Brought To You By The Letter B

On Animals

The younger four-year-olds class is currently studying an animal theme. This week's focus was animals of the rain forest. Ms Melissa was reviewing the animals they had gone over the day before by showing a picture of the animal and telling something about the animal (while showing the anteater, for example, she said "it eats ants").

The kids were really having a hard time remembering "toucan." It was obvious that the answer was dancing on the edges of their memories, just out of reach. Finally Kiera piped up as sincere as can be with "IT'S A CAN-OPENER!!!"

On Naming Children

This morning when I got to work, Mia was eating her breakfast at the table. When I walked in she told me that her husband Troy was hiding in our classroom under my desk. Yes, Mia is one of my students. She's four. After sending the imaginary Troy out to McDonald's to pick me up a sausage biscuit, I sat down at the table with Mia and we started talking. She said that when she gets old like her mommy and daddy (who are at the oldest in their early 30s) she's going to have this many kids (at which point she held up all 10 fingers). And then she started naming them all.

Star and Jade and Cinderella and Rainbow. And some boys, too - among the more memorable were Clock, Paint, Pencil, Computer, Spiderman, and Batman. And a boy named Star that will marry the girl Star, but not right away because they'll have to grow up first. Yeah.

The child kept naming children, and eventually realized she had long ago passed that limit of 10 that she had set for herself. So then she said, "I think I'll have zero-zero-one kids." That's 100 in child-speak.

"And they'll come to school here too, and when they get big like me they'll be in your class."

I love my job.

On Watermelon

"I don't like the green part...it tastes like grass."

I'm not really negligent, I promise

So, last week I mentioned that emergency personnel had to be called to the daycare to free one of my students' feet from a table that he had somehow managed to become stuck in during naptime. Yeah, I know. Naptime is an odd time to find oneself stuck in a table. And for that matter, a table is an odd object to find onself stuck in.



Anyway, I bring that little jewel of a memory up to tell you about what happened to this same child this afternoon. The kids were playing in centers. Alex was working a puzzle. I was putting my book center back together after what I can only assume was a tornado that blew through it. I had a clear line of sight to all of the children.



Evidently Alex lost track of one of the pieces of the puzzle he was working on. He assumed it had fallen on the floor, so he crawled under the table (not the same table as last week's episode of The Preschool Files) to find it. I don't know if someone startled him or what, but he ended up hitting his head on the table when he came back up. And immediately he had what appeared to be a horn above his right eye. I got him an ice pack and made sure he hadn't concussed. He was perfectly fine - except for the large protrusion on his forehead, of course. Not even so much as a headache.



Someone please tell me why it's always the kid who gets notes sent home about his inability to follow directions that ends up injured on my watch. If I didn't know any better, I'd be suspicious of me.

Here's the kicker: the puzzle piece he was looking for was underneath the puzzle the whole time.

I love my job!

Jordayn makes an adorable genie, don't you think?

here we go again

It's an annual struggle that every teacher must face. You have been with one group of children for nearly a year. You have watched them grow and change. They have improved vastly on skills and constantly amaze you with the level of independence they have achieved.

Your class is a well-oiled machine. Everyone is comfortable with the routine and their place in it. You have your little tricks and you know which ones to use with each child for maximum effectiveness.

Obviously, it's time for room promotions. Your little darlings will move on to the next teacher or the next school. You will miss them, of course. But that's not the main issue. You are actually excited for them to move on to the next teacher and build on what they have learned from you.

No, the problem is that you now have a totally new class. And they aren't at the same level in their development that you grew accustomed to with your previous class. These kids are back at square one as far as you are concerned. They are not the mature and independent little people that you have grown so used to dealing with. They need you to do more for them, because developmentally they have not yet built the skills necessary to do for themselves.

It's hard to adjust backwards. It just is not natural to regress. You have to be more patient as you constantly remind yourself that these kids are behaving normally for their age. Yes, you broke your previous class of these behaviors months ago, but it was a slow process then, and it will be a slow process now as well.

You have to learn a whole new group of kids and find the tricks that work for each one. You have to lower your expectations - at least a little bit, at least for a while.

It's tough on everyone all around. Sure, you are having trouble with it. But so are the kids. They have to learn a whole new classroom, new rules, new routines, new expectations. They have to adjust to you and your personality.

The beginning of a new school term is a very awkward time all around.