From the mouths of babes...

Many mornings, I am greeted by coloring pages and art projects that are "for you Mrs. Barnett!" and I am beginning to run out of wall space in the one area I keep them.  This morning one of my friends came in with a drawing in an envelope and everything.  It was a picture of a house, swing set, and several stick people.  I asked her about the picture and this was our conversation:

Me: "So who are all the people in the picture?"

Her: "Well, that's you, your husband, your two kids, your house and your dog."

Me: "(Laughing) Oh it is huh?  So, I don't have any kids, does that mean I am going to have two kids one day?"

Her: "You DO have two kids Mrs. Barnett.  You have two kids growing in your belly RIGHT NOW."

Me: "I don't know about that.  I don't know if I am ready for TWO."

Her: "Well you better get ready because you are having them."

Me: "Well who is this other person in the picture?"

Her: "Oh, that is the robot that lives in your house and takes care of it."

Me: "Well, if I have two kids, I am going to need a robot!"

Wondering (and somewhat worried) if this child has some strange sixth sense.  Guess we'll find out eventually!

Mrs. Barnett...he said the "S" word...

I can't tell you how many times a day I hear 5 and 6 year olds say my name.  It doesn't matter how many times we practice raising their hands, they still just can't help themselves.  I always cringe a little when I hear my name followed by "he/she did ________" (fill in the blank with some action considered egregious by a 5 year old).  So the other day I was especially nervous when I heard the dreaded "Mrs. Barnett, he just said the "S" word!"  I had seen other veteran teachers handle this, so I quietly leaned over and said "Okay, whisper the word he said so I can talk to him about it."  The child's response was (in a hushed voice) "he said STUPID."  Now don't worry, I did still talk to the child about using the word stupid, but I would be lying if I said I didn't breathe a sigh of relief when that was the "S" word we were dealing with, and not the one that was in my head.  I guess it's all about perspective at 5 and 6 years old.  Innocence is bliss.

Not in the mood...

This morning when we were getting ready to go to PE, I had a little girl tell me this...

"Mrs. Barnett...I'm really not in the mood today.  I don't need anybody bothering me."

Well...okay, then.

Eye Screening Day

So, today was eye screening day for kindergarten.  It is always difficult when you add/change an element of the daily schedule for 5 year olds.  It is especially hard when as a teacher you sign up for 11:20 as your time and the office calls at 9:25.  That's a way to send a room of kindergarteners into chaos.  So, this was kind of how that went down today...

Me: "Okay everyone, I need to you to freeze and turn your listening ears on.  We haven't had a chance to talk about this yet, but we are all going today to have your eye's screened."

Them: Room erupts into cheers, "Yeah, Ice Cream!"

Me: "No, NOT ice cream, we are going to have our EYES the ones that are in your head (pointing to them) screened, that means they are going to look at them."

Them: "But the lady from the office said ice cream!"

Me: "No, no she said eyes screened.  They are just going to check them."

Them: "Are they going to poke me in the eye?"

Me: "No, it won't hurt, and it isn't scary.  I promise."

So yeah, we finally all got lined up and considering it threw their whole day off, they did pretty well.  I would count this as a good day, and I take those whenever I can get them!

First Day of School

Well...today was the first day of school. My FIRST first day of school in fact (well...as a teacher anyway). Thought I would do a little post to kick of the year. If you have ever wondered what kindergartners ask on the first day...here are some of the questions I heard all day....

"When are we going to play on the playground?"

"When are we going to eat?"

"When are we going to rest?"

"When are we going to play with those blocks over there?"

And again..."When are we going to eat? My mom said we were going to eat."

"When do we go home?"

"What bus to I ride on?"

"When do we go home again? I think I'm ready to go home."

"Are you sure we're going to eat?"

So there ya go...all the priorities of a 4/5/or 6 year old!

At least she used a vocabulary word...

