Monday, August 9, 2010

Here We Go Again

Well, it happened. I sent out my "grown up" graduated kindergartners and in came a group of baby 5-year-olds. Every year this happens and I must again start over with kids who seem so much younger than last year's group. Or maybe it's me that's older; hmmm.

The one thing that I've noticed after 2 weeks with this group - the short attention span. This week I watched a group of boys bounce from building with blocks and wood pieces to playing a trail game with the spinner back to the blocks, back to the game, and then to the homeliving center to cook a meal. Wow! I thought, "I'm not sure I can handle all these boys moving around like this." (But, of course, I can. I did last time.)


This group has already surprised me. More than just the moving around. This week I added various wood pieces to the blocks center--spools, dowels, flat wood pieces, ropy trim, craft sticks, and assorted shapes. I've used variations of these shapes with groups in other years. This is the only group that stuck the dowels into holes in the spools and flower pots. They made towers and other cool creations. One quiet boy even devised a small catapult...which the other boys copied and adapted. 


One boy wanted to sort the spools, so I got him some cups.
The cups found their way into our buildings, too.

Maybe I won't miss my last group after all. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from this group, and hopefully teach them some things, too. And that attention span? I'm sure they will grow out of it!