Book Choices

In kindergarten, we're learning how to choose books we like. A lot of girls want to find books about princesses. Others want to learn about animals.

I get to work with the quirkier ones, though. One likes to find "Bleeding Books." These are where someone is bleeding or maybe has just been bleeding. She really like Shel Silverstein poems.

Another likes books with "Mean Faces." She's the class tongue-sticker-out-er and eye-roller.

Surprises from the kindergarten set

Most of the time, the kindergarteners I know are pretty typical. They cry when someone steals their crayon; they need help tying their shoes; they like to tell you the love you.

Today, though, I was mightily surprised not once, but twice.

Incident #1:

During snack, I overheard one girl say, in a fake British accent, "Charlie bit me! Ouch, Charlie! That hurt!" Usually the cultural references are more Hannah Montana-related. Youtube viral videos? That's new.

Incident #2:

At dismissal, one kid who usually goes to afterschool was in the family pick-up line, and I didn't think twice about it. After her afterschool group left on their merry way, she yelled, "I need to go to afterschool!" Uh oh.

I had no idea where the group went or where the program was located, but the school aide told me they had just left and we could maybe catch up. So kindergartener and I went flying down the street, her with flailing arms and me with a pink Hannah Montana backpack. Once we got to the corner, the group was nowhere to be seen. Uh oh times two.

Luckily, kindergartener wasn't half as worried as I was. She seemed to know the way, saying things like you turn here and then go down a curve. After about 5 twists and turns down Bronx blocks, we arrived at the program. I would've been lost without her, but this kid knew her stuff. Future cartographer?

If You Like It, You Better...

I often seen one of my little ones on the subway in the morning. She's in kindergarten and has speech disabilities. She's a little hard to understand and also talks super loudly.

The other day, she spotted me a few seats over. Though squished between her 8-yr-old brother and very pregnant mom, she yelled my name and tried to climb out to meet me. I didn't think that was good for our fellow passengers, so I got up and went to her.

We shook hands, and that's when she noticed my ring. Oh boy, this was exciting. She grabbed my hand, yelled at her mom, "Ring!! He got a ring!!!" and started doing the Single Ladies dance. No jokes.

Visual

As you might expect, there are a lot of pictures in kindergarten and first grade. Especially when the kids can't read yet. So I spend a fair amount of my time drawing things that are, somehow, supposed to express a ton of meaning.

For a "Writing Partner" lesson, I needed to show, "Partners listen to each other and provide feedback. Partners share their writing clearly. They sit side by side. They take turns."

Sometimes, the meaning gets skewed. Like here:

If I didn't know better, I'd think this lesson was on how to stare adoringly at a friend, perhaps alienating yourself, even though she should be the one who's alienated because of her hairstyle.

When I grow up, I wanna be...

Every class gets to pick a "star of the week." The star gets to do all sorts of things: wear a special ribbon, hand out papers, steal numbers off the hundreds chart. My favorite thing is the Star of the Week Interview.

It is written down and put on the wall. Hard-hitting, it covers questions like, "What's your favorite color?" and "Why are you special?"

It also asks, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Predictably, the girls' answers usually include doctor, teacher, and police officer (although that came out of nowhere from a mini, smiley kindergartener).

This week's top answer: fire truck.

When pressed, she answered that, no, she didn't want to be a firefighter. She wanted to be the truck, spraying water and everything.

Peacocks

Let's face it: things got busy. Opening a charter school takes brain energy, and why post if there's nothing to note?

But today, there was something to note.

When reading a label book (you know, "tiger" is written right by a picture of a tiger), one of my grumpiest kindergarteners found a peacock. At the top of her little lungs, she shouted, "Cockbush!" It was followed up with "Lion!"

She had no idea....

Binary

One first grader is new to schooling this year, so she's working hard to learn what's what. In her writing journal recently, she's been creating wonderfully illustrated stories. The text goes a little like this though:

3.11.4311.21344.

She's got the period thing down.

"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.