go away

Rain, rain, go away. I never thought that I would say that in the desert, but seriously, I have seen more rain in the past month than I did in all of last year. Today, it really hit the kinders. No outdoor recess means crazy kiddos crammed into a small space. That also means crazy teachers! 

My assistant and I did all that we could to keep our little learners engaged. Some of our strategies worked. Some did not. Mostly, our kinders just needed to go outside and run it out - which they could not. 

One strategy that worked wonderfully for about twenty minutes was the reveal of a newly delivered book order box. This was a first for my class this year and I had them try to guess what was in the box. When they guessed books, I opened it up for them to see. I explained that when they ordered books on the monthly book order forms they got books and our classroom got books. Our student who ordered books in September received her order and we clapped and cheered because our classroom earned fourteen books thanks to her! 

After our cheering subsided, we looked at the titles and covers of each of the books that our classroom received. The students oohed and aahed and then they were able to tell me which one they wanted to listen to. After their choices had been voiced, I pulled the named books out and they were able to vote. When the votes were tallied up, the winner was...

They LOVED it! They laughed, they predicted, they elaborated, and they retold the story. It was glorious. Then things fell apart again until the next strategy that worked for about five or ten minutes, and so the day progressed. But, for twenty minutes, they were mine. They were in love with a book. They were my little kinders. Hopefully the weather will improve and they'll be my little kinders all day long when I see them again on Tuesday!