Too good not to share

The first graders were all busy working at their desks this morning. One little guy is pretty chatty and was doing his thing, when the girl next to him, without even looking up, said "please stop talking. I stopped paying attention to you."

Oh how many people have thought this but been too polite to say it!
Yeah, it sort of sucks being outside on the playground when it rains. Or it's cold. Or it's rainy and cold. But then there's days like today when the sky is gorgeous and a group of kids and I just stop to watch an eagle soar and all of a sudden those days don't matter. Until next time it rains.or it's cold.


A wrinkle in time

If I don't blow dry my hair in the morning, it tends to be pretty wavy - which I like to think he meant when the first grader asked me why my hair was wrinkly.

#gettinold?

If 8 year olds were in charge

 Wisdom of an 8 year old:

"I think Thanksgiving should come after Christmas.  Then people would remember to be thankful for their Christmas gifts".

Not sure what that would do to Black Friday though....

Thief!

A 2nd grade soccer player came to me at recess complaining that another boy was stealing the ball from him. A little frustrated by a high level of complaints today, I simply said "isn't taking the ball just part of the game?"  To which he simply said "Yes. If the person taking the ball isn't on your own team".

Noted: legitimate complaint.

I like you

I learned something today - it feels really good when someone unashamedly, with absolutely no agenda looks right at you and says "I like you". And then runs off to play on the swings, expecting nothing in return.

#tobe5
May need to try that. Maybe not the swing part. Or maybe :)
After math, I walk with the kindergarteners to the cafeteria for lunch.  We were half way there when one little guy realized he'd forgotten his lunch box. Making small talk as we headed back to the classroom to get it, I asked him what happened that he forgot it. He answered "I guess my brain was just too full of math!"

If ever there was a good excuse, he just nailed it.

Snake - part 2

Another snake sighting today. This time, I'm told, no one picked it up.  According to eye witness accounts, the snake told them "Leave me alone. You're not the boss of me". Sorry I missed that.

Way to be assertive, sir snake.
"Mrs. Y.! T caught a snake!!"

As I turned to see where the noise was coming from, I saw a swarm (yep. I used the word swarm) of about 15 second graders heading my way. And yes, T was leading the way proudly holding a snake.  My goal was to get the snake back in the grass where it belonged and I quickly weighed my options. I could firmly tell the group to do just that, but I knew this would be met with objections, arguing and probably attempted bargaining. I know this group.  They were getting closer - and more excited. When they reached me, and after the proper amount of "oohing" and "that is SO cool" from myself,  I decided to appeal to their compassionate side. I mentioned that the snake looked very scared to be surrounded by all of them (in reality, if a snake could look pissed, I'd say he looked pissed) and that the nice thing to do,would be to find the perfect spot to let him go. And with that, the swarm of kind hearted second graders turned around to release the poor snake - who had most likely emerged to simply sun himself on a day that we actually had some sun.

Crisis (for all of us, including the snake) averted.

You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose...

This school year, my time is split between a 5/6 split (advanced students), a kindergarten class and, of course, time on the playground. Kindergarten and the playground have been like slipping into a comfy pair of old shoes. Teaching math to the advanced students has taken a little getting used to.  As a whole, they are fairly serious students, serious people. I've tried to lighten things up a little but was afraid I was failing when, today I heard "Mrs. Y.? Can I add a rule to our class? "Shoot, I thought. No more rules! just relax!"  I have to admit I was oddly and pleasantly surprised though when I asked what rule he wanted to add and he grinned "no putting pencils up your nose". I knew better than to ask what prompted that, but agreed it was a great rule.

I think they're comin' around.
Back to school!

I was talking to a Kindergartener about his summer. He told me about a huge wasp nest at his house.

G - "When my dad killed it, three million one hundred wasps came out!"

Me- "Wow" (because what else can one  say to that?).

G- Pause. Pause. Pause. "Or maybe it was ten".

Points for understanding exaggeration at the age of 5!

Summer time, and the living is easy....

Today I made my way to the back side of the field.  There, I witnessed a funeral for a snake and a house being built for a slug. Both made me smile.

Kids are  definitely ready for summer.
"Hey Mrs. Y. - Wanna  see what we found in the sand box? It's soft and squishy - and shaped like corn nuts." 

Yep. Ready for summer vacation.


And next year is Jr. High!

From a 6th grader:
"Can I do my self portrait of someone else?"

Only after your write your autobiography - about someone else.

The nose knows (sometimes)

A third grader came to me very concerned: 
"Mrs. Y. I smell smoke!  Or teriyaki."