Each week we teach our students three "wow" words, which are higher level vocabulary words. To give you a little background to this story, one of our words this week is scurry. So, on the way back from recess one day I got caught up talking to another teacher, so our substitute walked the students back. I hurried to get back to the classroom, and when I came in, this was the conversation that took place...

Boy: "Mrs. Barnett, how did you get back so fast?"

Me: "I don't know, I guess I walked very fast."

Boy 2: "Were you scurrying?"

Me: "I guess I was."

Girl: (With straight and serious face) "Mrs. Barnett, you can NOT scurry. Your feet are TOO big to scurry!"

I guess she put me in her place!

When I Grow Up...

Last week at the lunch table we were having a discussion with one of the girls in my class about what she wanted to be when she grew up. She was telling us what she wanted to be one day, this is how the conversation went.

Girl: "Well, first, I want to be a teacher."

Me: "That's great. I think that would be fantastic."

Girl: "But I want to be something else too."

Me: "Really, what's that?"

Girl: "A McDonald's worker."

Me: "Oh really?"

Girl: "Yep, I am going to be a teacher during the year, and a McDonald's worker in the summer."

Me: "Well, it sounds like you have it all worked out. Why do you want to be a McDonald's worker?"

Girl: "Well, because I really LOVE holding fries. AND when I'm not working, I can just stay and eat there!"

Maybe I should think about working at McDonald's during the summer???

Self-Evaluation of a Kindergartner

So, last week we were required to have our students do self-assessments of themselves as a mathematician, reader, and writer. I'm not sure exactly what was expected of kindergartners when they completed this assignment, but the results were interesting. When they did the ones about math and reading, most of what they put at least made sense, even if it wasn't a lot of information, however, we we did the final one about being a writer, there were two responses that were particularly humorous. Here they are:

Girl 1:

Ques: In writing, what is something you feel good at? Ans: Writing words

Ques: In writing, what do you still need help with? Ans: How-to stories

Ques: What do you want to get better at? Ans: Planting flowers in my garden.

Girl 2:

Ques: In writing, what is something you feel good at? Ans: writing

Ques: In writing, what do you still need help with? Ans: sounding out words

Ques: What do you want to get better at? Ans: Opening my umbrella

Always interesting to have a peek into the mind of a kindergartner. I'm glad those two girls were able to get those worries off their chest...even if it had nothing to do with writing.

Pollen Season is HERE!

So this is not so much a story, but just something funny that happened today. I will admit that I am thankful for these sunny warm days for our students to be able to go out and enjoy recess. However, I do not like the pollen that has also decided to come and visit. Today, one of my little friends came up and first informed me that she was hot and "that the 'sweaties' were about to bust out of her head." She also complained that her head was itching. I checked it when she pulled up her bangs....what I found was sure enough just enough sweat to have pollen stuck all over her forehead. I checked some other kids out of curiosity. All of them had little lines of pollen stuck to their glistening foreheads. Poor kids! I'm so ready for the pollen to go away!

I think it is...

So, spring break is over. But only about 7 more weeks with my little kindergarten friends. I am sad that they won't be around to make me laugh everyday anymore. On our first day back, I introduced a big book by Joy Cowley called Milwaukee Cows for number word practice. It dawned on my that they probably did not know what Milwaukee meant, so I asked them. Here were their responses....

Student One: "I'm pretty sure that is a dance."

Student Two: "Yep, its the milking cow dance...you know where you look like you are milking a cow."

They were pretty disappointed to find out it was actually a place. And what kinds of dances are these kids learning anyway?

Texas Forever...

Today I was doing a picture walk to preview a book at my reading table with a small group. During this time, I usually ask questions to have students make predictions of what is going to happen in the book. Today's book was called "The Big Box" and is basically about a family sending a box to their grandmother. I was asking questions like:

"Where is the box going? Where is the box now? Who is the box for?"

Most of the students were giving answers that made sense like, the box is at the post office, then the box is on a plane and it is for the grandma. One girl however, said it was for the grandma, but kept saying the box was going to Texas. I asked her:

"Why do you keep saying the box is going to Texas?"

