The Cat in the Hat

If you don't teach young children, you may not be aware that Dr. Seuss' birthday is March 2nd. Luckily, I am a shaper of young minds and therefore, know such things. This is why I decided that this month in my classroom was really going to focus on reading and books. (Even more than usual!)

Of course, when most people think of Dr. Seuss, they think of The Cat in the Hat. We decided to start the month off with a bang by reading this classic, even though I thought it was too long for my preschoolers VERY short attention spans. Much to my surprise, they loved it and hung on every word! This doesn't happen very often for a lot of the kids in my classroom...many of them are rarely read to and have little appreciation for or interest in books. Since Monday, we have also read other Dr. Seuss books like Hop on Pop and There's a Wocket in My Pocket! I'm so happy that the kids seem to be picking up on all the rhyme from the stories. Honestly, I have never been a huge Seuss fan, but after this week, I'm jumping on the train because my classes love the books....and they're learning from them too!

We have been working on an art project this week to display in the hallway. Here's how it turned out:

"Spring into reading with Dr. Seuss!"

A close-up of some of the cats!

And yes, we did make "springs" out of pipe cleaners!

Reading Magic

I am reading yet another wonderful book that I wanted to share with you. Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever by Mem Fox is all about the importance of reading aloud to children.

Here are a few interesting points that I took from the book:

** Experts say that on average, a child needs to hear a thousand stories read aloud before they are ready to begin reading. (This sounds like a lot, but reading just three stories a day easily covers a thousand books. You could read the same book three times, or try reading a favorite book, a familiar book and a new book).

**It is important to allow a child to talk back about what you read. As you read, make comments and ask questions about the plot, characters and pictures to engage the child in conversation.

**Read to your child from all sorts of print: signs, cereal boxes, newspapers, catalogs...

**Reading to a child from birth can help to increase a child's attention span. Children who are never read to have a hard time sitting through an entire story because they do not have the required listening skills or desire. (Look at the kids in my class if you don't believe me!! You can tell which children have been read to which haven't!)

Some of the topics in this book seem common sense, but maybe that's the teacher in me! I'm sure there are many parents who don't know how to make the most of the time they spend reading with their child. Reading aloud WELL is a skill you have to work at, so any one can benefit from practice. I would highly recommend this book to any parent or teacher. It's easy to read and well-written. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I feel that I learned some valuable information from it.

Home Visits

If you are unfamiliar with the Head Start program, you probably don't know that Head Start staff members are required to visit the homes of all of their students twice a year. February is the time of year that we are doing the second of these visits. Basically, it's a parent-teacher conference at the child's house instead of school. Since HS students are low-income, this gives us a better idea of what type of conditions the kids are living in and helps us to get families the help that they need.

As you may imagine, these visits are quite a little adventure. You have not smelled the things I have smelled in these homes anywhere else. Many of them are dark, dirty and cluttered. My visits at the beginning of the year were shocking. I had never been in such rundown homes before. I couldn't believe people actually lived in some of the dwellings I entered. Thankfully, this time the homes have been much improved overall from the first of the year.

Still, it is a bit scary to go in some of the homes. There was one with a huge pit bull right outside the door. The family actually had to meet us in the yard so they could hold down the dog on its back and cover its eyes as we walked into the house! The dog was growling the whole time, and the mother (who was holding the dog down) couldn't weigh more than 9o pounds. That was a little scary. I am nervous around big dogs anyway, especially ones that want to kill me. Then we went into another family's home that was filled with these little gnats. They were circling my head the whole time I was trying to fill out the paperwork. Sadly, these home visits were pretty good overall though. At the beginning of the year we went into some houses that were so filthy we couldn't even sit down...the furniture was black with something that looked like tar. Since then, that family has moved, so I can only hope their new home is cleaner! Don't get me wrong, there are parents who keep their homes clean and do a lot with the little money they have, it's just that the majority of my families are not like that. I still have another full day of visits this Friday.

I love the kids in my classes, and after seeing the environments they face when they go home from school, I understand their needs much better. I wish I could take them all home, so they could see what it's like to live in a nice, (usually) clean home where they get regular baths, clean clothes and attention. There are kids all around us that don't have the basic things we take for granted and most people will never notice. My job has opened my eyes and my heart to those kids. I will never forget the things I have seen this year and I will be a better teacher in the future because of it.

Will you be my Valentine?

This week at school we've been getting ready for Valentine's Day. We decorated our mailboxes for our cards, sang Valentine's Day songs, and read books like The Night Before Valentine's Day.

Today was the big Valentine exchange, and the kids were SO excited! They were all so proud of their cards and they couldn't wait to share them. Unfortunately, they were also so excited that they were having a hard time doing pretty much anything we asked of them. We had a LOT of fighting. We survived (pretty much in one piece) and got all the Valentines delivered. We had three children who forgot to bring cards, but luckily I had bought extras, so I just wrote out the Valentines while they were playing in centers and everyone had something to give. We got tons of candy...I may have gotten more stuff for Valentine's Day than I did for Christmas! The cooks made the kids rice crispy treats with Valentine sprinkles too, so they were thrilled. Anyway, the week is over, since we have tomorrow off for Lincoln's birthday (a definite perk of living in Illinois!) I have to work on Friday, but the kids don't come back to school until Tuesday, so it should be a restful 5 days.

