Special Halloween Edition

All the children came to school dressed up today. We had many wonderful costumes: a bunny, a gardener in his garden, a flower garden, two cowboys, a viking, a knight, a mermaid, the night sky, a few fairies, a triceratops, an eagle, lightning, Curious George, and Goggle Man. I was a tree lady, complete with a bird's nest on my head.

There's a Nest on Your Head!
All day long, I was met with, "Miss Rachel, you have a nest on your head!" On one occasion, one of the girls came up to me and said, "Excuse me, Miss Rachel. In case you needed know, there's a bird nest in your hair." Like I didn't know it was there!


Halloween Costumes are Pretend
While playing outside, the little gardener came up to me and a teacher from another class. The other teacher looked at the gardener's costume (it was covered in all sorts of fruits and vegetables) and said, "Mr. Gardener, do you have any fresh blueberries?" The gardener said, "No." and looked confused. The teacher said, "But I see some on your shirt!" And the child sighed and replied, "Those are just pretend!" and walked off.

 Little Vikings
At the end of the day, when the little viking's mom came to pick him up, he ran running to her and yelled, "Carry me!" Mom replied, "You are a strong viking. You don't need to be carried." And the little viking replied, "But moms carry vikings!"

Sparkle-Toes

Before nap each day, the children get to soak their feet in a warm foot bath so they can have a foot rub during nap. One afternoon, one of the boys had taken off his socks, walked from his cubby into the classroom to soak his feet, and all of a sudden I heard, "Ahh! Miss Rachel!" So I walked into the classroom, knelt down near the boy and asked what had happened. He replied, "I have sparkles in my toe!" Not understanding what he meant, I asked him again what happened. He explained, "I hurt my toe and now there are sparkles shooting through it!"

What a way to explain what it feels like when you stub your toe!

A Lesson on Animals

As I was pushing one little three-and-a-half-year-old girl on the swing one morning, she began to tell me about animals. She was quite happily swinging, rattling on about zoo animals. The following is what she told me:

"You have to watch out for bears... 'Cause they bite." -long pause- "Giraffes bite too." -moment of reflection- "And hippos bite!" After another moment, she smiled and said, "Elephants are nice though..." then she practically squealed saying, "Because they're happy!"

First Grade Cell Phones

One afternoon as I was leaving school, I got stuck behind a first grader in the stairwell who was walking very slowly, hand up to her ear, and chattering away. She was completely unaware of her surroundings and was holding up several people behind her. When we finally got out the door, I passed her, looked back at her and realized that she was chatting on a paper cell phone!

A few days later we had a fire drill and my class was gathered near the first graders. While we were waiting to go back inside, I heard the first grade teacher calling to one of her students, "Molly, get off your cell phone and come sit down!". The teacher saw me watching and said, "You think I'm kidding!" and I replied that I had seen it before and knew she wasn't.

Imitation is alive and well in the first grade! And their behavior while on their paper cell phones is just as obnoxious as adults on the real thing!

Love is Weird

While out on our daily walk one morning, the little boy who was holding my hand looked up at me and said, "Miss Rachel, Emily said she loves me." And I replied, "How nice it is to have friends who love us!" And then he said, "No. It's weird! (pause) It's just weird, Miss Rachel."

Boating Advice from the Kitchen Sink

One morning, as the children were helping to clean up after snack, (each child washes their own plate, but the first-grade-ready children help with extra chores such as dish-washing, sweeping, cleaning the table, etc) I was putting things away in the kitchen when I overheard the children washing dishes at the sink. One wise child firmly stated, "Never put a boulder in a boat." This caught my attention and I turned to look at him. Then he quite seriously said, "I'll show you why." And he proceeded to sink the bowl he was washing.