She looked up at me as if I was stupid and said, "BECAUSE, that is where grandmas go to live!"

I thought Florida was the retirement capital of the world, but apparently it's not, it's Texas.

Kindergarten Reasoning

Today we talked about reality and fantasy during our whole group reading time. One of the activities for today was showing pictures on the smart board of things, and students had to decide why the picture was something that could or couldn't happen, or reality or fantasy. I would also ask students why they chose the answer they did to assess their reasoning.

One of the pictures was of animals sitting at a table eating. The student I selected to answer the question selected that it could not happen. When I asked him why, this was his reply:

"Well, because animals don't eat at the table, because if they did, they would poop on the chairs."

Yeah....that's what I was thinking too. Hmm.

Signs of the Times

Today during one of my small groups, I was having students find sight words with a pointer on a pre-printed phonics mat that we use during this time. The word "we" is one of their sight words and I asked them all to find it. All of them did except for one boy who looked at me very puzzled.

I asked, "Can you not find it?"

He said, "No, it's not on here."

I said, "Yes, it is, look at the top row, it's right there (and pointed at the word)."

He said, "That's not how you spell we....you spell it W-I-I."

At which point we had to have a brief lesson on the difference between the game console wii and the word we. Fun times.

The things kids argue about...

So it's been a little while since I posted last, so I will post a couple of quotes from the last few days. Last week, two students were arguing as they walked back to the classroom from the gym (they have to walk outside through a breezeway). When we went to find out what they were arguing about, one little boy said:

"Do you think God is offended when the weather smells like steak?"

Apparently they though the cafeteria cooking lunch smelled like steak (which is definitely wasn't) and the boy thought God was offended by the smell and the girl he was arguing with did not. I mean really, where do these kids think of this stuff?

Life Advice from a Kindergartner

So today during writing I was conferencing with a few students and out of the blue, one of the little girls asks me if the boy at the table is going to be my boyfriend. I laughed and said...

"Well, first of all, I think he's a really cool guy, but I think he's a little too young for me, and second of all, I have a husband, and I don't think he would be very about me having a boyfriend."

She said, "WHAT? You have a husband? (which I had told her at least 5 times before) Then where are your kids?"

I said, "Well I don't have any yet. I just have a husband, but I don't have kids."

She said, "Well, when are you going to start growing babies in your tummy? You need to do that before you get too old you know."

I just laughed and said, "I don't know. I think I will one day." In my head I was thinking, gee thanks kid . I'm already freaking out a little about turning 30 this year. I don't know if I needed that life advice from you!

She did what?

So, being in a Kindergarten classroom, you are sure to run into your share of tattle tales. Our class actually isn't too bad about it, but there are a few. Today during our math workshop, students were working at different stations. I was talking with a group of students at their station when one of our sometime tattle talers ran up to me and said,

"Mrs. Barnett, she took that name in bain!"

My first response, "Wait, what? What happened?"

His reply, "She took that name in BAIN!!!"

Still confused, I asked the girl he was talking about what she had said, and she replied, "I JUST said, Oh my gosh. It's really not a big deal."

He responds, "Nah uh, she said the G-o-d word NOT gosh."

At this point I realize he was trying to tell me she had "taken the Lord's name in vain, NOT some name in bain."

Oh what a joy that was to try to explain to one girl why that might bother other people and give her some other options and choices of what to say instead of that . Oh, everyday I am learning something new!!!

Wait...What happened exactly?

This morning I was a little nervous about the day's events...field trip, substitute teacher for the second day AND my first observation by my university professor all in the same day. So, it was nice to be greeted by one of my friends with a big hug when she arrived this morning. After the hug, she proceeded to look up to me and say:

"Mrs. Barnett, I need a band-aid NOW!"

I said, "Why, what happend?"

She said, "I got bit by something! I was bit by some kind of animal!"

I said, "What? What bit you?"

She said, "I think it was a gerbil."

I said, "Where did you get bit by a gerbil."