NOTE: I bought the kids those Nerds Valentines, the ones that come with the candy. Just an FYI, I did not care for the messages on the cards once I opened them. I wouldn't have bought them if I'd known I would be giving the kids cards saying "Love the nerd you're with" or "Here's looking at you, nerd." What kind of teacher says that to a kid??! I guess this one does!

Snow, Snow, and More Snow!

I haven't written in a while, but if you don't know, last week we were hit with around 8 inches of snow. Here are a few shots I got on the one day I was off work:

Our house

Jason clearing off the driveway


Edgar getting ready to go outside (Yes, he has booties!)

Playing in the snow!

One happy puppy ready to come inside

School was cancelled from Tuesday to the end of the week. I still had to go into work every day except Wednesday, when we got the bulk of the snow. We still have snow on the ground, except it's all a huge sheet of ice now.

Today was the last day of school for the kids this week. It was our first full week of school in I don't know how long, and it was a rough one. Teachers were sick; kids were sick. I had tons of fighting, crying, screaming, running, vomiting, snotty noses...you name it, we had it. One girl even ripped a fist-full of hair out of another child's head. And I got pee all over my leg (no, it wasn't my own pee). It was a nightmare.

Now I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

The Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Week.

This has just been an long, awful week. It started out ok, but went quickly downhill. Here's an overview of what went on:

-Monday: No school for MLK Jr Day.

-Tuesday: More drama at work with the staff. Fed a child fish sticks (which he turned out to be allergic to). Fixed mistake in the child's file to acknowledge allergy. Got home to see that furnace was not working, again.

-Wednesday: Had to drive home (half an hour) on lunch break to let furnace repair guy in. Repair guy couldn't get furnace to work. Found out that parts needed were very expensive, and it was recommended we purchase a new furnace. Discovered that new furnace costs $2000.00.

-Thursday: Field trip at school...more drama with staff. Called around about furnace.

-Friday: Attended boring in-service for work. Paid $2000.00 for new furnace. Scheduled installation for next available date (Tuesday).


Just so you know, the child with the fish allergy is ok. His mom was very [understandably] upset, but is no longer threatening to sue me, which is good! The whole thing scared me to death. I'm now determined to go through the rest of the kids' files to make sure there are no other allergies that the health people forgot to enter in the computer system!

As for the furnace, that is just so annoying. To have to replace something that big four months after buying a house. But the gas wasn't turned on during our inspection, so the inspector was unable to tell us if the furnace was working, only that it was installed properly. I guess this is the joy of home ownership! I'm trying to be more appreciative of the fact that we can even afford to pay to get a new furnace. We have also been blessed that it's been a warmer week, with the temperature reaching 50 degrees, as opposed to the week before, where the temperature was in the single digits. I just hope it holds out a little longer, so the pipes don't freeze!

Anyway, I'm sure things will get better from here!

I'm bringing balloons...

I've really enjoyed the long weekend and, even better, I got a lot done....laundry, cleaning, dress shopping, research, etc. Tomorrow it's back to school though! We're going to talk about Martin Luther King Jr. and why he is important. I'm not sure that my students (who are three, four, and five years old) can really understand the subject matter, but we're going to try! I've already introduced the kids to MLK a little, and showed them his picture. I explained that we celebrate him each year on the third Monday of the month, near his birthday (Jan 15) and that we would not have school on that day. One of the children, a little boy named Landen, became very concerned:

L: Miss Christin, if we don't have school on Monday, who will blow up him's balloons?
(His little face was filled with worry)

Me: Well...

L: Ok, ok, I know. You can bring the balloons. Miss Laura will bake him a cake. And I will bring him's present!


The innocence and creativity of children continually surprises me. Of course to them, the logical way to celebrate some one's birthday is to have a party, with balloons, cake, and presents. So, I suppose that tomorrow we will sing Happy Birthday to Dr. King, because this is something the kids can relate to. For little Landen to be so concerned about the birthday party of a man that he doesn't even know is so sweet.

I have a simple picture book telling the story of Dr. King's life that I will be reading to the children. I'm a little concerned about how the kids will react to the fact that MLK was killed, but I think we can address it and calm the fears of anyone who gets upset.

It will also be interesting to mention that there are very, very few African Americans in the town that I work in. Actually, someone told me they only removed the KKK stuff from the downtown square a few years ago. It was just a known fact that blacks could not live in that county. I have never lived in a place that was less diverse, and where people are so narrow-minded. Even some of the people I work with have very skewed views of the world, because these small towns are all they know! Here in Mount Vernon things are a little better, but still, this is unlike anywhere I've ever lived. And I don't like it.

How am I supposed to teach these children to appreciate diversity when they don't even see people who are different from them? Educating them about different races and cultures only goes so far....I think you have to really experience diversity to truly learn to appreciate it. But I will do the best I can.