Telling Someone's Age

Small children have a very hard time telling the age of the adults around them. I assume that the only people reading this are people that I personally know, but for those strangers that may just be wandering around I am 20 years old and I look it.

The other day I had a girl in my class that asked me if I had any kids that were going to the camp. I just told her no, that I didn't have any going to the camp. She then asked me if that was because they had all grown up and moved away. I wonder sometimes.

Getting Sick

So getting sick when you teach little kids is probably the biggest ego boost you'll ever get. I was gone from class yesterday and I came back today. All the moms came in and said all their little kids kept asking about me all night. Two little girls that I teach are sisters and they decided to make me a card telling me that they missed me. It was so cute. I wish I could show all of you. They drew pictures of me with my red hair and my apron on. Adorable! Then I teach triplets this week and their mom said that even until bedtime she still heard, "What's wrong with Miss Margaret? Does she have a fever? Does her tummy hurt?" It was so cute! Then in class today all the kids asked me, "Why did you get sick?" Like it was something I chose to do. Anyway, its nice to know you're missed.

Sorry everybody, no posts today. I got to work and had my whole day prepared for and everything and then I got a migraine about 10 minutes before my first class. I took some tylenol(the only thing on hand) and had Holly, the girl that works in the office, teach my first class in the hopes that it would get better, but, of course, it didn't. I was so mad, but I had to go home. So I didn't get to teach at all and I'm out of a day's pay. RETARDED!

Lessons about Jesus

If my classes go anything like last year's classes, this will one of many posts on what religous things kids say in my classroom. Jesus in the classroom is a hard subject for me. I am a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints and as such do believe in Jesus Christ and the atonement. I have my beliefs and my faith, and I know that children have theirs too. I try to respect everyone and not crush anything that any parent may be working for. The hard thing is that little four year olds don't really understand that they're not supposed to talk about it in the classroom. Here's what happened today:
Me: "Ok, I need you all to color a piece of construction paper and then bring it up to me to hang on our bullitin board."
Then they all start coloring for quite sometime. Suddenly out of nowhere:
Landen: "Miss Margaret, I saw Jesus today!"
Me: "Well, that's nice." (Slightly confused because this 4 year old is seeing Jesus.)
Landen: "I saw where he died."
Me: "How very interesting." (Knowing I'm not supposed to be saying anything and also wondering if Landen thought that Jesus had actually died somewhere in Spokane.)
Landen: "That's what I drew for our bullitin board."
He brings his picture to me. It is a green piece of paper with crosses written ALL OVER it. I figure I can't just say, no I'm not putting that up, so I put it way at the top where none of the kids really notice it. Then he and a little girl start talking between themselves about Jesus and what happened on the cross. I was floored by how much they knew and how much they 100% believed. Kids are so pure in their beliefs sometimes. Landen just said it because he was thinking about it from his other classes earlier that morning. (Perhaps Bible school?) He doesn't see the difference between the two classes, in both he's learning stuff and he probably talks about bird watching and monster masks when his bible school teacher is telling him about the atonement. All I can really say is, how precious.

Parent's Power of Persuasion

Today while making monster masks, I let the children use feathers to decorate their masks. One small child, Elliot, would NOT touch the feathers. I kept just saying that everybody was getting their masks done so much faster and that he needed to get to work. Finally I went over and asked him WHY he wasn't gluing the feathers on the mask. He said to me, in an alarmed voice almost to tears, "Bird feathers are poisonous!" He was sincerely concerned that all the other kids in the class were now going to die from feather poisoning or something. At this point I had a decision to make. Do I tell him the truth that whoever told him that was lying, or keeping in mind that it was probably his mother telling him this, do I play along? I decided the latter would be my best bet, and proceeded to lie right to his face. I said, "Well, Elliot, THESE feathers went to the factory and were cleaned so all the germs are off them and then they put on this special antidote to the poison on it so we can touch them without dieing."

Ladybugs and Death

See if you can follow this conversation and how quickly it can change subjects. Today we were talking about ladybugs in Sky Creatures.
Me: "So what do we know about ladybugs?"
Acer: "They're red!"
Naomi: "They have black spots."
Mary: "They have eyes."
Landen: "They can fly."
Brynn: "One time (Any comment that starts with "one time" is going to lead you away from the actual topic to a new topic very quickly.) One time, there were these ladybugs in my backyard and they were chasing my dog."
Me: "That's very nice Brynn, does anybody know anything else about ladybugs?"
Cody: "My grandma used to have a dog named Daisy Mae, but she got sick and died."
Judy: "We used to have a guinea pig, but then the cat ate it."
Allison: "Our cat died too!"
Then I got to hear all about the dead animals that these small children had known in their lives. Ah, the wonders of minds that don't stay on one track for more than three seconds!

Matters of the Heart

One project today was to make a book about shapes and colors. I gave each student a sheet of shapes to color in and cut out. They all did the best they could. One small child worked so hard at coloring, and did a really good job. When it came to cutting out though he was having some troubles. He cut all of the shapes (square, triangle, circle, rectangle) into pieces and just felt kind of bad about it so he decided that his heart shape was going to be cut perfectly. He worked and worked and just at the very end he made a mistake and cut right into the middle of the shape. Distraught he says to me, "Teacher I broke my heart!" This was cute enough, but then the little girl sitting next to him says, "You mean by love?"

Lessons on Starfish

Today in Sea Creatures we made starfish masks. Before we started the project I thought we should talk a little about starfish. This is how the conversation went:
Me: "Raise your hand if there's something you'd like to share that you know about starfish. Acer (Yes, that is some child's name) what do you know?"
Acer: "Starfish live in the water."
Me: "That's right! (I'm excited because this comment actually applies to starfish) Diego, what do you know about starfish?"
Diego: "I saw a starfish once, I got to touch it."
Me: "Oh, well that's nice. Sara, what do you know?"
Sara: "When they're out of the water they're dead."
Allison: "Yeah, and when my daddy bought me one the arms fell off real easy."
At this point I decided that we had "learned" enough about starfish and went on with the project. At the end when we were wrapping up and the parents were there to pick up their kids I thought we should try to learn something again about starfish, hopefully the idea that they live in the water was one they could remember. So I ask, "What did we learn about starfish today?" Acer excitedly yells out, "When they're dead their arms fall off real easy!" Great, just what the parents wanted to hear.

Disclaimer

I put this blog up just so I can let all you know how cute my little kids in my classes are. I promise it wont have much else up or really anything all that cool. The stories are ones I thought were funny and/or endearing. I hope you read and enjoy.