Thankful for Five Year Olds

I never wanted to teach kindergarten.  I mean never.  It seemed overwhelming to have so many little ones with minimum school experience under my watchful eye and teaching guidance every day.  Don't get me wrong, I thought they were adorable, but I did not think I was cut out to be their teacher.  The idea of teaching not one, but several (ahem, 23) five-year-old children the basic building blocks that are essential to the rest of their school learning experience is a rather daunting task.  How does anyone do this?

Of course I know the educational answers to this--repetition, multiple representations, activating multiple learning styles, etc.  But, things get messy when you are actually doing this with real children.  Children who miss their mommy and daddy, children who have tummy aches, children who need to use the bathroom, children who have no idea at the beginning of the year why they are at this place called school.

I love my kiddos.  They make me absolutely crazy, but I am wild for them.  They stole my heart the first time I met them on that incredibly hot and humid August evening.

Here are some of the things I love about them as a whole:

1. They show me love in consistent ways.
          I am not kidding when I say they make me crazy...I think almost every day there is some point in time when I have to put both of my hands on my face, think to myself "oh my goodness", take a deep breath, and persevere despite their lack of focus and tattling tongues.  However, they are so sweet.  It doesn't matter if I just finished scolding them or praising them, every day I am met with hugs, "I love you Mrs. Olson", and the love sign language.

2. They love to sing.
          I never thought I would sing in my classroom--ha!  What a joke that seems like now.  We sing every day and multiple times a day...in fact I make up at least one, if not two, new songs for them each week to learn our new sight words for the week.  They love to sing with me and they love to sing on their own.  It is delightful to hear them singing our songs while they work.  It was adorable on our field trip to the pumpkin patch when we were on a tractor ride and they were belting out our "October" song together all on their own.  Music is so important in learning.

3. They love painting and special projects.
          Today we did a special turkey craft that they knew was coming and looked forward to all week.  Ah, they get so excited to paint and they paint and paint and paint over the exact same thing until they are sure it is thoroughly covered--wow that paper is wet by that point!  I love how excited they get for little things and how focused they are during that time.

4. I love seeing their learning.
          Yes!  They are learning!  Not only do their assessments show this--almost all of my kids know almost all of their letters which is a HUGE improvement from the beginning of the year, they are so much stronger in other areas as well--but I see this every day.  I love seeing their growth in all areas of kindergarten...when I consider what they were like the first day of school I think it is remarkable to consider where they are at now.  Wow.  No other grade level allows such a total transformation for all students in a trimester.  It is truly incredible.  Even now I am smiling as I consider how awesome that has been to see them learn and own why they are at school and to see the emotional and academic progress.

I have been learning so much about myself and teaching through being these 23 children's kindergarten teacher.  They challenge me and excite me.  I have been convicted of my need for more patience and grace on several occasions so they are also pointing me towards my constant need for Jesus.

I am thankful to have the next week off of work--I need a break, they need a break, and we all need rest (we are a bunch of snotty, coughing individuals), but I will be missing them and excited when I can greet their smiling faces next Tuesday for our first day of kindergarten in December!

Where our learning and growing takes place :)