It's the last week of the semester and the Badgers are all healthy and ready to learn again!
It's been a while since we had a full class and now with one more student the noise level in the class is a bit too loud. We had to get back to basics this week and practice raising our hands before we speak and not using our outdoor voices in the classroom.

In Phonics class, we are almost finished with all of our consonants. The only one we have left is "Z". So next semester we can focus all of our phonics time learning our vowels and blending them with the consonants.

In Math class we are starting to count by 2's 5's and 10's.

Leetrue is having lots of trouble raising his hand before he speaks. He also tends to want to tell stories during class time that has nothing to do with the subject we are talking about.

Jae and Theresa are talking and giggling a lot in class. It happens mostly when I am disciplining other students, and Theresa is beginning to make other children laugh when they are getting in trouble. I need to stamp this out quickly because it makes the person who is in trouble feel cool.

Elaine is very clingy. She spends most of her play time close to me, looking for hugs and wanting to sit on me. At first I didn't mind because she was new and she needed someone, but now she needs to start making friends and gaining some courage to go up and play with them.

August is starting to talk more in school and to teachers. Other teachers have noticed and mentioned it to me.

Ryan has an extremely difficult time sitting still in class and not making noises and laughing. I am gradually putting more pressure on him to stop this behavior because I don't want to discourage him.

Christine is well behaved for the most part and stays under the radar. Sometimes she joins into the gigglefest and talks to others when I am talking.

Jason has started with some odd behavior that needs to be stopped ASAP. He has started rolling his eyes when he is in trouble and looking to others for approval. This need for negative attention will be self reinforcing if it is not corrected ASAP. He needs more positive encouragement.

I had a great week with the class. I seem to have made a breakthrough with August and Jason in Phonics class. I played a phonics game using the letters we have been learning about lately and both of them didn't make any mistakes. They can now relate the sounds of the letters to the beginning sounds of the words. I am relieved that they have taken this step just in time for the beginning of next semester.

Leetrue is doing well. All he teachers love watching him play and talk to others. He is really funny and has a interesting, innocent perspective.

Theresa and Jae are really getting less competitive and becoming more cooperative. It's great to see them grow and mature together in a healthy way.

I had an other chat with Ryan this week about making friends and how to play with people nicely. I will keep reminding him and will encourage him on Monday to keep up his spirits.

This week in phonics we continued with letter "P" and started letter "Q". On Friday, teacher Angel and I combined our classes and made a giant quilt. (since quilt starts with "Q")

I told the class a made up story about a young girl and his brother. She always got angry when she didn't get what she wanted. He would be more understanding and his parents gave him more of what he asked for. She soon learned that doing what she did actually made it harder for her to get what she wanted.

I am working hard with August correcting him when he makes mistakes, and making sure he always tries to use complete sentences. I am also calling on him more and more in class and trying to boost his confidence so he is not afraid to speak out.

Jason is improving in phonics class. He is remembering more words that start with each sound and seems to be making a connection between letters and their beginning sounds.

Christine seems to be getting along very well with Elaine. They like to play together and sit next to each other.

Ryan was much better this week in class. He was back to his usual self. I'm going to start working on the tone he uses to talk to his friends. Sometimes he talks in a very aggressive tone, which causes tension in class.

Elaine is well behaved in class. She has a hard time falling asleep during nap time. She seems to be making a couple friends. One in Christine and an other girl named Estella in an older class.

The Badgers would like to welcome our new student Elane to the Badger class!

Yay! we got our classroom back! The room feels so much bigger than it used to because we were in such a small room for 2 weeks. The children seem happy to have more room to move around in, and so am I. Now lets just hope for better weather :)

The new washrooms in the school were the first time the boys in my class used a real toilet in the school. They always used urinals before, so at first there was pee all over the toilets. (It wasn't only our class)

I took the opportunity to teach the boys to lift up the seat and wipe anything left behind after. I also told the girls to look before they sit and wipe anything left behind before they sit on it. I was surprised how quickly the bathroom stayed clean. After one day it was much better.

We are happy Jason is back and healthy again. He was quite well behaved during class time except that he has forgotten to use his indoor voice in class and I often have to remind him to save his outdoor voice for outside.

Leetrue has also been very loud in class. He often sings songs and makes loud sound effects at inappropriate times. I am also having difficulty getting the truth out of Leetrue. I don't mean that he lies, but he often exaggerates stories and sometimes misunderstands the intentions of his friends' actions. He knows the boy who cries wolf story but has not taken it to heart.

Ryan is doing great in class. He is getting along very well with the boys in the class and they enjoy playing together now.

Jae did an excellent job during craft time this week. I taught the class how to cut a circle out from the middle of the paper and she did an excellent job. It is very hard to stop Jae from getting a big ego and controlling others in the class, because it is the others in the class that feed the problem. They all want to sit next to her, sleep next to her, play with her etc... She is slowly getting better at controlling the situation in a nice way.

Elane will go through an adjustment phase in her new class. But she is very brave at school and not afraid to have fun with students. It won't take long for her classmates to accept her into the group.

Theresa was a little bit rude to Elane this week during class saying things that one might say to a new student. But on Friday, especially after Mom talked to her about that in the morning, I could see that she made a great effort to be nice to her and accept her as a friend. I was very happy to see that.

August has been copying his friends in a mocking way. He does this to vent his frustration when he doesn't get what he wants. It is often Leetrue that he mocks. Since they are good friends and they always play together, they just don't always get along.