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!