7 Minutes in Heaven

There was a period of 7 minutes today when I stood in the center of my classroom and looked around silently. The following describes what I saw.

The Art Center: 

     M is drawing a picture of a jack-o-lantern on a grass field with a sun in the sky and a heart in the air. L says to M, "Hey that's beautiful. Can you write my name on it and give it to me?" M says "Well I do not know how to write your name, but you can help me. Can you tell me what letters to write?" L spells her name correctly for M. M writes the letters perfectly.  The picture is now hanging in our science center.

Dramatic Play Center:

     No one is in dramatic play.  For those non-preschool teachers, this is the center with the play kitchen, phone, costumes, and 'toys'.  Generally this is a 'free play' center in which kids are encouraged to explore life around them and play like children too.  Considering 3 weeks ago this center was full and my friends were fighting to get into it, I am thrilled that my students are choosing learning over play.

Math Center:

     E is pointing out our number of the day to H on the new whiteboard addition of our morning meeting. "H, this is the number 9.  Look there are 9 dots, see '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.  H, see that word? It has 4 letters. See n, i, n, e. There are 4 letters but it says nine because that's the number 9."

Writing Center:

     A is looking for all of the uppercase letter magnets in the writing center.  She says, "I need a letter R".  Oh no, I'm thinking. We only have one magnet uppercase R and it's on R's magnet board. Here we go, drama is about to ensue.  But, before I can run and hide behind my desk because R is not sharing, he speaks up and says, "I gotta R right here! You can use it!"

Library:

     M is teaching B his uppercase letters. D is flipping through the pages in a Halloween book.

Science Center:

     Y and A are counting the apples that we have on our tree. We earn an apple on our tree for whole-class good behavior. When we get to 10 we get a reward.  I put 10 push-pins on the tree even if we don't have 10 so the kids can count how many we have left until we get to 10.  Y counts to 7 and says "We have 7". A says "We only need 3 more until we go outside!"

After this I got the usual whine city of "blah-blah-blah won't share with me". "Miss Glass I want to go to writing but it's full". Nevertheless, for a solid 7 minutes, my preschoolers were angels.  Tomorrow, I bet we can make it 8.

Goodbye Teachers and Friends,

Miss Glass