Kaiser School continues for now

Even though parents, staff, volunteers and teachers are upset over a possible closing, Kaiser is running like a well oiled machine.  Education goes on.

Tuesday, my class was doing group work.  There were to cut out four pages (printed on one sheet of paper) and put them in order. An adult would then staple the pages together. Cutting is a hard learned skill.  Either you have the muscle development to use scissors, or you don't.  I trimmed up a lot of pages.  Even though the pages were numbered, not all students could put them in order.  Other directions were given, and were not followed.  They were to find page 1 and put their name under the word name.  That went so so.  Some put their names on the line, some put it at the bottom of the page, some didn't put their name anywhere until shown where.  They were not to draw anything, or write anything else, until told to go to the next page.  That part did not go well.  Several children finished the 4 pages, even though they couldn't read the directions. 

This was to be a group project.  They were to follow directions, not lag behind, all were to finish together.  No where close to that happened.  This project was all about directions.  Children have to learn to listen and follow directions.  The directions may be to help them to take a test together, or to be safe during an earthquake.  Groups have to be able to follow directions.  We work on this all the time.

Other times we let them work on being an individual.  But always they have to follow directions.  That is a life skill we all have to learn.

I did some one on one work in math.  They had taken an addition test and many didn't finish in the time given.  Some finished but many of the numerals were backwards. For example 9 looked like P.    10 would have an open zero and look like 16.  Math is exact, if we can't read it, it is wrong.  They must learn that at an early age.  While I worked with the students who had lots of mistakes, I made notes for Ms. H.  She wanted to know how they solved problems:  in their heads, using counters, using fingers, or knew the math facts.  Most could do the problems with counters, but were very careless.  They wrote answers under the wrong problem, started with one problem and then took part of the next one so neither was correct. 

This is a very chatty group.  I think most of them will be successful this year.  But in many ways they are "younger" than last year's class.  They have a harder time sitting in a chair, they stand, perch, lean.  We will work with them, fuss at them, expand their horizons, let them be creative.  We will educate.

Update on the paper mache

Last month just before spring break I posted about my first graders making paper mache globes. After drying for a week, the children painted them blue.  I had great pictures of the globes.  But after my phone went swimming while we were in San Diego, I lost the pictures.  They were the only thing I had not transferred to my computer.  But now I have pictures of the globes with the oceans and continents on them.  I really wanted to take pictures of the children working.  But not cool to post pictures of children without the parents' permission.

Tuesday the class as a group colored the continents (which were on a worksheet) and then cut them out.  Ms. H had her own blank globe and a real globe to show the children.  She then walked them through each step.  Besides me helping, we had two mothers helping. 

Ms. H held up her globe by the tied end, that was the North Pole.  They had already marked the equator.  They looked at the real globe, decided where the equator cut South America and began to glue. And then on to the next continent.  The adults walked around to slide continents up or down.  We also wiped up glue from the desk, their hair, and the globes.

After the continents were glued on, the names of oceans were added.  The really amazing thing was they did this together.  And they finished together.  The children who never keep up with the group were on this.  They colored, they cut, they glued, they kept up.  Yay for the first graders.

This is how we started out.  Balloons with torn newspaper and a glue flour paste smeared on.

Here they are painted with the continents and ocean names glued on.

Look at each picture and each globe.  The coloring skills and cutting skills vary greatly.

More for comparison. 

Here are all the globes.  One student was absent, so one globe has to be finished later.


Using scissors for many first graders is really hard.   It is a muscle development and experience thing.  Again I go back to the "old days".  Girls cut out paper dolls and their clothes, little boys cut out decorations for their balsa wood airplanes.  We cut out snowflakes and connected paper dolls.  We had no TV, no video games.  We used our hands differently than do children today.  Neither one is better or worse.  Skills are developed today by young children that are different from the skills I learned as child. No way can I use my thumbs on a video game or to type on a phone.  They can.

That said, paper mache has been around for centuries.  Little children use it to create as well as do artists.  Some things don't change.