but a goody, this beat slows them down a bit and presents a feeling of comradery among the entire classroom as they shout "We Are Family!"
--To slow it down, we play Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. This is usually when we have to clean up and wind down. There are hand signs to this song, too, which are fun to learn.
Odds & Ends
Since it is the end of the school year, we do a lot of cleaning in the classroom, and the kids can most certainly help. Given rags and spray bottles of water, they will spray and wipe anything! They may also spray each other, but a little bit isn't too bad. Give them the crappy spray bottles. This is also the perfect time to clean out the closet! I open the door, and just start taking stuff out. They are ecstatic! They grab and look through whatever I pull out. And just when they begin to say, "Hey! I wanted that!" I'm pulling out MORE! I begin to organize it back inside by the time they are bored and finished. They are also very good at finding the games with missing pieces, and then finding missing pieces! During the school year, we switch out some items from the closet, too, so the kids also reminisce on some of the games they played during the beginning of the school year. Awww, so nostalgic ... and clean and organized.
Glitter and Glue
There are items in the preschool classroom that children waste while creating. They can't help it. Take glitter and glue, for example. A 3-year-old doesn't really have a firm hold on the concept of glue (ha ha), usually pouring way too much glue out and desperately shaking glitter until there is no glitter left in the bottle and no feeling left in their hand. As the teacher, I use these items sparingly and over close watch to attempt to teach them not to waste while still fulfilling their little creative hearts. During the last week of school, however, let the smocks be worn and the glitter flow from the cabinets! Get messy and use the materials! Not only are they pretty good at it by the year's end, we also have a supply order to place for the next school year, so we can use up any remaining "combo" glitter from sweeping the floor and dumping it back into the bottle. Come on! They're not eating it. It's good glitter!
Here are few more items that fall under this category: Tape (note there are no green scissors).
and Shaving Cream (the classroom smells awesome after this one...and LOOK! one of my kids is WRITING in it! Oops. Wait. That's right ... I'm not documenting anymore! Let me sit down and write in the cream, too!!!)
It is so important at the end of the year, when they are the last days some of them will ever be your students, to have a little fun and celebrate with them. This was truly as fun to write as it was to live it. For me, this happened last week, and now I am home for two months, sipping coffee and writing. I can turn on some music, but there's nobody to dance with because my teens are still asleep. Ooo...but I do have shaving cream. OOO! And I have two teenagers that are still sleeping! A little in their hands .... This may be a fun summer, after all.