Her answer, "On my finger!"

I said, "No, not where did it bite you, but where were you when you when it bit you? And how did it happen?"

She said, "I was at my friend's house waiting on the bus. I wanted to pet it, but I think my hand smelled like meat or cheese or something, and it bit me!"

Sure enough when I checked there was a little bite mark on her finger that I assume came from a gerbil. Now I can officially say that I have treated my first gerbil bite!

It was just one of those days

So today was a little crazy. Nothing earth shattering, just all kinds of little things throughout the day. One of the things that happened did make me laugh a little (on the inside as to not embarrass my kindergarten friend it happened to).

So, we finally got out to recess, which is usually a time I take a little bit of a deep breath, and all the kids do too. Its good for all of us. Well, we had not been out there even 2 minutes and one of my friends came up and yelled...

"Mrs. Barnett! Mrs. Barnett. _____ (name left out to protect my little friend :-)) has something gross all over her!"

So, I walk over, not all that concerned thinking she has a little dirt on her knee or something, and I walk up to find her back, from her neck to the back of her knees COVERED in mud. It seems she had been playing on the ledge that goes around the playground, slipped and busted it in a huge mud puddle. So, we had to take the long way out around the playground (so her friends wouldn't see her) to go back in and get her change of clothes out of her backpack. On our way back, I was asking her what happened and if it had been a good idea to play where she had been playing and she said....

"Well, I learned something. Don't ever play like you're walking the tight rope next to a mudpuddle!"

I think there's probably some wisdom in there somewhere!

Melt My Heart

So, there is a little friend in my class who has stolen my heart this semester. This morning she brought me a sweet little valentine snowglobe. On the way to lunch after talking about hearts and being each other's valentine in class, she looked up to me and said...

"Mrs. Barnett, My heart is in my chest, and my heart is beeping for you."

Melt my heart :-)

What's that you say?

Today, my two quick quotes came from the same kindergarten friend.

First, he was telling us that he was going to see a play tomorrow morning. We asked him which play, and he said "Hansel and Frankenstein!" I'm sure that my friend who is playing Gretel really appreciates that!

Then, I was working with him on a small moments story during writing time. It was about him playing with his sister. One line of the story said, "We play sword fight and we play Star Wars." Then he asked me, "Do you know how you play Star Wars?" I said, "Not really, how do you play?" He said, "Oh, you play with your life savers." I said, "Are you sure is life savers?" He said, "Yup, they light up and you use 'em like a sword." I didn't have the heart to tell him he was actually playing with a light saber not a life saver. Oh well, he'll figure it out eventually.

Name that Celebrity

I've mentioned before that this week we have been working on biographies of famous faces. As part of the project, the students are getting to make replicas of their famous person. Today the Abraham Lincoln group was working with our teacher's aide and she commented that he looked like the pre-Johnny Cash version of the "Man in Black." At which point of course the resounding question was, "Who's Johnny Cash?" To which we replied..."You tell us first who you think he is and we'll tell you if you're right or not." Here were the answers...

"Wasn't he on a cartoon or something?"

"No, no he was the guy with a talking dog on TV."

"Wasn't he really rich, that's why his name was cash."

"Wasn't he the guy in the Men in Black movie with the aliens?"

Finally, one boy said, "Wasn't he a singer?" To which we replied, "Yes, he was."

Another boy said, "Oh, you mean a singer like Michael Jackson?"

Well, I mean, not really, but I guess to a kindergartener, they're all the same.

Well, they're honest.

Well, my body finally gave in to all the Kindergarten germs I have come in contact with this year. I broke down and went to the doctor and a sinus and ear infection later came out with a shot and some antibiotic. I have been feeling better, but the worst part is when I feel like I am going to start having a coughing fit while teaching. I had one of those moments today while I was observing the reading group I am going to take over next week. So, I popped in a small piece of candy my teacher had and it tasted a little like licorice.

At the end of the reading lesson the boy sitting beside me looked up at me, sniffed a few times and said, "Mrs. Barnett, what did you brush your teeth with this morning?"

