Diamonds in the Ruff

     I've never been good at training puppies.  Now, after a whole week with my Pre-K babies, that is exactly what it feels like I am doing.  My pockets are filled with stickers and fruit snacks as I have learned it is more effective to reward good behavior than scold those who constantly do the opposite of what I ask them to do.  I don't sit down at all and am always watching who is where and counting heads.  And I am tired.  Not stressed out like I was the night before school started.  I am exhausted... plum tuckered out.  My co-workers chuckled when I passed them in the hallways, whispering to them that I have never worked so hard in my life!
     For three weeks prior to school starting, I prepared for the exciting First Day.  Our classroom is big and bright and colorful with lots of room for learning and playing.  All the paperwork was in order,  bulletin boards were done, centers and shelves were labeled and lesson plans were ready.  I woke up at 5:00 am excited but not really knowing what to expect.  And then the Little Ones showed up.  Most recognized me from the home visits, but still there were four criers and seven who speak no English.  Three parents insisted on staying and going to class with us after breakfast, which didn't help with the criers.  I finally got them all out by 9:00 and all but one child had stopped crying by 10:00.  My wonderful aide and I managed to keep the group contained on The Rug so we could talk about classroom rules, but then it was time to let them play.  It took less than one minute for the Blocks and Dramatic Play areas to be completely wrecked.

     For a minute or so I just stood there and watched and listened.  The delighted squeals from the girls as they discovered the dress-up clothes and dolls made me so happy.  I had spent money I didn't have yet to buy babies and dishes and a friend had cleaned out her daughter's play house to donate to ours.  As I stood there I was reminded that we are all blessed with what we have and blessed again when we experience the pleasure of giving.

        My boys separated into the Blocks and Dinosaurs centers and were making their own joyful noise.  The crashing of trucks into block towers was occasionally drowned by the huge roars of the pterodactyl slaughtering tyrannosaurus rex.  There is so much room to play and so many different activities to do over there that not one argument or tug-of-war broke out.  Never has chaos made such perfect sense!
     Lunchtime for Little Ones comes early so I managed to get everyone's attention and tell them that it was time to clean up.  That's when the miracle happened.   They cleaned up.  No, really.  They cleaned up....all the cardboard blocks started stacking up against the wall and the wood blocks were getting put in their case while the dinosaurs marched back onto their shelves.  Over in the housekeeping sections the girls were literally cleaning house.  All the girls there on the first day were Hispanic and I had been to their homes which is why I noticed how they were picking up.  Their real homes were very tidy...all toys were put away and nothing was on the floor.  So when they cleaned up the play house area there was nothing on the floor.  All the dresses were crammed into their cubbies and all the food and dishes and pots and pans and babies were in the refrigerator...but there was nothing on the floor!   They had done what I asked them to do so out came the stickers.  It is amazing what kids do for tokens like that.

     The rest of the day involved getting to and from lunch and the playground without losing anyone,  settling down for nap time and having everyone brush their teeth.  Several years ago I had purchased a large model of a mouth and a giant toothbrush when I managed a Health Education grant for my school.  I used the model to show the proper way to track down and evict the Cavity Creeps and then we brushed teeth two at a time.  I wish I could have recorded some of that. The kids were so serious about getting way in the back where those Cavity Creeps live and then opening their mouths to have me see if they were running out.  There was toothpaste and spit everywhere!  I forget how literal the Little Ones are at their age.
     We have a way to go with walking in line and remembering to use our napkin at lunch, but I think the first five days have gone well.  By Friday morning, the parents that did not send their kids on the bus were taking them to the cafeteria and leaving.  There were no tears or wet pants on Friday, either, and one of my non-English babies was calling me Mama.  We haven't really done much that I put on the lesson plan because I had unrealistic expectations about that.  But we have learned to share princess dresses, take turns with the pterodactyl, that the slide is for going down, not up and that only one silly person is allowed in the bathroom at a time.  (I still don't understand what is so fun about the potty.)
     Our class is fortunate to have only one pincher/hitter, one tattletale and two Special Ones that have no boundaries and need constant redirection.  We are also extremely blessed to have an amazing paraprofessional who anticipates needs and plans for what is next and has helped me get an effective routine going.  The little bit of Spanish that I know combined with the commands "Stop," "Sit" and "Stay" are enough to help the non-English Little Ones (Chiquitos) assimilate.  Overall, we are making progress.  I hope that in a couple of weeks we will look less like a litter of puppies covered in stickers with a barking mama and more like a functioning Pre-K class with a teacher who really knows what she is doing.