11.26.2024 While it’s true that teaching requires a great deal of planning, there’s also something to be said about a bit of last-minute inspiration as well. About 20 minutes before school today I decided that my Kindergarteners needed one more turkey activity to properly send them off to Thanksgiving break. We’d just finished our part-part-whole math unit yesterday, so a ‘making ten’ turkey fit the bill perfectly. The problem with last-minute ideas is that they don’t prep th

11.15.2024 Tonight was Western Roundup at my school. Picture carnival games and bounce houses, food trucks and music, all with a Wild West theme. It’s super fun for the kids. My class has been looking forward to it for quite some time. Their excitement (and subsequently, their energy) has been building all week. Unfortunately, my energy was dwindling in inverse proportion to theirs. While it’s true that elementary school events don’t typically go past 8 p.m., it’s also true t

11.12.2024 My students go to the school library every Tuesday afternoon. They return their library books, check out new ones, and enjoy a story read aloud to them by our fun-loving and incredibly-animated librarian. They absolutely LOVE going to the library. But I bet I love it more. You see, when we go to the library, I immediately assume my position behind the circulation desk. I no longer ask or wait to be invited behind the highly-respected boundary of the circulation cou

11.5.2024 I dropped off my mail-in ballot this morning before work. It was about 6:40 a.m. and there were at least 150 people in line. Thankfully I got to walk right in since my ballot was complete, but it was kind of inspiring to see so many people there waiting for the opportunity to cast their vote. It reminded me that voting is a big deal. I started a new behavior incentive today in my Kindergarten class, and I had the kids vote on what their reward would be. We had ballo

11.1.2024 Kindergarteners don’t mince words. They are both brutally honest and incredibly loving, which is the perfect combination for the most genuine, sincere, and sometimes off-the-wall compliments. Kindergarteners call it like they see it. No poker face. No forced niceties. Just raw reactions and unfiltered thoughts. Now sometimes this can hit a little harsh. I once had a student tell me that they couldn’t wait to grow up and have coffee breath like me. And I’ll never for

11.27.2023 I left my house really early this morning and got a glimpse of the beautiful full moon, sitting just above the peak of my roof. It was fairly cloudy out, but the moon had found the perfect spot to settle in the sky. My view of the full, bright, round moon was unobstructed and the light reflecting off of it shone brighter than even the brightest Christmas lights on my block. Although I was struck with its beauty, my thoughts immediately turned to school. I hadn’t re

11.21.2023 There was a ‘to Ms. W.’ envelope in one of my student’s homework folders today. When I opened it, I found a sweet note from this student’s family along with a Chipotle gift card. I’m a big Chipotle fan, so I was certainly excited about the gift card. The best part of the gift, though, was the note inside the card. The sounds cliché, but it’s totally true. My student’s mom had taken a few minutes to share with me in this note, a few of the ways that she’s seen her d

11.16.2023 Today was a day. It was not necessarily a bad day – in fact, it was quite good. But we had a big event at school today, so our routine was off and emotions were high. By 2:30 this afternoon I was exhausted and overstimulated, and the kids were too. We needed a low-key, stress-free ending to our day, so I had the kids do a turkey directed drawing for the last 20 minutes before we packed up. They did great, and a sense of calm came over the classroom as everyone desi

11.9.2023 Today my kindergarten class made muffins. We’re in the midst of a Nursery Rhyme unit and today was “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” day. We read the poem, sang the song, made a ‘rhymes with man’ list, and then made individual microwave mug muffins to cap it all off. At the end of the school day, I sat in my empty classroom reflecting on the day. The cinnamon smell was still lingering, and a few leftover supplies were sitting on my back table, but all other evidence of

11.2.2023 I have had a wish-well heart in my classroom for many years. It’s really just a pizza pan with a large red heart hot glued on it, but what it represents is something much cooler. I have little pictures of each student on magnets, and if a student is absent we put their picture in the heart and then “wish them well” until they return. I have an assigned wish-well helper in my class each month and they are in charge of keeping the wish-well heart up to date. They also