I laughed and said toothpaste, but I told him he was probably smelling the candy I had in my mouth to keep from coughing. He laughed and said, "That must be it. I was going to tell you that I had never smelled any toothpaste that smelled like that!"

If there is anything I have learned, it is that a kindergartener will always be honest with you!

You Better Watch Out

Today, my same friend that made the mud comment at lunch yesterday had the opportunity to go the treasure box for working independently throughout the day (this is something that we are working on :-) ). She selected a Strawberry Shortcake toy. I told her that I used to play with Strawberry Shortcake when I was little too. She was able to take it out and play with it while waiting on the bus and she kept calling her Strawberry Cake. I admit that I laughed when I overheard she and another boy having this conversation as they played with their toys.

Boy said (with his toy) "Hey, I'm gonna get you."

She said (with her toy) "My name's Strawberry Cake! You wanna fight? You wanna piece of of me, huh, huh? Do YOU want a piece of ME!!!??"

I never knew Strawberry Shortcake was so feisty or violent!

What's for Lunch?

So, I admit that there are many days that I walk into the Elementary School cafeteria and say, "Hmm..." to some of the options. Yesterday was one of those days. I mean I am all for healthy choices and vegetables, but I was surprised to see collard greens on the menu. I mean I guess we are in Alabama.

One of my little friends usually fills her plate and eats everything on her tray ONE item at a time. So I wasn't overly surprised when she was the ONLY kid in our class to select collard greens. She happened to sit across from me and when she came to the collard greens, I admit that I was curiously watching to see if she really knew what she was eating.

She took her first bite and made the most awful face at me and said "Yick, I am NOT eating that. That's gross."

I said, "That's okay, you've eaten everything else, but why do you think they're gross?"

She say, "Ick, because they taste like MUD that's why!"

Well, that's probably why I don't eat collard greens either!

You remind me....

At the end of school today, there were a boy and a girl talking next to the teacher's table. Here is the conversation that took place...

Girl said, "He reminds me of my old grandpa."

I said to the boy, "Why do you remind her of her old grandpa?"

Boy said, "Because we have the same haircut...oh and because be both toot alot!"

I mean, come on, what do you even say back to that?

Back of the Bus...

So we began talking about Rosa Parks last month when we studied MLK. This week we began a biography unit where the students are paired off and have famous people to study and create their own biographies. Two of our African American students are studying Rosa Parks. First my teacher and I learned the value of pre-screening books before lessons when the boy came up to us and said....

"Who are these folks?"...and it was a picture of the KKK burning a cross. We began to try and explain that they were people who did very bad things. My teacher in a slight effort to pass it off, suggested he go ask the librarian, since it was "her book." When he did, she gave a great Kindergarten explanation...said that they were people who had done really bad things, and that they covered their faces because they knew what they were doing was wrong. The boy seemed satisfied and she asked him what else he had learned about Rosa Parks. He said...

"Well...she was supposed to sit on the back of the bus, but she sat on the front of the bus and she went to jail."

Librarian, "Why did she sit in the front of the bus?"

Boy, "Because it shouldn't matter! And you know what, NOBODY'S ever gonna tell me where to sit on the bus!"

Librarian, "And why is that?"

Boy, "Because I have an assigned seat!"

Well, I guess that takes care of that.

Happy Groundhog's Day!

So today we had a lesson about Groundhog's Day. To begin the lesson, the teacher asked if any of the students knew about Groundhog's day already. Here were the answers:

Boy 1: "Isn't that the day we give valentimbes (aka valentines) to each other?

Teacher: "No...not that, that's Valentine's Day and comes later in the month."

Girl 1: "Oh, Oh, I know! That's the day we go huntin' for groundhogs and when you catch 'em you put them in a pot and make stew out of them!"

It took my teacher and I a little while to compose ourselves after that one. Oh the joy of hanging out with five year olds!

Oh the name game....

