It's real wet out. The tykes are probably muddy.

It has been pouring down rain this afternoon and evening. I just arrived home and have now changed into yoga pants and fuzzy slippers; so that's quite a bit better than sopping wet trousers and waterlogged shoes.

This morning I finally had a chance to work on the computers a bit and retroactively put my lesson plans on the system. It was good to do and helped me to realize how much I was flailing around at the beginning of this term. Not that I think that was a bad thing necessarily- but, for instance, I have gone through three different "hello" introduction songs in five weeks. I'm pretty sure I've finally hit on one that I can actually stand to sing over and over and over and over again; so that will stay the same. However, with more forethought this half-term could have been better organized/less confusing.

Just as an example- here are three lyrics from three different songs I have taught so far this term. You'd be excused for getting them mixed up:

1. bounce the penguin, fun to do
2. bounce and bounce and bounce and stop!
3. See how we're bouncing, bouncing, bouncing

here are three other songs:

1. hello, how are you?
2. say hello- hello
3. hello, hello- it's good to see you

confused yet?

1. I'm standing in a tall shape
2. we're all making a shape
3. (actually an activity where you listen to the music and when it stops you freeze--in a shape.)


Now, of course each of these songs have different tunes and sound quite different from one another, but it is clear that I have...whatchacallit....themes.

It got embarrassing as I was writing all these lyrics down in order to publish them on the academic server. I'm just going to continue pretending like what I teach has a structured purpose behind it...

It is "book week" this week and so during music club we ended up doing a version of "Going on a Bear Hunt" as well as listening to some dinosaur book with CD that I don't remember the title of. It is a long day for the nursery tykes and listening to as story (with music!) is always a relaxing/sleepy sort of thing to do. So one of them climbed into my lap and rested his warm, soft, little ear on my cheek. It's like having a kitten. A little kitten who sings...

Um. yeah. So, anyhow.

The new school! What brilliant children I have there. My one problematic child in Wednesday's class was poorly today so all I had were little gems who learn so quickly and don't even get bored learning how to draw treble clefs (particularly if I allow them to draw underwater scenes on the whiteboard while I help one of their classmates)

Okay, so cuteness?

I have a little story that I made up about the G- clef and how to draw it. You see- there is this mouse...and it is circling around the bottom of a grandfather clock trying to figure out how to make its way up to the top... and then it does and it climbs up to the top where it holds on to the minute hand but then slips! And plummets to the ground before trying to climb back into the clock.

If you tell the story while drawing the clef it does work. I think. At least, Linda and I both think it has potential.

However, the youngest in the class? (Three of them are 6 and he is only 4.5) Instead of tracing the clef that I had dotted out on the board for him-- he painstakingly drew a grandfather clock right next to it.

I told him Good Job! And then considered that maybe I hadn't succeeded with that particular story.