Its Something Unpredicatable....

I wanted to write a creative, unique, fun and interesting way to reflect back on a year of preschool. I do believe I have failed miserably, but failed with style. Style must count for something! Anyway, below is my slightly-off-center reflections on my second year of teaching, and a year in a preschool classroom.

September: "I can't wait to go to school, then I will be a big kid, too, I'll make friends and learn so much at school" (Can't Wait to Go To School by Tom Gardner)

October: "Then you can mash, Then you can monster mash, The monster mash, And do my graveyard smash" (Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett)

November: " Soup Soup, Tasty Soup Soup, Spicy carrot and coriander" (Soup Song by The Mighty Boush)

December: "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, Just like the ones I used to know" (White Christmas by Irving Berlin)

January: "But as long as you love me so, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" (Let It Snow by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne)

February: "My funny valentine, Sweet comic valentine, You make me smile with my heart" (Funny Valentine by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart)

March: "Vacation, All I ever wanted, Vacation, Had to get away" (Vacation by the Go-Gos)

April: "Spring fever, spring is here at last...Get Up, get out spring is everywhere" (Spring Fever by Elvis Presley)

May: "She's a butterfly, pretty as the crimson sky, Nothing's ever gonna bring her down, And everywhere she goes, everybody knows, She's so glad to be alive, She's a butterfly" (She's a Butterfly by John Rich and Kenny Alphin [performed by Martina McBride])

June: "For what it's worth, It was worth all the while. It's something unpredictable, But in the end its right. I hope you had the time of your life." (Time of Your Life by Green Day)

Notes on the above

September- start of school, excitement, transitioning children into their first school experience, convincing C.'s parents that he should attend a preschool program and that it would benefit him, watching helplessly as M.'s parents pulled her from the program after 4 days and denied her an educational experience that I know would have benefited her but having to surrender to their parental rights, wondering if N. could talk at all or if he had regressed and lost all speech

October- Finding our routines and coming together as a class, discover that N. can talk but has every reason to be slow to trust others and my heart finds a million new ways to break for this sweet child, watching in amazement as the inclusion process with typical peers begins to meld into a cohesive class, Halloween party with awesome costumes, Blue eyed boy as Purple People Eater, A. as superman, C. as spider man, N. begins to show interest in firefighters (this will emerge again in May/June), N. and A. begin their love/hate relationship, N.'s behavior begisn to come under control

November- stone soup feast, farmer's market, taste and try different foods, cook our own soup, avoid trying to explain Thanksgiving and turkeys to children, instead celebrate sharing and working together, emphasize concepts of sharing & team work in all areas of classroom and am delighted at results

December- P. joins our class and makes it a full house, three holidays in three weeks, children love exploring new holidays, classroom becomes a present workshop, miss the last week before vacation due to extreme circumstances and am sad to miss their building excitement over Santa and Christmas but desperately must return home

January- Receive a grant so we can have snow in our classroom to explore as well as cool books about snow, one wintery day we play our instruments until it finally starts snowing ("calling in the snow"), hope and wish for snow days that never happen, run n the snow as it falls and taste snowflakes, dance in the very tiny patches of snow on the ground, discover that we can all work together on the same unit theme and learn as a class - find a uniting topic that fascinates everyone and is universally accessible, B. begins to eat by mouth for the first time and eats school lunch with peers!

February- valentine's day party, practice colors and shapes, create bags of treats for "helpers" at school (other teachers, therapists, etc) like in our book - counting, matching a pattern, following directions, etc. all practiced, make beautiful valentines to take home, learn about different kinds of love - love your family, love your friends, love yourself

March- Spring Break!! Everyone is ready for a vacation, teacher included, as well as for the easter bunny, we have a bear hunt on the playground to search for prizes and instead of bears we find bunnies (cheaper at the store), make textured Brown Bear, Brown Bear books and practice signing the book each time we read it as well as signing along with the song, am able to get P. to say words fro the first time ever!

April- SPRING! We attempt a walk to look at flowers and butterflies but this seems to be the equivalent of barbaric torture to preschoolers, delight in playing outside more, watch as leaves bloom, plant flowers to hopefully bloom by mother's day (they don't and we end up replanting in May with already grown flowers), day and night theme celebrated with a pajama party, discover we can make awesome smoothies and that switch adapted cooking is fun, P. communicates requests for certain toys and to swing using non-verbal communication and adds speech with prompting

May- raise and release butterflies, have fun with a unit on bugs and butterflies, learn about community helpers and discover that every single child can identify at least two community helpers and most 4+, rediscover the joys of the dress up clothes and become community helpers and people in our daily lives, ride tricycles outside and spend entire mornings outside as the upper grades take state tests (we are too loud), I. gets his gait trainer and takes off - this kid can move!, more break-throughs with P. as he connects with peers and begins to show empathy and imitation without prompting and begins to taste foods (applesauce and yogurt), caterpillars take over the school playground and we catch them daily to look at

June- walk a thon with the kids in the wagon and only C. and C. remaining after one lap to go for 30 minutes of riding and walking, playing on the soccer field only to be chased away by lawnmowers, bubbles outside, face painting, End of Year Fun!!