Tiny Dates and Speechless A!!!!

I am soooooo exhausted! I strongly believe in taking the entire month of December off and pick back up in January. My kiddos are too excited about Christmas to pay attention to me. :) So...I've started a new type of behavior plan. It's called the Punch Card Plan with a Shopping Catalog. I got the idea from another blog (I can't remember who to give credit but will try to find out) and so far it's been doing pretty good.

The kiddos have a punch card taped on their desk and as soon as they receive ten punches (hole punch moons) they get to go shopping in the prize catalog (that doesn't cost me a thing!). They can wear a hat for a day, have lunch with a buddy and talk the whole time, take their shoes off, show and tell, etc. Well, I will give a punch any time during the day and if I'm in a good mood or just ONE student is actually doing what I asked..they'll get two to three punches! I'm trying to encourage those kiddos who aren't so motivational to obey. I try to give each student at least one punch a day but sometimes...anyways...back to the story...

The most popular prize has been "eat with a buddy at lunch." We have a lunchroom policy where they have to eat for ten minutes in silent lunch and then they can talk. Well, if they choose to eat with a buddy at lunch, I let them sit at the next table over with one friend and they can talk the whole time. They LOVE it! Well, today, I noticed that these "buddy lunches" are becoming "tiny dates." I have a CUTE little student that reminds me of Tiny Tim and he wanted to eat lunch with another boy. Well, this other boy couldn't get it together and so Tiny Tim had to find someone else. He comes up to me and with a BIG GRIN tells me he would like this super cute little girl in my room to eat with him. It surprised me because usually they pick the same gender, but I said, "That's fine, but you will need to ask her." Not realizing that I am preparing him to be a gentleman, he goes over there and asks her to be his buddy for lunch. (I know! Cute!)

While eating lunch today, I looked over and their they were, sitting side by side, swinging those cute little legs, just chatting away at each other. It hit me that they were on a "tiny date" in the lunchroom! Tiny Tim was BEAMING from ear to ear because he had the girl of his dreams in first grade his undivided and full attention. He was just a smilin' and chatting away. It was the gosh darn cutest thing I have ever seen and I just smiled. He deserved it so much! I'm hoping more punch cards will continue to be filled!

My class has another tiny date tomorrow. My little prancer finally filled his punch card after three weeks! Praise the Lord! This afternoon, he chose to eat with a buddy, and he asked the new girl to join him for lunch tomorrow. I plan on snapping a picture. ;)

This week in reading we are learning about "ar" as in far, part, cart, etc. Well, I came up with a way to help them remember because they really struggle with these special vowel combinations, digraphs, and r-controlled vowels. I told them that a and r are dating in certain words. When they are side by side they are on a date and "a" becomes speechless but not r! He is so full of himself that all he wants to do is say his name. The kids were hilarious! I got a lot of ewws and awes and one girl even covered her ears because she couldn't stand them dating! I had a lot of giggles too but they were so cute. Of course, I really worked it in every word we did. I asked them, "Now in farm, is "ar" on a date? What happens when they're on a date in a word?" They did really well! They kept saying, "a is speechless! She's so in love!" I just love first grade!

We have DONE so many amazing things in first grade but just haven't had time to blog about it. I'm hoping to become better!

Southern Love,
Tricia