Preschool DJ Equipment

In all three of our preschool classrooms, we still have the old school CD/cassette players that my generation & the generation behind me grew up with. But, nobody has them anymore nor does any store still sell them anymore. They are officially a thing of the past. Yet, our school has not updated our D.J. equipment yet.
For music, the teacher has to use my D.J. equipment for the CD player and the other preschool teacher's D.J. equipment for the cassette player. This means, we use two boom boxes for preschool music class. Sad, but true...and a royal pain in the 'you know what'!
Before music class last week, one of my afternoon boys points to my 'boom box' (which was sitting on the floor next to me) and says in a serious/concerned tone, "Ms. Rich-or-son, that's the biggest boom box I ever seen." When our music teacher entered our room he said the same thing to her.
He's right! Who on Earth still has a boom box that plays CDs and cassettes? Where is the ipod and docking station?

Preschool Murder Mystery

Over Christmas Break I noticed 2 of my 3 dolls were missing from the housekeeping area where they are normally kept. I took a quick look through things, but did not find them.
Fast forward to this morning...
Before school, I told my aide, Mrs. Brown, about the missing dolls to find out if maybe she put them away or knew where they might be hiding. It was a mystery to her too.
The students came into class and sat on their carpet squares. We did our usual morning routine - talked about the schedule for the day, did calendar, weather, share, and then story time. While I'm sitting at the front of the circle reading All You Need For a Snowman I notice Mrs. Brown hidden on her hands and knees behind the housekeeping furniture looking through the cupboards, etc. I assume she is looking for the missing dolls and continue reading thinking nothing of it...UNTIL her head and her finger pop up above the child size stove and are facing right at me.  On Mrs. Brown's face is a look of shock and horror! On top of her finger is THE HEAD to the only doll who is still accounted for! I immediately cracked up laughing, to the point of tears, while my students sat and looked at me like I was the crazy person because they had their backs to Mrs. Brown and did not know what was behind them.
Later this morning, I noticed sitting on top of my filing cabinet, tucked in nice and cozy next to my printer, is the doll...with its head sitting next to its body, which immediately brought back the giggles. Throughout the rest of the day, Mrs. Brown and I told all of the other preschool staff to go see what was sitting next to my printer. A few seconds later we'd hear that person laughing out loud to themselves.
I'm laughing, with tears running down my face, as I write this and remember.
It was like something out of a vintage horror movie.

"...for christmas, I'm thankful..."

We've only had two school days since the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. It makes me sick to type those two "s" words in the same sentence. It makes me just as sick to think about what has happened.
Despite the tragedy, it was heart warming to welcome my students back to school yesterday and today even though they're too young to know about the recent events. For me, it was a reminder of how much trust their parents have to leave their precious, tiny children in my hands for a few hours each day.
There have been extra "goodbye" or "how was your day" hugs but for the most part, life seems the same in my class as usual, except for these few sweet stories...
Yesterday as one of my dads dropped off and later picked up his son like he does every Monday repeatedly told me, "Thank you for all you do."
This morning, one of my loving moms got down on her knees to give her daughter a hug and held on to her a few extra seconds. When Mom stood and her daughter confidently walked into the room, Mom's eyes filled with tears. It was so heard to watch, but so beautiful to see.
During circle time this morning, my smallest little girl with the cutest little speech delays you've ever heard said , "Ms. Richardson, for Christmas I'm thankful for you".
Later in the morning, one of my sweet little girls came up to me and said "I love you Ms. Richardson."
While kind words like this often come from preschoolers, it meant so much more hearing them today.

Broken Hearts in Newtown

It's been four days since the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and it still consumes my every thought and wakes me during the night. A million thoughts run through my head during all hours of the day and night...those poor children who lost their lives, how are the little survivors supposed to ever recover from this, oh how my heart breaks for the families who lost their child, those teachers are heroes, those children are braver than superheros, what would I do if this happened at my school, what do I do or say to my preschoolers if they ask about it, for crying out loud these are CHILDREN!
CHILDREN!
I've watched death happen before my own eyes and I've hit the rock bottom of grief. Both of which still linger in my heart and mind every day. Grief is the worst thing my heart has ever felt. It's something I never, ever want to experience again. EVER! Yet there are hundreds of innocent children in Newtown who are in the midst of it. My heart breaks for them.
My hope is that something like this never happens again in our schools.

