Thoughts.com Blogs - teaching frst grade working in the bored room

School days

I will never forget the day that my first grade class

wrote a friendly letter to their parents to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.

I had just returned from a medical leave of absence.

(see blog:summer of 1973..weddings and barium)

Before we began this monumental assignment,

the teacher has to make sure all the children have the right supplies.

First I had to pass out the construction paper which takes forever,

because they start trading paper or complaining about the color of their paper,

and by the time the last kid gets one,

the first one has already lost it.

Checking to see if everyone has a pencil is another big deal,

... if you get my point....

Inevitably,

someone had to either sharpen their pencil or locate their pencil?

After all those concerns are addressed

more often than not,

we then needed to pause for a bathroom break and a trip to the drinking fountain.

1st graders are a piece of work.

One girl cried everyday the first few days of school because she missed her mommy.

I suggested her mom pose for a picture,

smiling and waving at her daughter

and

tape it to the inside of her first graders lunchbox so that every time little Kristen felt lonely,

she would open her lunch and

get

a reassuring look from her mother

and a whiff of baloney.

The second day of school, I was in the back of the room

teaching the days of the weeks and months of the year.

Everyone was engaged in the lesson,

paying close attention with great big smiles on their faces

while they sat Indian style on the floor in front of me.

so naturally

I was thrilled

when my principal popped his head at that precise moment

to ask me a question

giving him an excellent opportunity to observe

an outstanding teacher at work in total control of her class.

I smiled and said,

Good afternoon Mr. Venezio,

and they all chimed in and repeated the same words after me.

You would not want your principal around

or anyone for that matter

when you are searching for a lost tooth

after someone throws up...all hell breaks loose.

" Good afternoon class,

um... Miss Durkin,

Are you missing anything? "

I couldn't imagine what he was talking about

???...missing anything...???

my purse was on my desk,

my lesson book and grade book were in my lap,

" No, I don't think so?"

Sauntering sheepishly into the room behind him was little Johnny,

a kid in my class.

Seems Johnny decided to walk home after recess,

the day was getting way too long for him

and I,

his teacher for 2 whole days

was not even aware he was gone

that's not good!

Oophs

now in my defense

I would have noticed an empty desk

had they been in their chairs

but they were on the floor

Fast forward to the letter writing lesson

I glanced at my lesson planning book

1. The Heading. This includes the address,

line by line,

with the last line being the date.

Skip a line after the heading.

I decided to skip the entire heading thing,

after all,

I had just returned back to work,

I did not want to take on too much too soon...

The friendly letter would have taken all afternoon

and I had a lot of ground to cover

so I wrote or should I say printed

these words on the board

the greeting

the body

the closing,

signature

We are going to write a letter to our parents to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving

2. The Greeting. The greeting always ends with a comma. The greeting may be formal, beginning with the word "dear" and using the person's given name or relationship

Oh Dear

Dear

is a word we use to address

not that kind of address... ok, address, not the place where we live

Dear is a word.....no not the kind in the sound of music

doe a deer

not that kind of dear... dear

so after I get that word out of the way

I get into the word

Parent and its meaning

Parent

is a word that describes

a mom and a dad

(at least it did back in the day)

although if you only have a mom,

you would write

Dear Mom

if you only have a Dad,

you would write

Dear Dad

but if you have both a mom and a dad,

you write

Dear Parents

Does everyone understand?

Yes, Miss Durkin

Great,

Dear Mom,

Dear Dad,

Dear Parents,

David, where are you going?

I'm going to get my pencil

I dropped it

on the other side of the room?

How did it get all the way over there?

I don't know?

OK, go get it and sit down Dave

Moving along

Does anyone know what a comma is?

Who would like to come up here and put a comma after

Dear Parents,

(now we take the time to spend an unbelievable amount of time

talking about commas)

how they are not quite like a stop sign... like the period,

its sort of like

"a wait just a little second"

no its not like a real second

Mary, how would you like to come to the board

and put a comma after the word

Parent,

Great Job Mary

Way to go!

3. The body. Also known as the main text. This includes the message you want to write. Normally in a friendly letter, the beginning of paragraphs is indented.

indented

oh that means, move the first word

Have

over a little bit

no Tommy

not all the way over there,

just a little bit

we spend an enormous amount of time discussing the definition of a little bit

Now everyone

look at the board

Let's all read this together

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

good job

now we are all going to write

Have

happy

thanksgiving

raise your hand when you finish

yes, just copy it off the board,

I know you do not know how to spell these words,

just look at the board, honey

Andy, what did you say? You are bored...

if he only knew how I felt!

4. The complimentary close. This short expression is always a few words on a single line. It ends in a comma. It should be indented to the same column as the heading. Skip one to three spaces (two is usual) for the signature line.

Because we are writing to our parents

or in some cases

maybe

to just your mom

to just your dad

we are going to use the word

love

for the

Love,

Love comma

and we are going to put a comma after the word love,

who would like to come up here and put a comma after the word love?

Good, Peter go to the board and show us where it goes

Peter, why did you put the comma way over there

I don't know ?

does anyone want to help him?

Who can show Peter where the comma belongs?

Allison, thanks for volunteering to help Peter

yes, it goes right after the word love

Love,

Good work!

5. The signature line. Type or print your name. The handwritten signature goes above this line and below the close. The signature line and the handwritten signature are indented to the same column as the close.

Now if your name is John

you would write

love, John

if your name is Sally

you would write

love, Sally

Does everyone understand?

Does anyone out there in blog land understand

why

I put first grade last on all my applications?

???????????????????????????????????????

!@#$%^&*()_

I was thinking that I might have gone overboard

explaining all this stuff to the point where

I want to commit suicide

but when the first child finally finished

and then asked me where he should put his name

I said

sweetie, did you sign it?

sign it???

sign it means...here, let me see your paper

It said,

Dear Mom, Dear Dad, Dear Parents,

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Love, John

Love, Sally

Turns out almost every single kid in the class wrote the same thing however the rest of them added more text to the body of the letter.

Dear Mom, Dear Dad, Dear Parents

Greeting

body

closing

signature

Have a happy thanksgiving

comma

indented

Love, John

Love, Sally

ok class, who needs a drink?

besides me

and that's another story