Morning ideas...

This morning, on school vacation I awoke thinking that once I'm retired my first project will be to put together the children's songs that I've written over the years with lessons and activities from the classroom, a multi-sensory activity book for teachers, including reflections and learnings along the way.  As I think of how to focus my writings, the songs seem to provide an anchor. They were written when there simply wasn't a song that I already knew that spoke to the specific need of the hour in my classroom.  Like "All Kinds of Families" was written when I was supposed to teach about families and the songs out there were too traditional compared to the actual life experiences in my classroom.  "First Day Tummy Butterflies" helped me over my first day jitters, and when I told the children that I had jitters too, they felt comfortable admitting their own.  As I added the hand motions to go with it, the children's physical movements helped them get out the pent-up feelings. An art project making butterfly kites helped them have a specific project to do, giving way to spontaneous conversations at the craft tables, initiating budding friendships.  Racing/flying their butterflies on the playground gave another outlet to the nervous energy, and let them know kindergarten is a safe place to feel everything from gulp to glorious freedom.  So this will be a project I can pour my experiences into while releasing myself from the tightly defined life of a teacher.