Presidential Events in Fifth Grade

As I watch the presidential election tonight on television I am reminded of a day in the classroom almost four years ago.

DON'T WORRY!
THIS STORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHICH SIDE YOU ARE ON OR WHO YOU VOTED FOR!!

On January 20, 2009 Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States. At that time, I was student teaching in fifth grade at an elementary school in Laguna Niguel. We arranged for the fifth graders to watch the inauguration on the big screen in the Multi-Purpose Room.
We sat and watched...And watched...And watched...
Honestly, I don't remember much of it, but what I do remember is something I will never forget.
To my surprise, the students were so engrossed in the historical event, they did what the live audience did at the inauguration. Almost anytime the audience gave a standing ovation, our fifth graders stood and applauded. When the audience was asked to stand, our fifth graders stood. When the audience applauded, so did our students. And when the audience stood, took their hats off, put their hands over their hearts and sang the national anthem or a patriotic song, our fifth graders did the very same thing.
The incredible thing is, these 10 year olds participated on their own!
We NEVER told them to take part in what was happening on the TV. We NEVER asked them to stand, applaud, sing the songs, etc. We only told them to sit quietly and watch. Yet, us teachers SAT there and watched our fifth graders VOLUNTARILY, and without hesitation, participate as if they were a part of the live audience. They were fully engrossed in that historical event which is still so incredible regardless of who was becoming our president.
It still amazes me when I think about it.
Those fifth graders are now in ninth grade!
Gosh, this makes me feel old!

Wet Shoes

Last Thursday was an extremely rainy day for So Cal standards. Much to my surprise, my class handled it incredibly well, other that they arrived at school during the biggest down pour of rain we have seen in a year or more. All of them were soaked from head to toe!
VERY SOAKED! 
Every morning I greet each student at the door, give them a hug and expect a "good morning" or "hi" or some sort of response back from them. On this rainy day, one of my little three and a half year old girls stopped in the doorway when I greeted her. Instead of responding to my greeting she said in her cute, squeaky voice, "Wait! I have to dump the rain out of my shoes!" And then sits down in the door way like they normally do when they have to dump the sand out after recess. She rips off one shoe, turns it over to dump it out, puts it back on and does the same with the other shoe. Of course there was no rain IN her shoe, but it probably felt like there was.
How simple their little minds think!
I long for the day when simply dumping the rain out of my shoes would solve all my worries!

"What's my name?"

Working with preschoolers and having a really long name like Ms. Richardson results in being called some very interesting things...

1. MRS. Richardson...students, parents, coworkers, etc ALWAYS marry me off! The sad thing is, I constantly call myself Mrs. Richardson too.
2. Teacher...to which I respond, "What's my name?"
3. Ms. Witch-ardson...I try not to take this one personally even though I really love Halloween and witches. In my students defense, the beginning sound of "R" is hard to pronounce at their age.
4. Richardson...said by one of my afternoon kids who I've had for 2 years now. And said in a tone that adults use when they might say "damn it" in an angry tone. But he's never angry. EVER! It just comes across that way only when he said my name. And he has NEVER used the Ms. part. It makes me smile inside every time he says it.
5. Mom...they're little kids! Of course they get confused and call me mom in a weak moment. We've all done it at some point during our school years.
6. Aunt Teri...for the past two years I've had two of my nieces in my class who call me Aunt Teri. They called me that at school too, which I let them get away with because to them, that is who I am. The funny thing is, both years there was a few girls in the class who tried to call me Aunt Teri too. One of the girls happens to be a girl who's family I have been babysitting for since before she was even born. She seemed to think she would get away with it because she was aware that we had a special connection too unlike the rest of the kids. I definitely didn't let that fly.

There's more, but these are the classics, and the only ones I can think of at the moment.