My Cute Kids!

Well since everyone else uses their blogs to brag about their adorable kids I thought I would start bragging on mine. I have 20 kids between the ages of 3 and 5. They are all sooooo cute! They call me Miss Jenni and I get to see them for 2 hours every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Ok so they are my preschool kids. But I still love them!

I have the opportunity to teach preschool on campus as part of my major. It is a class so I work my butt off but don't get paid. I actually pay a lot of money to do it! But it is all worth it because I love it so much! This is my second semester in the preschool and I am now what we call a "lead teacher". I teach the most lessons so that I can gain experience writing, planning, and teaching lessons. Last semester I was a "support teacher" and I pretty much just learned how to write plans, taught three of them, and learned as much as I could to prepare myself for this semester. Next semester I will be a "Supervisor", meaning I will pretty much run my preschool class. I will be in charge of talking to parents, paperwork, teacing my lead and support teachers, and all the other administrative type stuff. Luckily I also get to teach a few lessons here and there! And then I will be done with my associates degree and ready to start working on my bachelors! Anyway, that is a little bit about the program.

So far this semester I have taught 5 lessons--3 on apples, 1 on pumpkins, and 1 that is called a Story Stretcher. That is when your whole lesson revolves around one book. I did mine on one of my very favorite children's books. "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear". If you haven't already, read it to your kids, its so cute! Anyway I have planned out activities and lessons for all of those topics. We even took a field trip to an apple orchard on campus. The kids got to pick apples from the trees and then we made mini apple pies. That is what the picture is from.

I really, really love what I am doing and I love these kids! I could probably talk about them all day! My roommates set a time limit and I have to tell them all of my stories and then I can't talk about it. Sometimes I forget and I'll say something like "One of my kids said somethig so cute today!" and then go off. It is especially weird when there are people around who don't know me. When they ask I just say I have 20 3-5 year olds! haha One of the little boys I have this semester I also had last semester. So he remembers me and we have gotten to be buddies. He tells me he loves me and that I am his favorite and I just melt! He is the cutest little thing, I just want to take him home!

We also get to work with children with special needs who are refered to us by the Madison County School District. I have gotten the opportunity to work with kids who have autism, physical disabilities, and speech issues. It has been a really great experience to learn how to work with these kids. I have learned what their individual needs are, how to stimulate language, and so much other stuff. It is amazing how natural it comes after awhile!

Our preschool is also the referal school for children who are learning English as a second language. We have a few kids in my class whose parents don't speak Engish. Most of the children are fluent and can communicate easily but we have one who doesn't know any Engish and one who understands everything but either can't or doesn't want to speak English. I became really interested in this little boy. It was so frusterating to see him play on the outside, I just wanted him to be included. He never talked to anyone, he would just stay quiet or shake and nod his head if he had to, but nothing else. I decided that I was going to try to get something out of him. The first 2 weeks I just felt like I was bugging him but I kept trying to get him to interact with me. FINIALLY I somehow got through to him and he started playing with me. There was still no talking but he was playing and I was thrilled! Then one day I discovered the he really likes to be read to. So for the next few days during free play all we did was read books. I got him talking by having him say the words in the book with me. We read "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" and I had him say mouse, cookie, milk, and all kinds of other words. That is when I started to realize that maybe he just didn't have the ability to speak English words, he could just understand it. Anyway I have been working really hard with him the last month and a half and he has made so much progress. He isn't very talkative but he can ask for what he wants or needs, show things to his teachers, and point out things in books. He was a little dependant on me at first but I had the other teachers help out and now he knows that they can help him as well. He has become a completely different kid, he has the sweetest personality and is such a great kid. He still loves to be read to and one of my favorite things is when he grabs my hand to take me to the book area, picks a book, and then rests his head on my arm while we read. About a week and a half ago he said my name for the first time and I about cried! Now he says it all the time! :) It has been such a great experience to see him grow and learn and come out of his shell. I really love knowing that I can make a difference in his life. I just love these kids!!!

See I told you I could go on and on about them!
This is my class at the apple orchard a few weeks ago!