Expect the Unexpected

We had a lot of things to get done today- group discussion, painting our papier mache eels, decorating our Valentine bags, exchanging our homemade Valentine cards, playing outside and of course, our party. As a team we discussed how the day should look and kind of mapped out some sort of reasonable schedule. I wanted to have a group discussion at first circle about a topic that has come up several times with various groups of children in the class. I know this is going to sound rather odd but there seems to be an interest in "poor people" (this is a quote from a child). Why are they poor? Where do they live? How do they live? What does it mean? Wow, pretty deep for four year olds! You can see why I was eager to engage the children further and expand on this idea. However, this discussion was not to be today BECAUSE one of our students knocked out their front tooth  at home yesterday and he was quite concerned about how his friends would react. So, upon arrival, he, his mom and I had a discussion about how he wanted to handle this in class today. I asked him if he preferred not to say anything and have children ask him about it (which we know they will!) or would he rather him and I address it in our opening greeting and get it out in the open. He decided on the group discussion idea. So, he sat on my lap, he shared his story, the children looked at the new gap and then the flood gates opened. Hands shot up, accidents shared, stories recounted. Needless to say, our discussion was long and there was no way we could then move into my "planned" conversation on poverty and cultures.  Oh well.... this is how it goes and it was a very interesting and amusing topic.

After our dialogue we all did our own thing... some children painted their eels...

Many children measured our Amaryllis...

 Some children played our harp...

Some children designed a castle and made stories with gnomes and castle figurines...

Some children did math...

Some children used arches and watched cars fly off of them as they rocked back and forth...

and ALL children made a Valentine bag to hold their special cards...

We were all impressed with the cards and other creative Valentine gifts that came in. We love that the children make homemade cards and each one is so unique. Check out this card... a message in a bottle.

Homemade items are so personal and the idea of giving something that you have put effort into is truly an act of friendship. Sharing a part of yourself, giving time and energy to others, and giving to ourselves....we all must do this each day. And with that, I am signing off, to give energy first to my family by cooking dinner. Then to others while I cheer on a high school basketball team and then to myself  with a knitting project.

Emily