"I want to be God"

Today we got to write about what we imagine. I imagined a school where everyone wore pajamas. First grader S wrote about summer all year. First grader A imagined the library. (?)

One student drew a house with flowers and a sun and wrote, "I want to be God." She loves church.

Tiller was a great album

One kindergartener with a speech impediment (or a dental impediment...unclear which) sings "Tiller, Tiller..." and does the dance complete with zombie moves.

What do I usually look like?

Yesterday a kindergartener told me I looked like a girl. A first grader told me I looked like a zebra.

Back to School Night

I love meeting students' parents. The similarities are always hilarious.

Smock or Straight-jacket?

Yesterday, I was in a kindergarten class learning how to play with water. My job was to figure out how to get the smock on the kids. It was harder than you might imagine.

I pulled one very pliable student to the side and had her try it on. Once I got the belt around the waist and her arms were sticking out at a 90-degree angle from her body, I lost it. I couldn't stop laughing. Neither could the other teacher, which just made things awkward. The pliable one just stood there, movement-impaired, as she pretended to play with water.

I wish I had a picture. She was a good sport.

It's an official MJ problem

Overheard in kindergarten:

student 1, raising a hand: "Who gave you that necklace?"

teacher: "My friend Michael."

student 2, yelling: "Michael Jackson?!"

Seriously, you guys? What happened to Hannah Montana?

MJ part 3

A different student this time wrote, when given a topic of choice, "my favorite song is Michael Jackson. He is a king of pop."

Bhangra!

I went to dance today with first grade. It was fantastic.

Friday is Funday so they were learning Bhangra. There's maybe nothing better than seeing kids bobbing their heads and smiling and hopping.

Distraction

The ELL (formerly known as ESL) teacher came in during writing and taught a great lesson on spelling.

After the lesson and while the little ladies were supposed to be writing about the weather, one stared intently at the new and entertaining teacher. The teacher was wearing a turtleneck.

I oversaw her stare and scrunch up her face and ask, "How'd you get your head in your shirt?" She really wanted to know.

It's Salami

Kindergarten does a lot of "guided discovery." This means they learn how to use materials safely and to say "please" and "thank you" when using them.

On the bulletin boards outside the kindergarten rooms is beautiful evidence of this: construction paper (material #1) cut with scissors (#2), glued (#3) onto blank paper (#4).

The kids made collages, and the teacher asked each child what hers represented. Most of the work says, "It's my mom" or "It's me at school."

In the corner of the bulletin board, on a crumpled and ripped piece of paper, is a jumble of purple and blue, labeled "Salami."

Aggressive Hugging

I remember being a kid and being aggressively hugged by adults. It was enveloping, and it was scary. Especially if the adults had boobs.

But maybe things have changed. Today, a kindergarten was aggressively hugging me. It was neither the time nor place, and I was having none of it. I told her so. She got off me and then came back for more, her head right into my boob.

For reasons unknown to me, she didn't find this scary. Instead, she poked my boob. And made a "boo" sound.

?

Weighted Frog

I got a weighted frog this week. She's cute and fuzzy, and in her bottom is 5 lbs of beady weight.

Her name is Froggy, and she's therapeutic. I've been spending the most time with her. Most of the time she sits in my lap or on my chair, unless I'm massaging her legs to get the beady weight back where it goes. Maybe someday she'll actually be used with kids. Let's hope not. I want her to be clean.

First Grade Yogis

I went to yoga with first grade today.

It was great. The kids did a mostly good job with the poses. Downward-facing dog was their favorite.

My favorite was watching them sit, which is what we've been doing since the beginning of school. Sitting. I'm not sure where they learned about yoga, but a number of them took the opportunity to sit like a cartoon, legs crossed and hands on knees, palms up and fingers in circles. Very ohm.

Unrelated to teaching...

...but related to kids:

On my way to the subway home yesterday, I saw a little kid in one of those harness-leashes that is dressed up to look like a teddy bear. (I know, right?)

He was off the leash and running towards me and some scaffolding. His mom, angry, yelled out, "Yo! Where you going? You off the hook!"

"Is it lunch yet?" reprise

Today was the first full day of school. Breakfast starts at 7:20, and the girls leave at 4:00. Long day for a little one.

Also, we share our school with another building of middle schoolers and yadda yadda yadda lunch is at 1:10.

The girls are 5 and 6, and they are almost always hungry. Around 11, one student meekly asked, "After recess and lunch, are we still going to be this hungry?"

!

Update on MJ

She wrote about him in her princess journal. With crayons.

Pre-K boyfriends

Duh, kids say the darndest things, but it's always eye-opening to get stories from other teachers and what they overhear. So, from another teacher:

Kindergartener 1: I had sex with my pre-k boyfriend!

Kindergartener 2: Me too!

Kindergartener 3: I had sex with my brother!

everyone: ?!

Someone needs birds and bees (or turtles, what what).

MJ

One kindergartener is, as I've heard from other teachers already, obsessed with Michael Jackson. And sure enough, in my one 5-minute interaction with her, this is what ensued:

me: [sit at lunch table]
kindergartener: hey! hey! [tugging at me] you know Michael Jackson?
me: Yes.
kindergartener: He died!
me: uh huh
kindergartener: My grandma and I have a video. We watch it every night and cry.

No Boys!

Everyone's new to the school (since it opened yesterday), and the kids are adjusting slightly better than the adults.

I was in and out of classrooms today and heard the following happen more than once:

Teacher: "It's time for __, boys and girls..."

Student: "We got no boys! [giggle giggle giggle]"

Who needs 'em!