Mr. Alligator

"Five little monkeys swinging in the tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, no you can't catch me."

"Along comes Mr. Alligator quiet as can be....SNAP!"

The children clap their hands together as the Alligator grabs a monkey from the tree with his puppet mouth.

Unfazed the four remaining monkeys continue to tease

and the song resumes:

"Four little monkeys swinging in the tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me, no you can't catch me."

"Along comes Mr. Alligator quiet as can be.....SNAP!"

We keep singing and the monkey's keep teasing until there are,

" No more monkeys swinging in the tree."

The kids love this song and are really into the hand gestures as the alligator creeps along and SNAPS each monkey.

We have one little boy who would rather play teacher during our free play activity time then do anything else.

He'll sit himself down as if he's the teacher conducting circle and play with the songs notes, the job chart, the 'what's missing bag'  and anything else that may be in our 'teacher box.'

If we want him to participate in the free play activities we have to remove the teacher box and place it out of reach.

What we really need to do is put him on the payroll and let him be the teacher. I'm sure he'd do a splendid job and as for the rest of us, we could just sit back and relax!

Dirty Jobs

                                                                                                                                    
It's true, Discovery Channels Mike Rowe has seen and participated in the most dirtiest jobs known to man, he's a brave soul, there is no doubt.

I have to wonder though, does Mr. Mike have it in him to spend a day in a Special Education Preschool room with some three to four year old delayed children in all their varieties, that perhaps are not potty trained, may come with gastric feeding tubes and during the cold and flu season, can sport a green snotty nose followed by uncovered coughs?

Only the bold and brave enter a room such as this... or... the truly insane, I have the believe I fall into the truly insane category but for our daring Mike, who has just about seen and done it all, I wonder what he would think.

This year we have four children that have the G- tube and luckily, with the exception of one, we don't have to feed them.

Our one little exception needs to be fed at 1:00 which works well with our snack schedule for the other children. We gather around the tables and while the children are eating, our little guy with the tube is playing and touching the food while his formula is pumping away into his stomach. It's not bad really, we've all been trained on how to insert the tube and work the pump.

It's when he needs to burp. See this little fella doesn't have the ability to burp normally, instead belching like the rest of us, he starts hacking and coughing and making gurgling sounds. When this happens we have to lay him on his back and insert a tube into his feeding tube. Immediately the air is released making a burping sound and our little man feels instantly better and ready to resume playing.

Usually this task falls on our nurse specialist turned paraprofessional. Since she was a nurse back in the day we let her take care of all the nursing that comes with our job, except the time she was gone of course, then the task was left to me and another teacher.

After the children were finished with snack and our little man's formula was emptied into his stomach we started playing, happily playing..... until we heard it. Hacking, coughing and gagging sounds were coming from our little guy.

 We put our trained skills into action and began working like a well oiled surgical team. One of the teachers picked him up and laid him down on a bean bag chair, I grabbed his tube and handed it to her, she inserted it into his feeding tube and immediately the trapped air was release and he 'burped'.

Yay! Bravo for us task complete, or so we thought.  The boy wasn't finished. Before we had time to cap him off, his belch was followed by lunch, which sprayed out of the tube, and....well...... I took the hit and was covered in formula.

Instead of crying over spewed milk, we laughed and chalked it up to yet another adventurous day in the life and times of preschool.

The Three Little Pigs

                                                         
"Little pig, little pig let me come in!" growls the Big Bad Wolf  just before he blows the poorly constructed house to oblivion. Little pig narrowly escapes and the frustrated hungry wolf  moves on to the next little piggy on the market, his brother.  The story continues with the angry wolf  huffing and puffing and the little pigs out witting and out lasting the wolfs wrath.

The kids get the biggest kick out of imitating the wolf and his deep voice, as a matter of fact they love everything about the Three Little Pigs.

We dance and sing to a song by Greg and Steve who tell the story with their guitar blues beat, we paint, color and cut art activities pertaining to the three little pigs and replay the story using flannel board characteristics.

By the time we finish with the Three Little Pigs unit the children know all about the big bad wolf and each individual pig.

I'd like to share an email from a parent regarding her daughters enthusiasm for the Three Little Pigs.

"I'm so glad to hear she is doing well.  She LOVES school.  She is so angry on Mondays and Fridays when her siblings go to school and she has to stay home with me.  We have been so entertained with her version of Three Little Pigs.  She uses different voices for the wolf and the pigs, and I had to record her and send the video to her grandparents!  She took it to another level this morning when she was hiding behind the couch so I couldn't clean her face off after breakfast.  I told her to come out from behind the couch, and her little voice responded, "Not by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin!"  It was so hard not to laugh!"

It's comforting to know we are instilling positive behavior in the children.

Now get your jam on as you listen to this video, it's just another reason why I love preschool.

Art Critics

Two little first grade girls, heck they could have been in kindergarten for all I know, were walking past the preschool room when they noticed some snowmen on display.

Critic #1: "That artwork isn't very good." 

                                                                        
Critic #2: "Well, at least they tried."

I mean really, it's why they call it art...right?