Fire Alarm

Today during sharing time something completely unexpected happened… The fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building! The kids were terrified, the noise and lights scared them half to death. Luckily, there was a long pink ribbon on the table that I was sitting at. I remembered our walk that we had gone on last week, where everyone was required to hold onto the string and not let go, and I thought this would be the best way to keep track of all 7 kids. One was so scared that I had to carry her outside, but with the presidency able to lead and follow the line of children, we were able to safely get everyone outside in a surprisingly short amount of time. Several parents stopped in the Primary room on the way outside and picked up kid’s coats (since it is winter time here, it was in the 20’s) and met us outside and tended to the kids that were upset while we kept counting and recounting all the kids to make sure we didn’t lose any. Thankfully, it was a false alarm and we were able to go back inside within 10 minutes of the evacuation. There was no way we could have prepared the children for the loud noise and lights that come with a fire alarm, but I was so glad that just last week we had gone on that walk with the string around the building. They had something familiar during a time of distress that helped them cope and not freeze up in the craziness, which also helped us get them out of the building in an orderly fashion. I think we will be doing fire drills in the future every couple of months or so to make sure that we are all prepared for that type of evacuation again.

Field Trip

This week seemed to be an especially difficult one with all of the children being extra cranky. There’s always one or two each week that are having a bad day, but this week, EVERYONE was having a bad day. We were battling it through the lesson, not very effectively, and the spirit definitely wasn’t in the room. I had to resort to ‘counting to three’ to get the children back into their chairs and pay attention. Just before I was about to loose it totally, on the brink of tears, the Primary Secretary said, “Who’d like to go on a walk?”

The children were so excited about this mini field trip they immediately jumped into the line behind the Secretary and were at attention. She had in her hand a piece of yarn about 5 feet long and each child had to hang onto the string. She discussed with them the rules for this walk. “There is no talking, and you must not let go of the string.” When we were all on the same page, we began our trek through the halls. We only made it down one hall and came back to the classroom, but the kids weren’t having that. We explained that because they were talking in the halls and one of the children let go of the string (they bolted toward an exit door, which we luckily caught him before he ran outside) we had to come back to the classroom. We asked them if they wanted to go out again and they were very enthusiastic about it and promised to follow ALL the rules this time. We made it down 2 hallways this trip (there were only 2 in the building…) and came back to the classroom.

After this little trip, the kids were still anxious and wiggly, but we were able to have the spirit with us and enjoy the last part of the lesson. This was an excellent example of thinking on your feet and being prepared to make changes to the lesson plans. Thanks again so much to that special lady who had the brilliant idea to ‘go on a walk’. She not only saved the lesson, but my sanity!

Coloring Time Game

For the last couple of weeks, we have been trying out a new ‘game’ during coloring time. The kids in our class have a tendency to all happen to want the same color each and every time we color. Our budget (Primary budget or my own pocket book) doesn’t allow us to have a set of crayons for each child in the class. However, our new ‘game’ means that each child randomly gets a crayon without anyone seeing it ahead of time (the popular pink and purple ones always get in there somehow…) and they get color time with that crayon until the teacher says “SWITCH”. Each child must switch crayons with another child in the classroom; they cannot keep the crayon more than one turn. It is not required to color using this crayon, but you must hold it and keep it until a teacher says the magic word “SWITCH” and then you may get another color from another child. This not only keeps coloring time under a good schedule, but alleviates melt downs over the coveted Pink and Purple crayons that are oh-so-popular in our Primary class. The children also seem to enjoy this sharing process and it’s helping take care of other sharing problems that we have had in the past as well, without us ever having to have the “let’s share” discussion with the kids.