Good thing I paid attention during those teriyaki drills so I knew just how to diffuse the situation.
A boy excitedly grabbed my hand and pulled me toward a clump of weeds saying "you've got to see this!".  When we got there, he continued " you have to get down low to see it".  That's when I realized I was going to see a slug - those pests that eat my plants and slime my walk way ... but when he asked "isn't he cute??!", I found myself saying "he is!".

And that's what hanging out with kindergarteners will do to you.

It's all how you look at it

When I commented on the very large and deep hole they dug in the sandbox, one of the third grade boys corrected me. "It's not a hole. It's an upside down mountain".

Love outside the box thinking, even when it takes me a few seconds to get it.

I'm a push over

Because so many kids like being pushed on the swings, I usually tell them something like "I'll give you a few pushes to get you started" so I can get to everyone. After telling a kindergartner this today, she turned around and responded "but I don't want you to get me started, I want you to get me ended".

Yeah I gave her a few extra pushes :)
After her crayon broke, the kindergartner spent several minutes digging through the crayon bin when she held up a nicely sharpened one and exclaimed "Here's one that's charged!"

Cute or sad? Not sure.

Just protecting his parts...

Today a 6th grade boy and girl were kicking a soccer ball back and forth to each other.  I heard him say "make sure to keep it on the ground".  When she aske why, he paused for just a second and responded "there're are less vulnerable parts down there".

Point well made.

If the shoe fits...

I'll admit, my patience was a little thin today:

"Mrs. Y - W's shoe is stuck in the basketball net!"

"Unless his foot is still in it, you'll need to figure out how to get it down. If his foot is still in it, I'll help."

Yea, spring break really can't get here fast enough.

She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me NOT

"Ugh....Ewwww...grossssss" the 6th grade girl screamed as she ran off the play field at recess.  I had a couple of theories (bug, snake, boys' bodily function to name a few) but my question was answered by her smirking friend.  "Someone just told her they love her".

So much worse than I had imagined.

Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth...

After giving her friend some misinformation (about how to log on to a web site), I overheard one kindergartner say to her friend - "I'm sorry.  I said the truth wrong".

I guess with that way of thinking, we can always tell the truth.  Even if it's wrong.

Math

When one of my kindergarteners was clearly procrastinating doing his work by telling me "math gives me a headache", I suggested that maybe If he focused on his work he would forget about his headache.  His "really?!" could have meant one of two things:

A.  Mrs Y - you are so clever. Thanks for the advice.
B.  Mrs Y - I may be 5, but I wasn't born yesterday.

Pretty sure it was B.

Frogger

As we were stopping and starting to make our way through a soccer game in order get across the playfiled, I mentioned to my 2nd grade companion "this reminds me of a game called Frogger".  Realizing Fogger came in the early 80s, I was pleasantly surprised when her response was "I love that game!"

High Fives to Maddie's parents!

Perspective

Favorite quote of the day (overheard from a group of kindergarten girls):

"No one is perfect. Not even princesses."

These girls have it figured out.

Keep it up!

"I love science - it's gooey"

This girl has clearly been doing some AWESOME science experiments.

Aha!

I was teaching Kindergarten math today.  It was a new concept for most of them as we talked about graphs and then practiced graphing some information when I heard one little guy say "Oh! This makes sense!"  

Maybe I watched too many cartoons as a kid, but I swear I saw a light bulb go on above his head :)

Signed, SEALED, delivered

A 2nd grade girl came up to me holding one eye.  "Mrs. Y. I got poked in the eye by a seal".  Her friend quickly assured me - "it was a toy".

Phew.

Night time visitors


Looks like we had some visitors on the play field last night - lots of very big foot paw prints all over the field this morning. Fun listening to the kids speculate about what happened and who was there!

"One" says the queen

Overheard a group of 6th grade boys on the way to the playground - "I think it's impossible to say the word "one" with a British accent". Needless to say, they tried for the remainder of recess.

How do they come up with this stuff? (You're trying it, aren't you?)

USS Princess

A group of first grade boys approached me. "Mrs. Y - the girls are trying to turn our battleship into a princess ship". Curious, since we were outside on the playground where there was no "ship" per se, I had to ask "is that a bad thing?" Their answer was a great reminder of the power of 6 year old imagination and made me smile.  "Have YOU ever tried to clear a battleship of everything pink?"

I guess my honest answer would be "No. No I haven't"

According to Webster...

A soccer playing 1st grader came off the wet,sloppy play field soaked from head to toe. His friend summed up what happened best, and in the process may have coined a new and fantastic word:

"He got puddled"

Whoop whoop

A kindergartner asked me if "whoop whoop Gangnam style" was a bad word. I so badly wanted to say yes.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
Jul 15, 2012 - Uploaded by officialpsy
PSY - Gangnam Style (강남스타일) ▷ NOW available on iTunes: http://Smarturl.it/ psygangnam ...