Reading to Kaylee's class

Yesterday I volunteered to read to Kaylee's class. When I was a teacher and asked parents to read, I always liked the ones that came and did some sort of activity or something that involved participation with the children. Whats the point of spending10-20 minutes driving to the school, walking in, and signing in, to read to the class for 3 minutes? I never could quite figure out why those moms did that. The ones that came in, sat down, read the book with very little expression, and left; were NOT exactly what I was looking for. And it certainly didnt grab the attention of my 18 4 year olds. Soooooo I decided that I was going to read to Kaylee's class, have them participate in the book, and then do an activity pertaining to the book. I chose The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. He is one of my FAVORITE children's authors! And I thought it was perfect leading into Halloween too. Anyways, so I found 2 animal puzzles (that we already owned) that had the EXACT same animals that were in the book. When I sat down to read to the children, I let each child pick one of the puzzle pieces, tell me the animal, and place it on the floor in front of them. Some listened.....others not so much! I explained that when they heard their animal sound they had to come put their puzzle piece back into the puzzle. Then I began reading, I had the children participate by making the animal sounds with me and telling me which animal was which. They all were able to correctly put their puzzle piece into the puzzle. And it went marvelously! I wanted to spend more time talking about animals, but time did not allow for that (they almost missed their gym time). After the book we marble painted a spider web. While the children waited their turn, they sang me their Halloween songs. It was amazing to see the differences in abilities, the ones that were able to listen and follow directions. The ones that could sit and wait their turn. The ones that actually looked as if they knew what was going on. And I am very pleased and proud that Kaylee was one of those children. She might not be the greatest of listeners at home, but she sure does listen very well in the classroom. And THAT made THIS momma VERY HAPPY!!!

It was SUCH a delight to be back in the classroom. The memories came flooding back of MY classroom, and for a minute I got a little choked up. I miss those children! I miss the feeling you get when you teach a child something new! I miss the sparkle in their eye when they figure out something they have been working on! But for now I dont miss it enough to leave my babies everyday and return to the classroom! However, it does make me wonder if homeschooling could be a possibility in our future.

And I wish I had some pictures to show you, but I didnt think to bring my camera, and even if I had I dont think I would have had time to get any shots. I will be reading to the class about once a month, so next time I will remember the camera and show you what those little darlings can do! I already have 4 more books/activities lines up.