Today we started a unit on biographies. I was explaining that biographies are about real people, who did something important, and it tells the story of their life. I read a book about Wilma Rudolph and modeled what facts I would write about her biography. At the end I wanted to check for comprehension, so I began by asking who remembered the name of the person we talked about. One boy raised his hand and answered...

"Umm....Hmmm....I THINK that it was somebody reindeer?"

So you know, Wilma RUDOLPH or REINDEER...I guess it doesn't really matter.

It did make me feel better that while they couldn't quite remember her name, they did remember a lot about her life!

Hold on, what did you just say?

Yesterday was crazy, so I didn't get to post this then, and I can't remember the one I was going to post today, so I'll just post this one from lunch yesterday. First of all, lunch with kindergarteners is like feeding time at a zoo. You just pray for something like spaghetti that will take them a long time to eat. Corn dog days are nightmares. They're done in 5 minutes and then they are trying to sword fight with the corn dog sticks.

So anyway, yesterday at lunch I was sitting by a boy who asked me this...

"Mrs. Barnett, do you know what a swolly is?" (I was confused because he can't quite say his r's yet).

I said, "Umm...I'm not sure."

Boy says, "A sworly (aka swirly), you know, where someone has their head stuck in the toilet?"

I said, "Yes, but how do you know about that? You shouldn't know about that."

Boy says, "I have had one."

I said, "What, who gave you a swirly?"

Boy says, "My mom." (I'm thinking, hold on, what?) "Yeah, I got in trouble, so she picked me up and gave me a swirly."

So I guess spanking is so 1980's...apparently giving your kid a swirly is the new, fashionable form of punishment.

Oh and just so you all feel a little better about this...I'm almost positive there wasn't a lot of truth to this story that he told me.

My momma said...

Today was the 100th day of school for my students, so during one part of the day, they reflected on the year so far and discussed what they had learned. This evolved into a time for them to share what they wanted to be when they grew up. They had to tell what the wanted to be and why. Here was one students' response...

Boy, "I want to be a policeman."

Teacher, "Why do you want to be a policeman?"

Boy, "Because you get the bad guys and you can do anything you want."

Teacher, "Being a policeman doesn't mean you can do anything you want and get away with it. You have to follow the same laws and rules as everyone else."

Boy, "What!? Well that's not what my momma said...My momma LIED to me!"

Well okay, we'll just leave it at that then!

Who said you couldn't talk about that in school...

Today I was doing a picture walk of the book Dan, The Flying Man before reading it to my students. As I went through the pictures I was asking students what they thought was going on in them and what would happen in the book. We arrived at a page where Dan in flying over the sea and there is water and boats in the picture. I asked what was happening in the picture, and here were their responses:

Boy 1: "He's flying over the water."

Boy 2: "I think the people are trying to catch him."

Boy 3: "I think that look's like Jesus's boat!"

Well okay, who said you couldn't talk about Jesus in public schools.

Baby, Baby, Baby, Oh...

So today at the lunch table, I was serenaded by 4 five year old girls singing Justin Beiber's song "Baby." It was quite entertaining and funny and I played dumb and asked them who sang that song. This was the conversation that followed....

Girl one: "Justin Beaver sings that song."

Me: "I think its Justin Beiber, not Beaver."

Girl one: "No, I'm pretty sure it's Beaver."

Girl two: "My dad says Justin Beaver sings like a girl."

Indignant Girl three: "He does NOT sing like a girl. He sings our cheerleading songs. Justin Beaver does NOT sing like a girl."

Moral of the day...don't mess with 5 year old girls and their knowledge of pop culture.

Tough Skin

Today as we were on the rug getting ready for whole group reading, one of the little boys said to our teacher...

"You need some of that cream for your face that my mom has."

Her reply, "What, what cream are you talking about?"

His reply, "You KNOW...that cream that helps you because the skin under your eyes is all squished up."

Glad she has taught kindergarten for many years that has given her tough skin and the ability to laugh it off, apparently you need that quality around 5 year olds.

