Grade ones were a sweet bunch but a handful! Every Friday afternoon, I would go home and nap for a few hours, exhausted from the week. They are very needy and what seems like common sense to us is not the case with the sweethearts. Many of my professors have deemed grade one their favourite grade to teach because they say that it's the most rewarding grade where one sees the most progress. Children come in lacking social skills or the ability to read and by second term, they are amongst the most vociferous in the schoolyard as well as gone up five reading levels. The kiddies are obedient, respectful, and eager to learn for the most part. But they are also very young and are liable to burst into tears of homesickness or even soil their pants during a poetry lesson (yes, my minilesson drove a little boy to poop in his pants, haha). I loved singing songs with them, motions and all, as well as the many read-alouds and shared reading that we did as a class. Having completed the practicum in the Winter, what drove me crazy was how freaking long it took them to put on or remove their winter clothing before and after recesses, boots flailing everwhere, missing mittens, snowpants that were threadbare and held up by safety pins. What I definitely do miss are the spontaneous hugs children greet you with or even the random "I love you"s that they are prone to say just because you are their teacher.
