During the tour of my classroom I hinted at the fact that I have a couple of real characters in my class this year. I have no doubt they will give me enough fodder that I should be able to post a weekly Tiny Talk Tuesday should time allow. It’s looking to be a fun year!
On the third day of school for lesson time the kids were going to get their first chance to use their new school supplies. I had them get out their name cards and their pencil boxes and I gave them a blank piece of paper. Everyone took a turn looking at themselves in the mirror, then they were to write their name on the paper (or try their best) and draw a picture of themselves. After demonstrating and re-iterating the process, I went to my desk to sort through their folders. G (you will become very familiar with G this year!) says to me, “How do you spell Peter Parker?” I said, “Your name is not Peter Parker. It’s G.” He says, “Well, I changed it. So, how do you spell Peter Parker?” (I made him write his real name, much to his chagrin.)
It was story time and I was reading the classic Eric Carle book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar to the class. In the beginning of the book he’s a very hungry caterpillar and after eating a lot of food, he becomes a big, fat caterpillar. As I finished reading that line a chorus of “ooooohs” and laughter occurred. Because in PreK anytime words like fat, kiss, ugly, underwear, butt, or even but are said, there will be a reaction of some sort. Most of the time the chorus of “oooohs” since most of those are words they think are “bad”. M (who you will also become quite familiar with) states very matter of factly, “I’m fat” amid all the ooooh-ing. She is a large girl, but not fat. I had to try not to laugh (since it’s sad she would think that at even this young age) but the the way she said it like stating the weather was so funny.
The children get picked up in the classroom at noon, but sometimes traffic or trains make mom or dad a little late. G’s mom hadn’t arrived yet so we were sitting in the foyer waiting. The new maintenance man was also waiting there. All of the sudden G gets up and starts walking over to him. I ask him to please sit back down, and he says, “I have to talk to him.” pointing at the very tall man. I knew this would be interesting so I followed him. When G got to him he had to look way up. He said, “Hi. Do you have a kid?” To which the man laughingly replied, “No.” G thought a moment then said, “Well, when will you get a a kid?” The man said, “When I find a wife.” G said, “Ok.” Then walked back to his spot and sat down. Not sure what that was all about, but it definitely shows G is always thinking!
We were at recess and G walked up to me tattling that M had tried to kiss him. We already had the classroom talk about only kissing our family members. I called M over and asked her, “Did you try to kiss G?” M answered, “Yes.” I reminded her about not kissing our school friends, and she responded, “But he’s SOOOO beautiful!” All 3 of us teachers at recess had to turn around so she wouldn’t see us cracking up.
That’s all I’ve got for this week, but then again that was only the first 3 days of school, and I’ve been pretty busy. I’m going to have to keep a notepad with me at all times this year I think!
On the Sunny Side 