One month of school

It feels like so much longer but the kids started on August 20th.  One month ago.   It's been emotionally rough because I have so many children.  By Tuesday #23 and #24 will have started.  I don't know when it became acceptable to have such large class sizes.  The PTB want to cap my classes at 16 each.  That's 32 little preschool peoples to work with total.  16 kids/day in a special ed. class of any kind is too many!

Well, it is what it is.  I've written a letter of protest and made a chart to show why I can't meet the needs of 16/day and 32 total.   In my opinion we're treading on thin ice with meeting our legal obligations but district is at fault, not me.  It is what it is. 

On the good side of work-my kids are fabulous!  The kids in the four year old class play so well together.  We worked so hard last year to create a peaceful classroom and it's showing this year.  The three year olds are starting, just starting, to play with each other for little bits of time.  Mostly it's just sharing the same materials while playing which is perfectly developmentally appropriate. 

This crop of kids is also showing how imaginative they can be.  Wednesday I knocked a basket of crayons off of my table.  The boy I was working with says to me, "I get 'em for you.  You not helping me."  He proceeded to pretend that he was snorkling, diving under the table to get to the crayons.  He'd pick up 3 or 4 and then come up for air and dive back down again.   When he was all finished he exclaimed, "Whew, no sharks." 

This little guy and a half dozen others are on their way out of my program this fall.  It's sad to turn things over to someone else but exciting that they don't need us anymore.