Sad Thanksgiving

I've been gone for awhile. My grandma passed away 2 days before Thanksgiving. It was a sad holiday. I miss her so much. Grandma loved coming up to school and visiting my kids.

Most of my kids at school didn't know why I had been gone, but one made my day. She came up and hugged me and said, "We missed you Mrs. Z. I'm sorry about your grandma." So sweet and grown-up of her and she's in 2nd grade.

I saw I was tagged and I promise I'll do it very soon.

Bracelets

I love it.

Sleepy Boy comes in this morning all excited, "Mrs. Z - I'm getting bracelets on my teeth!"
"You mean braces."
"No, bracelets."
The other kids can't wait to see the bracelets on Sleepy's teeth!

Testing Robots

Last week I was testing all the kiddos I see. This gets pretty boring at times, but one of my kindergartners (we'll call him Robot - you'll see why) entertained me this time! The first part of the test is the student pointing to pictures that make the sound I ask for and then telling me the sound a picture starts with. So his testing went something like this:

Me: Robot, what picture starts with /s/?
Robot: Points to a snake. (I'm thinking, oh good! He's getting it!)
Me: What picture begins with /n/?
Robot: Gives me his million dollar smile and shrugs. Same thing for the next one.
Me: Ok, what sound does fruits begin with?
Robot: Acts out eating fruit.
I'm trying not to laugh and go through the pointing part again, with more smiling and shrugging from Robot.
Me: What sound does card begin with (he has a picture of the card in front of him)?
Robot: Vroom-vroom!
Ok, this is getting harder not to laugh! And he continues the car sounds through the next pointing part.
Me: What sound does robot begin with?
Robot: (Picture this - he makes stiff robot arms) Robot, robot (while moving like a robot and talking in this strange robot voice) Robot, robot!
Oh my, I'm dying!! I can't laugh out loud at this poor baby!
Me: One second Robot.
I walk outside my room where I can giggle for a sec!
Ok, back to the test. Well, the interesting part that is. I say a word and they have to tell me the sounds in the word, or stretch it apart. So man would be m - a - n.
Me: Tell me the sounds in sold.
Robot: Sold
We obviously need some work here.
Me: Tell me the sounds in done.
Robot: (In the robot voice again) I - AM - DONE.
I love it! Best test ever!

God has many rules!

Tonight I was teaching kindergarten at my church. We learned about the 2 most important rules or commandments. I called them all up at the end of class and one girl told me, "God has many rules!"

Back at school my kindergarteners were learning the sound for m. We sang songs and talked about the sound. Then we were naming things in the m book that started with /m/. They saw a picture and said "cup!" I reminded them that it started with /m/ so one boy said "mmmmmmmmmmmcup!" Good try kid!

I had another story, but have no idea what is was. Oh well, maybe I'll remember sometime!

I know you are, but what am I?

Lunch duty - we all know how much I love it! Today I stopped a food fight between a few 2nd graders before it got out of hand. Apparently, I really ticked off one of the kids. He got in line to go back to class and told everyone I was a "big fat ugly!" Man, I thought I was looking pretty good today!

Our school also held a mock election today. One of my kindergartners came out and told me, "I changed my vote from Obama to McCain." He looked so serious, I just had to ask more.
"What made you change your mind?"
"I didn't. I just voted McCain. But my mom is voting Obama, so so I guess next time I have to vote Obama."
"Well, you only vote one time in an election."
"Oh. Then I just voted McCain."
All righty then!

What Could I Have Done with 3 Hours?

I have 3 hours to sit at school and wait for parents to drop by. This went so well earlier in the year, with my 1 parent visiting. Anyone want to guess how many I'll be seeing? In THREE HOURS!!! AFTER SCHOOL. I really just want to go home, take a nap, go to the gym, and watch the Dodger game! Yes, I'm whiny! I'll have been here for almost 11 hours today! That is way too long.

Ok, enough whining. How about a cute story? While on bus duty after school we had a child come up to tattle. "M said a cuss word, the h-a-t word!" We just looked at him and told him that's hat! Any idea what that was supposed to be?!

Alright, laugh at me now.

I'm going to share where I'm going this weekend. To see them in concert and I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!

Lunch Duty

This year I have 55 looooooong minutes of lunch duty. Because I have nothing better to do with my time - you know, like teach children to read. Anyway, I'm in the cafeteria during kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade lunches.



Yesterday they had pears for lunch. Sounds like a safe fruit, right? WRONG! Very few even knew what a pear was, much less how to eat it! One of my kiddos from last year, who happens to be in kindergarten again this year, was going at the pear with his spork like it had hurt him. There were pieces of pear flying all around - across the table, over kids heads, and on the floor. I went to talk to him about how to eat a pear. He looks up at me. There is pear in his eyelashes! I about cracked up!! I told him how to eat a pear - just like an apple, and he smiled. And then I realized he didn't have any front teeth. I had to stick around to see what he did. He did try to bite it using the side of his mouth. Poor guy got frustrated and told his teacher he couldn't eat this thing. She suggests he eat his other food. He was too determined! Back to gnawing on it he went! He also apparently didn't like the skin and would spit that part out on his tray. I'm not sure how much he ate that day. . .



Today was a crazy day in the cafeteria. After repeatedly telling one stubborn child to sit down, stop yelling, and turn around he decided to yell at me. He told me he wasn't turned around and yelling. Yeah, must have been my imagination, I'm sure. I moved him to the end of the table for arguing with me. So then he throws his tray on the floor and storms out of the cafeteria yelling something about hating me. I'm not real sure where he thought he was going, but lucky for him he ran into the principal.



When I got done with that child, I came back to the cafeteria. One of my 2nd graders was looking for me. I'd been teasing her yesterday about stealing star crunch snack, so she brought me one today. I told her I couldn't take her food and she said that she brought 2 - one for me and one for her! Aww, I needed that! How sweet! She made my day!