...before lunch

We had:

-two cases of pinkeye

-one issue of diarrhea

-one constipation issue

-one fast-growing skin allergy

Clay Thingy

Uh oh.

During art class, the kids were using brown clay. One kid, allegedly, made a penis out of clay and put it on his pants. He sneakily got others to peak.

Oh, sigh.

Stripping and Molting

Today we did the molting dance.

This is when you pretend to come out of your larval exoskeleton, after you ate too much and got too big for it. You wiggle and wiggle.

Scanning the room, I thought it was pretty cute.

And then I saw evidence of serious miscommunication: one student, belly exposed past the button, had her arm in her shirt and was about it take it off. Yikes stripes!

Unexpected skin exposure never goes over well. Too many squeals to handle before lunch.

Who let the leaves out?!

On Friday, a fiber artist began her residency in first grade. We'll be making a soft-sculpture butterfly garden with all sorts of life cycle information.

While cutting out fabric in the shape of leaves, one kid started singing:

"Who let the leaves out? Leaf! Leaf! Leaf! Leaf! Who let the leaves out?" etc.

I can totally relate. Songs with lyrics changed to match your activity are the best. 

And especially when you go a little counterintuitive. I mean, someone boring and normal would've said, "Who let the leaves out? Who? Who? Who? Who?" Not this kid. He knows what's up.

Ringworms and Mealworms

Not really a worm #1:

Second ringworm outbreak of the year = ... adventure? And how does it end up on kids' heads? Checking for ringworm plus lice is too much for one scalp.

Not really a worm #2:

I didn't know what mealworms were until I started teaching. You buy them in bulk at Petco, and they tell you to refrigerate them. But if you don't...duh duh duhn...they go through their whole life cycle and become Darkling Beetles. Which look like roaches.

Last week, I picked up this year's set. Yay. 

You put them in a critter cage with some oats and stuff and then watch as the mass of oats slowly and almost imperceptibly moves around and wiggles. If you're lucky and you're the teacher, you get to reach in and pull some out to study. If it's an awesome day, you might even get some molted skin. 

I heard a rumor once of a teacher who has a self-generating aquarium full of them. Some in the mealworm stage, some in the gnarly white pupa stage, and some beetles...that look like roaches.

Sock on the Footbridge

Ok, so the footbridge again. It's not really teaching-related, but it's got bodily fluids, so I figured...hey.

The other day I saw two turds coming out of a sock on my way to work. Two human poops, one sock, and a host of questions.

It was still there in the afternoon, but with one poop.

Kind of Like Twitter

6-year-olds produce really urgent-sounding sound bites. They usually start with, "Can I tell you something?!" and begin before I can attempt a response. At the end of the day, here was the newsfeed:

"My dog is picking me up on Friday!"

"My grandma is in the hospital. Her legs got cut!"

"I got juice in my backpack! Juicy, juicy, juicy."

"My brother is going to capoeira!"

"My mom always helps me!"

This was in rapid-fire succession. They must've been holding it in all day. like me!