Parent Volunteer

Today I was the parent volunteer in Evan's class. If you remember Greg had gone in a couple weeks ago so now it was my turn. This was my first time in the class this semester as a parent volunteer for an afternoon, besides doing the library cart. Evan was very excited that I was going to be in his classroom today. As we were pulling out of the driveway to go to school he said, "Mommy, thank you for coming into my class today." Isn't that sweet? Here is Evan's classroom.

On Wednesdays during part of the school year, instead of going outside for recess the kids have "Dance Class With Miss Mary Jane." Evan had this last year too, but I was never in the class on the days they had dance class. Today I finally made it in there on a Wednesday and got to see the dance class. Evan's class is studying outer space this week so for dance class they did some outer space dances. They pretended they were astronauts and dancing on different planets. It was pretty neat. In the picture below the kids were pretending the red scarves were the planet Mercury, and they had to catch them on their back, arm, head, etc. after they threw them up in the air. Here's Evan getting ready to catch his red scarf. (The picture isn't the best because I had to try and not get other kid's faces in the picture because some parents don't want their kids picture taken.)


In large group today the kids were learning about the solar system and the order the planets go in. The teacher would describe a planet and if the child was holding it they would raise their hand and go put it on the board. Evan knew right away that he was holding Jupiter, and he raised his hand right away when the teacher started to describe it. Here's the finished product of all the planets in order. The kids did a really good job. (The board wasn't big enough to fit them all lined up so the last two got put in their own row.) Did you know there are only eight planets now, not nine? Yes that's right, so if you thought Pluto was missing on the board, think again. Pluto is no longer considered a planet. It's called a "dwarf planet" and now excluded from the other planets.


The pretend play area changes every week or two depending on what the kids are studying. Since the theme last week and this week is space, the pretend play area is a "space station." Last week Evan came home from school and told me there was a play video camera in the pretend play area. He was so excited about it, he couldn't stop talking about it! Evan couldn't believe he had a video camera to play with because that's what daddy uses at work. Today he had to show me how he pretends to be like daddy with the video camera. Check him out below.


I think he's learning from one of the best taking after his daddy! He looks like an old pro! It was fun to watch him play with the video camera this afternoon. I had an enjoyable afternoon in his class despite the one kid in his class whose behavior I couldn't believe. That part doesn't make me miss teaching, but watching all the kids learn and use their imagination does! I look forward to going back into his class to volunteer again!