La Reina de Flores

I had so much fun with my kiddos Thursday. So many of them are sporting these front-toothless smiles, and I can't get over just how stinking cute they are. After-school tutoring has started Mon-Thurs for the onees who need it, and last week I sent a rack of notes home. One-on-one tutoring is obviously preferred, but there's just no way to work that out right now. I dedicated some time to grouping the kids in a way that they could all hopefully get a lot out of tutoring, even if they were a little over-crowded...but we'll see how that works out.  This week's lessons have been slow as the return notes are trickling in from parents. Tuesday I had two cuties stay for help with phonics and reading, and both started the lesson in tears. They did not want to stay for tutoring! I assured them we would make it fun, and it was something they might enjoy. I don't think either believed me, but as the lessons go on I think they'll find faith. Learning a second language is tough; of course some of them need a little extra push! I just wish I could provide more one-on-one time for them. I'm going to have to do some thinking on that one. There has got to be a way! 

So Tuesday's kids were less than thrilled to be there, but they'll come around. Wednesday has been reserved for math, but those guys haven't brought their notes back. Thursday...one or two kids had brought their notes back, so I was expecting a small group. As the buses pulled away one of my girls wrapped herself around my legs and asked where to go for tutoring. She hadn't brought a note back, so I was a little surprised but of course pleased her parents had agreed to let her stay for tutoring. Then I had five of them around my legs, all kinds of excited for tutoring. They spent a lot of time running around, holding hands and spinning in circles, acting out the words I was having them pronounce--which included rolling around on the grass and hopping up to bark like dogs... I really want to keep tutoring outside the classroom as much as possible. They're trapped in there enough during the day, and I think we are surrounded by so many opportunities to learn. I tried doing some circle reading, but that didn't work out very well. Then I had them each run and find something to bring to me, and we were able to talk about the beginning, middle and ending sound of each object. We exchanged high-fives and excited smiles when the kids knew their sounds. I was so relieved! Imagine a "phew!" accompanied by a calming breath.

But one of the kids brought me a tiny flower, and once we had sounded and rhymed and all that fun stuff we talked about how pretty it was. Suddenly all of them wanted to bring me flowers, and the chaos broke out again. I decided to take my book closer to the flowers, and sit sort of in the middle of the kids and their floral excitement. I held the book open and started reading to them, then I'd pause and ask individuals to read different words. One of the girls started putting flowers in my hair, and the rest of the kids apparently thought it was a fun idea. It was sort of neat having them all over me, climbing around, scurrying for me flowers and talking about the best place to put them. They were sliding them into my hair and making a crown of sorts. What I liked about it was that having them all stuck to me like that made it much easier to do some circle reading. At the end of the session my kids learned some pronunciation, I learned some lessons on the do's and don'ts of group tutoring and they dubbed me La Reina de Flores. Flower Queen :) It was a very long day, but the way they worked together to "make the miss look so beautiful" left me joyful. Some of them even did better on their spelling tests the next day. Maybe there is something to be said for the group tutoring. 

I like that one side of my head shows that it was a long day, and the other side shows that my kids are awesome

Once tutoring was over a few teachers were still hanging around, and everyone was cracking up at my hair. Maria took a picture and said I looked like Mother Earth. What a compliment :) the buds kept falling out in the breeze, but some of them were stuck in pretty tight. I guess I could thank the humidity for adding that extra frizz. Maryann got a picture before we headed home, but a lot of the flowers had already fallen out. They had a whole crown around the front of my head, and it has me wanting to experiment more with flowers in my hair.