I come from a family of huggers, kissers, and pull-into-your-lappers. Earlier this week my 69 year old father, who is scheduled for hernia surgery in two weeks,  attempted to lift my almost 5 foot tall, ten year old son into his arms. I say attempted, because my watchful, no nonsense Mother, who was in no mood to end up in the emergency room with the old man, quickly put stop to it. The same way she put a stop to it many years ago when he was still trying to hug and kiss me and my teenage brother in front of our totally cool, punk rock friends. Oh, the humiliation.

I get it of course, especially since my own two children are very, very affectionate little buggers. But in my big, demonstrative, Jewish family it's not just parents and children showing the love, but brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles greet with full on, frontal hugs and kisses each time we see each other...often resulting in a "Crusher" (Aunt S.), "Mismatched Heights"(Uncle R.) or ""The Way-To-Long" hug (Uncle B). The awkward "Man Hug"? No, not in my family. The men hug just as tight and kiss-y as the rest. As a result, I grew up thinking everyone's family was overly affectionate. I think my jaw hit the floor with an audible clank the first time I saw my (then boyfriend) now husband, greet his Father with a hand shake! And oh, my, did he just give his brother a side hug?? How charmingly puritanical!

And that's just fine. Some of us are huggers, some of us are not.

So, to hug or not to hug at school?  In some schools it's frowned upon to so much as put an arm around a child. Here at Hirsch, we love our hugs. And boy, do we have some little love bugs in our class! For some, it's really regulating to have a lap to sit in while listening to a book, whether its a need for proprioceptive input, or just a need to feel loved and secure, we've always been open to warm displays of affection. We've long had a rule for the "upstairs kids" that when they greet each other we expect that they high five or fist bump,  not hug. Of course, there are a million exceptions to this rule. Some gives you a gift? A hug is ok. Haven't seen your best buddy at all over the summer break? A hug is totally warranted. Your friend is really, really sad because his pet died? A hug can do wonders. For the most part, though, we've told them if they need a hug, they can always come to us. And they still can, but the definition of a hug has changed a little bit. Why? As we told the kids this week, our little love bugs are no longer so little. Suddenly, we have some really big 8, 9, and almost 10 year olds! Heidi and Gudny's class has 11 and 12 year olds! We want school to be a loving and nurturing environment, but at the same time, we feel like we have a responsibility to the students to teach them age appropriate boundaries. There are different expectations for children as they grow up. So, here's the change:
1. The teachers are still available for hugs, but they must be side hugs. Full on hugs should be reserved for Mom and Dad. If they want to sit next to us and lean during an activity, they are still welcome to do so, but such big kids don't need to sit on teachers' laps.

2. High five-ing, fist bumping, secret hand shaking adults & kids

I think this is actually more heartbreaking for us, the teachers, than for the students. *sniff* when did they get so big???

You know who don't need  hugs? The Norse Gods. They are way to busy bravely protecting the world(s) from the forces of evil for silly tokens of human affection. Here's an awesome Diamante poem the class wrote this week honoring theses tough guys and gals:

Gods
mighty greedy
ruling partying flying
Sif Odin Loki Thor
fighting dying living
magical brave
Aesir

There are just a few rules to writing a diamante:

1. Diamantes are seven lines long.
2. The first and last lines have just one word.
   The second and sixth lines have two words.
   The third and fifth lines have three words.
   And the fourth line has four words.
3. Lines 1, 4, and 7 have nouns.
   Lines 2 and 6 have adjectives.
   Lines 3 and 5 have verbs.

Here’s an easy way to visualize all three rules:

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

Next week we will write more Norse poetry, in honor of  Bragi, the god of poetry.

Bragi!

 In Fairy Tales there are 3 Little Pigs desperately in need of some hugs. Or at least two of them, who have lost their homes to that nasty big, bad Wolf. Here's the version they read this week:

Making wolf and pig puppets

Making a wolf puppet

Math:

Here Tani and Annabella explore the many ways to make a number by playing "Go to the Dump". Similar to Go Fish, the players try to win as many of their opponent's cards as possible by asking for numbers that will add to their cards to make a target sum. For example, if the target sum is 10 and Tani has a 7 and a 1, he might ask Annabella for a 2.     7+1+2=10.  If she does not have a 2, she says "Go to the Dump" and Tani draws from the "dump" pile. These two clever mathematicians quickly discovered that they could also hit the target number by using subtraction as well as addition.

Tami showing one way to make 10 while playing the card game "Go to the Dump": 3+3+4

And another way: 7+7-4

Annabellas's way: 7+8-5