11.29.2022 I spotted it Monday morning while out on the playground. Everyone spotted it. It was impossible to miss. There it was, across the street from our Kindergarten playground, a giant inflatable snowman just standing there waving at us. I have no idea who lives in this house across the street, which, by the way, I will now and forevermore refer to as the snowman house. Perhaps it’s a family with young kids who begged their parents for the biggest snowman they could find

11.17.2022 Tonight we had Kindergarten Round-up at my school. For those of you who don’t live in the elementary school world and may not know, Kindergarten Round-up is a recruitment event. Prospective Kindergarten families come, tour the campus, and hear a presentation all about our school and what to expect as a Kindergarten parent. Tonight the other Kindergarten teachers ( Allison , Teresa and Katy ) and I gave tours and answered questions. We each gave a small portion of

11.15.2022 I love phonics. A lot. Probably more than most people. Actually, I think it would be safe to take the ‘probably’ out of that last statement. I love phonics more than most people. Yep, that’s accurate. I’m guessing the average person in their everyday life doesn’t actually give phonics a second thought. I probably think about it enough for all of them. For as much as I love phonics, the funny thing is I don’t remember learning how to read. I have a few vague memorie

11.9.2022 It rained during recess today. The rain clouds were taunting us all morning and my fingers were crossed that the rain would hold off until my class had had a chance to run around outside and play. I stuck my head outside the classroom about two minutes before recess and found it very overcast, but still dry. I lined the kids up to go out to the playground, but as I opened the door for them to file orderly outside (or rather run crazily to secure their favorite swing

11.3.2022 I counted to 22 about 749 times today. It was field trip day in Kindergarten. The kids’ excitement level was through the roof. Through. The. Roof. I mean, when you’re 5 and you get to wear a special tie-dye shirt AND ride a bus AND go to the farm AND eat lunch at a picnic table AND this happens the same week as Halloween … well, life doesn’t get much better. It’s pretty cool to see kids so pumped about an experience and it’s rewarding to know that you’re helping cre

11.2.2022 I was walking from the office to my classroom this afternoon. I was in a hurry, because there were approximately 4 minutes before Kindergarten lunch recess was over and about 10 things I wanted to accomplish in those 4 minutes. My mind was in overdrive, thinking about a dozen different things all at the same time. But as I approached my classroom I heard the beautiful sound of kids singing patriotic music down the hall. I knew immediately where it was coming from an

I typically cry on the last day of school. I can usually hold it together until I get home, or at least until I’m alone in my classroom, but there are almost always at least a few tears shed before the sun goes down on day 180. Last days are crazy. They’re usually filled with a million little things to do, last minute items to be sent home, celebrations and class parties, too much sugar, a half-packed classroom, and a teacher running on fumes. Then throw in the emotional impa

11.16.2021 About 5 minutes after dismissal yesterday, my student Emily (not her real name) and her dad came into my classroom. She lost her roast beef piggy finger puppet and came back to the classroom to see if she’d left it there. We’d had an afternoon of little piggy fun as part of our nursery rhyme unit. Surely you all know the rhyme … “This little piggy went to market. This little piggy stayed home. This little piggy had roast beef … etc” Well, the kids had made little p

11.8.2021 Anyone who knows me knows that I love music. My day to day life most definitely has a soundtrack attached. I sing in the shower. I sing in the car. I sing in my classroom. I sing while I cook. Even when I’m quiet, you can pretty much guarantee that there’s still a song bopping through my head or whispering to my heart. It’s also safe to bet that the vast majority of the time it’s a harmony line, not the melody, that is implanted in my brain. One of my favorite thing

11.4.2020 I have a little girl in my Kindergarten class who, every single day, greets me with “Happy School Day, Ms. Wiebel!” It’s very cute. I think it started because I sometimes say Happy Wednesday (or insert appropriate day here) to the kids. She wanted to do the same, but keeping track of what day it is can be kind of tough when you’re 5 years old. Now, I look forward to her sweet, bubbly, and very sincere greeting each morning. Today was a happy school day. One of the m