"MOOOOOMMMMMMMMYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!"
At 4:30 this morning I am jolted out of my sleep to a bloodcurdling shriek from the hallway.  It's my 6 year old daughter, and she sounds like she's just seen a ghost. Or an intruder. I leap out of bed, full on adrenaline coursing through my body. My husband has already left for work, so I'm frantically searching in the for the first thing I can find to inflict maximum damage upon whoever, or whatever, is about to abduct my child. I grab a lamp in my left hand, the iron in my right. Like Chuck Norris, I kick the open the bedroom door and see my girl, sobbing uncontrollably at the foot of the stairs.
 "Lolly, what's wrong?"
 Is there someone waiting in the shadows? Did she fall down the stairs? Is she bleeding from her ears? What could cause her to scream like that at 4:30 in the morning?
She holds up an empty cup. I can barely understand her through her tears, "ISPILLEDMYWATER!"
"What, honey?"
"I came downstairs to get a drink and I *sob* spilled *sob* my *sob* WATERRRRRRRR!!!!!"
I carefully put down my weapons (before one of them becomes lodged in the side of her skull), take a REALLY deep breath, and sit down on the stairs.
"Lolly," I say, in my best teacher/mommy voice, "Do you think your reaction matches the size of the problem?"

Problem Scale

All day, every day we run up against problems. Most of them are small, or a "glitch" as we showed the kids on the "How Big is the Problem?" scale. Dropping your pencil, misspelling a word, having to wait your for your turn on a swing: small problems. Others seem a little bit more difficult; skinning your knee, getting in an argument with a friend, losing a favorite toy. Then, there are big problems: breaking a bone, getting bullied, a car accident. Sometimes a small problem can seem big depending on our mood, time of day, amount of sleep we've had (amount of coffee we've had...) Being able to reflect on the size of the problem is an important skill, and one that is really hard for some children (and too many adults) to master.

Below is our "Problems and Reactions" visual (the students called them "problem donuts"). Your reaction should match the size of the problem. Small problem=small reaction. When reaction and problem match, you are showing Expected Behavior.
Problem: I got up to go to the bathroom. When I returned, a classmate was in my seat.
Expected Reaction: "I don't know if you realize, but I was sitting in that seat. Can I have it back, please?"
When the size of the reaction is bigger than the problem, however, you are showing Unexpected Behavior.
Unexpected Reaction: Screaming "Hey! Get out of my seat now!" and pushing the other child.

See Glassman at the bottom? He shows up when you have a really big reaction to a not so big problem!

 We'll be practicing this skill all day, every day. Let me know if you want copies of these visuals to keep at home. I've got one on the fridge at my house, and you can believe I whipped that baby out this morning at 4:30. Spilling water? Small problem. Giving Mommy a coronary at 4:30 am because you spilled water? BIG PROBLEM.

 What are we watching?

If your child came home telling you about men in trees, they weren't lying.
When we got to school on Monday there was a bit of an emergency situation: a large branch was blocking the driveway. A kind neighbor helped up cut the branch--just in the nick of time for carpool.
The tree (pecan) was later pronounced dead, and on Tuesday was taken down. Wow, what a sight! We spent quite a long time watching this amazing process.

It's hard to tell, but there's a man with a chainsaw in that tree!

Several of the logs now adorn the playground. Not sure what we will use them for, but the children sure had fun playing on them, rolling them, and hopping from log to log!

What are we learning?

We're still digging on insects and arachnids. One of my favorite moments this week was when a spotted a child staring at his "Ant" art that we made last week. I was busy trying to refocus him on the task at hand, but he insisted on getting his ant (well, he actually made a termite). Finally, he said to me, "I have to have the termite. I've got to fix it!" When I asked what he needed to fix he said, "I only put 4 legs on it. But an insect has 6!" AHA!


Below are some scenes from a math puzzle:

We have been discussing the terms "greater than", "less than" and "equal", along with the symbols:< > =.


We gave the children a bag of plastic animals and a bag of plastic eggs.

 We posed the questions: Are there more animals than eggs? Are there more eggs than animals? Is there an equal number of animals and eggs?

 Here are some students practicing greater than and less than equations.

 Wanna know what the answer was?

Ask your child...

REMINDER: Next Friday is conference day. The students will be at school that day and I will have a substitute.

The awesome John O'Connell, Jakob's Dad, is putting together a frame for our scaretroll!! The drop off deadline is a week from next Tuesday. I need 2 things from y'all:

1. A volunteer to take the troll to the Botanical Gardens either that Monday or Tuesday.
2. Some old clothes of yours or your child's to dress our fella in!

Thanks!!