Maybe we need to teach that ONE more time...

During reading block, one of the centers consists of two students listening to audio books on the computer. Today while my teacher and I were teaching a small group reading lesson, suddenly the entire room was disrupted by one of the tiniest girls in our class (the teacher has nicknamed this little girl mini Snookie per Jersey Shore for your mental image) who began to scream...

"OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH....Its King Arthur!"

I walked over to see what she was talking about to find that she had found a book about non other than guess who....Martin Luther King Jr.

Were these kids listening at all during that lesson? Poor MLK.

You need a what...you want to go where?

I'll preface this story by saying that the students in my class are currently learning about winter and are studying arctic animals. Our classroom also has a loft built in the back corner almost like a playhouse. To decorate the playhouse, we covered the front and made it look like an igloo and the students are going to put facts and drawings of arctic animals on the igloo. With that in mind, we had the following conversation today:

Girl in class walks up behind me and the teacher and asks something about a glue stick, but we can't really understand her. I say...

"Why do you need a glue stick?"

She replied, "No, I said, can I go in the glue stick?"

My teacher and I looked at each other very confused and realized about the same time that she meant to ask if she could go in the IGLOO not the GLUE STICK.

So you know, Igloo, Glue stick, whatever....apparently they're all the same thing.

What's in a Name?

So, today, we finally had our MLK lesson after the students returned from the holiday. We read a book about MLK and created a picture of him as well. When we were wrapping up the picture activity, one of the kids said...

" Wait! He needs a crown."

The teacher responded, "No, remember, we talked about this. He wasn't a king, that was his last name. Like your last name. So it was like his name was Martin King, and Luther was his middle name."

A little boy beside me said, "Martin (giggles)...that sounds like fartin'....Why would a parent name their kid a name that rhymed with fartin'!?"

Oh dear...what do you even say to that!? From now on as a teacher, whenever teaching about MLK, I think I will unfortunately and fondly think of him as Martin (fartin') Luther King, Jr., thanks to a 5 year old boy!

Some Kind of King Day?

During a time when students were having free play time, I overheard a conversation between two students. It went like this....

Student 1: "So why are we out of school on Monday?"

Student 2: " I don't know...I think it's some kind of king day."

Student 1: "But we don't have a king...we have a president."

Student 2: "I know, but I think we used to and he died or something so that's why we get out of school."

Oh dear...maybe we should have had our MLK lesson BEFORE the holiday instead of after!

A Teacher's Advice

When my teacher was talking about the first two weeks of school, particularly the first two weeks of Kindergarten, she made the statement:

"The first two weeks of kindergarten are like labor...if you ever remembered them, you'd never do it again!"

I thought her words were pretty wise.

He's a feisty one!

During a math lesson, the students were measuring their footprints with locking cubes. One boy was having a trouble locking two of the cubes together and asked me to push on his hand so they would lock together.

I said, "Okay, but I don't want to hurt you or smash your fingers."

His reply, "I might be small, but I'm fierce...and I ain't lyin' lady!"

Well...alrighty then!

I don't wanna grow up....

On my very first day visiting my kindergarten class during student teaching, I had a chance to meet the students. My teacher told me that the mom of one of the boys in her class was also a student at Montevallo. His response:

"Yeah, she is...but she's older than you...you know...she's like a grown up."

So...I guess at 29, I still don't qualify as a grown up in the eyes of a five year old.

Well that sounds tasty!

In my fifth grade class last semester we constructed terrariums as a part of their science lesson plan. We placed crickets in the terrariums and when I asked one of the students about this project he responded by saying this...

"Mrs. Barnett....Have you ever heard of chocolate covered crickets?"

My response: "Umm...I think so, why?"

His reply: "Because I have had them and they are SO GOOD...sweet and just a little crunchy!"

My response: "Umm...okay?"

I wanted to laugh until I realized he was serious. Then all I could think was eww!

Catching Up

I am going to post several posts in a row to catch up on some of the funny quotes that I have heard over the last few months.