We had field day this week. What fun! Well, here's the thing. I'm sorta competitive when it comes to winning against the other kindergarten classes. I've been talking a big talk this whole year, about us winning, although deep down, I think I've always known that we had no chance this year. You see, last year we got really close, and lost in the end, and I had more testosterone in my class than in a room full of grown men, I'm pretty sure. My boys were psychotic and they were "boys" in every way. When they lost to the girls in one of the games, I had more than one kid, literally, in tears. It was ridiculous. Sportsmanship was not even an afterthought. Well this year, my boys are the gifted/ quirky type. All of them are super smart, love math, building with blocks and legos, and Star Wars. And they are all athletically challenged. I have one boy who is athletic, and he's tiny. So although I've been talking the big talk, well, I was all talk.
The week before, when I picked my kids up from PE after practicing some of the events, I asked them, "Are we going to win?!" Here's what I was told by one of my kids:
"It doesn't matter if we win or lose as long as we have fun."
Yea. Great. Gooood.
During Field Day, here were some of the comments:
Me: "Okay, so here's the game plan for tug of war..." (I was very into it; a parent got me on video and everything...)
A group of students, in response to my game plan: "Look Mrs. Flynn! We're being cats! MEOW!" (while crawling on all fours)
After a game where we were in two teams and everyone either got 1st or 2nd:
"Mrs. Flynn! We got second place!!!!!!!!" (Sincerely thrilled)
"Mrs. Flynn! Now EVERYONE has a ribbon!!!!!"
As I told the other teachers after we lost both of our chances at tug of war, "This year we have the brains, not the muscles."
Sunday, May 23, 2010
A few autism stories
I have loved seeing the growth in my child with autism. It speaks wildly of what a general education experience can do for a child, if given the chance. Now, that doesn't mean the chance to be "normal" because there will always need to be accommodations. But with those accommodations, my student will achieve great things. Just Friday, for the first time, after 1 1/2 years with me, he asked for the first time, "Mrs. Flynn, where's Gabe?" "Right there," I said, and pointed. "Oh, Gabe, come play with me." He had gotten out a toy that they had played together the day before, and for the first time ever, he asked a student to engage in play with him. What an amazing accomplishment. These are the boundaries that can be broken. Here are a few other funny stories about him from the last few weeks:
1. S was playing a sentence building game. He put words together to build the sentence,
"The furry donkey jumped over the kangaroo."
Then he dragged me over to see what he made. I read it aloud. Then he thought and sat for a second and said, "SWITCH!" He moved it around so that it said,
"The furry kangaroo jumped over the donkey."
"There." He said.
2. When I tested S on coins, I pointed to the quarter and said, “What’s this?” and he said, “penny.” And I said, “No.” So then he said, “quarter.” I said, “How much is it worth?” And he looked at me for a second, then said, “George.” So I changed my plan. I went and got the names and how much each is worth, and gave them to him to match to the coins, and he did it perfectly! He had all the info in there, including who was on each of the coins, just couldn't get it out! :-)
3. Guns... Recently, he has been obsessed with guns. Here is an example of a self portrait that he completed. (They are supposed to draw and write their favorite thing they did that month.)
Nice, huh?
So, after he continues to "shoot" people and draw people shooting others (and their heads blown off...), I finally sent a note home to his parents, hoping to get some information. We'll call him S for the remainder of this entry.
"S has been making pretend guns, "shooting" classmates, and drawing guns a lot recently. I'm wondering if he watched a movie or something with guns recently. I remind him very firmly "no guns" when he does it, but he seems very fixated on them right now. Thanks for your help in this! - Hilary Flynn"
Here is the note I got back. "Hi Mrs. Flynn: We also noticed this at home recently. We bought S a joybox 2 months ago and the first game on the list is a gun game. He played it from time to time. Some times he pretended to shoot his dad or me, we pretended to fall on the ground. He likes that. Maybe it is not a good game to play with him. He might expect to play this in school with his classmates. We are sorry about this. The good news is that the joybox was broken. We'll pay attention to anything he might access from the web. Thanks a lot!"
1. S was playing a sentence building game. He put words together to build the sentence,
"The furry donkey jumped over the kangaroo."
Then he dragged me over to see what he made. I read it aloud. Then he thought and sat for a second and said, "SWITCH!" He moved it around so that it said,
"The furry kangaroo jumped over the donkey."
"There." He said.
2. When I tested S on coins, I pointed to the quarter and said, “What’s this?” and he said, “penny.” And I said, “No.” So then he said, “quarter.” I said, “How much is it worth?” And he looked at me for a second, then said, “George.” So I changed my plan. I went and got the names and how much each is worth, and gave them to him to match to the coins, and he did it perfectly! He had all the info in there, including who was on each of the coins, just couldn't get it out! :-)
3. Guns... Recently, he has been obsessed with guns. Here is an example of a self portrait that he completed. (They are supposed to draw and write their favorite thing they did that month.)
Nice, huh?
So, after he continues to "shoot" people and draw people shooting others (and their heads blown off...), I finally sent a note home to his parents, hoping to get some information. We'll call him S for the remainder of this entry.
"S has been making pretend guns, "shooting" classmates, and drawing guns a lot recently. I'm wondering if he watched a movie or something with guns recently. I remind him very firmly "no guns" when he does it, but he seems very fixated on them right now. Thanks for your help in this! - Hilary Flynn"
Here is the note I got back. "Hi Mrs. Flynn: We also noticed this at home recently. We bought S a joybox 2 months ago and the first game on the list is a gun game. He played it from time to time. Some times he pretended to shoot his dad or me, we pretended to fall on the ground. He likes that. Maybe it is not a good game to play with him. He might expect to play this in school with his classmates. We are sorry about this. The good news is that the joybox was broken. We'll pay attention to anything he might access from the web. Thanks a lot!"
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Best Part of Kindergarten
I know it's been a really long time since I've posted. I've had so many stories, but I've been SO EXHAUSTED and some were too hard to write. But here's a heartbreaker for you...
Today, my kids wrote their class book about the best part of kindergarten. Each day, I give "my baby" food to bring home, because she used to steal it. So we solved that when I told her that all she has to do is ask. Now, every day, I send her home with food. Below find her favorite part of kindergarten.
"My favorite part of kindergarten was when Mrs. Flynn sends food."
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