A Few Epic Failures...

...NOT IN THE KITCHEN! yay!!!

I got my occasional reminder today about appreciating my darling Kindergarten kiddos, ridiculously unaware and incapable of following routines as they may be :) This calls for some stories from the classroom...They are sort of epic failures, but the funny kind!



First story begins yesterday afternoon. I am telling the kids who is attending the special PTA "Pumpkin Decorating" after school. One of my students, we'll call her "Y", not because her name starts with "Y" but because she is one of those kids that always asks "why" and boy do I feel compelled to think up an answer sometimes to the most ridiculous of "why" questions. "Y" just for the record (becomes important later in the story) has a developmental delay... she is cute as a button, and sometimes has a shockingly good memory, but sometimes is just unclear at all on what she is actually doing (which isn't too crazy for a 5 year old anyways). So "Y" was attending pumpkin decorating and she didn't know before so I watched as she slowly started to get really excited about the prospect of spending an hour after school decorating a pumpkin. She started bouncing in her seat first, and then making excited giggling noises, while bouncing. I was getting a kick out of the whole thing happening in front of my eyes. Then, I called her name to get her take home folder, she BOUNCED out of her seat, took the folder and then promptly got so overwhelmed with excitement that she SMACKED me with her folder. WHAM, right on the face. This wasn't an accident in the way someone might accidentally trip someone, but it also wasn't a purposeful "let's hit my teacher and see what happens" situation.

Being the...cough... experienced teacher that I am, I looked at her shocked at first. Let's face it, even in the insanity that is my classroom this year, I was just expecting to get hit with a block in the middle of a tantrum, not smacked on the head with a folder out of pure excitement. She looked back at me, also shocked. Then I burst out laughing. Sorry! But it's really hilarious when you think about it. Of course at the same time that I laughed in near hysterics I kept repeating "it's not funny, we should never hit anyone in the classroom..."

So much for that lesson on matching your face to what you are saying. Speaking of my face, it kind of hurt for awhile after... that girl has some arm strength, I'll have to tell her Physical Therapist!

Story 2 begins this morning when I decide to have a conversation with my "typical" children about one of our special needs children in the class (not Y, we will call him "David" because he LOVES the story, "No David!" by David Shannon. David stands out big time in the classroom by refusing to do work and throwing tantrums that involve throwing materials. I know it's tough to befriend someone like that, but recently the kids have been REALLY mean to him. The girl who sits next to him, let's call her "Do Gooder" said yesterday (right in front of him)- raise your hand if you don't like David sitting at our table. Um... hello? Do you think he can not hear you? After this somewhat extreme incident, I decided I really had to chat with the class about being a good friend to everyone in the classroom no matter what they may need to work on.

I talked about how we all have things we are good at, things we need to work on- I gave examples of people who may need to work on writing letters, or being a good listener, or doing the monkey bars etc. I read a great book called "Since We are Friends" which is about a little boy named Matt who has autism and his friend who loves to play with him despite some things being hard for him. I didn't mention the word "autism" but we discussed the book and how we can be good friends to everyone in the class. I encouraged the kids to talk to me or another adult in private if they have any concerns about any friends in the classroom. Finally, after my lecture I let the kids have a chance to talk...

The comments: "So, where is David right now?" "There was a boy in my preschool that threw blocks at kids so I told my mom I didn't want to go to that preschool anymore" "I don't have ANYTHING I need to work on" (hmm except maybe being less cocky?)"I am never mean to David" - said by "Do Gooder" (major conversation with myself in my own head- will I call her out in front of the whole class? quick decision to talk to her about it in the hall later, her response, "yeah that was one fresh thing I did, I do one fresh thing at every school I go to" lol WHAT?!).

So yeah, fail #2 in 24 hours. But some good stories.

I also had a girl burst into tears today in the middle of my math lesson because she broke her nail and it will "NEVER GROW BACK!!!!!!" I quickly explained to her that in fact your nails will ALWAYS grow back and there is nothing to worry about. She was calmed down again in less than 1 minute. I'll call that my success for the week.

Good times in Kindergarten.