I held it

During afternoon play time E came up to me

"I hafta pee!"

Ok E, can you hold it? we are leaving soon (in like 20 minutes soon)

" I hafta pee!!!!"

Ok, ok, I looked around and saw another teacher walking out the door.

Hey S, will you take E to the bathroom.

E looks at me " I wan chuuu to take meeeee"

S bribes E with candy. E goes along.

S comes back "E didn't have to go. He just stood there forever. I asked him if he wanted to go and then he just changed the subject and told me I need to read him a story, so I told him we were going back"

E looks, waits, watches S leave the room, turns to me, smiles, and says "I held it so you can take me Miss Aweeson"

SERIOUSLY?!?!

The Letter P

Hi friends, what words start with the letter P?

Pig!
- Good

Pink!
-Great answer

-Pickle
-Pony
-Parrot

"Miss Allison, something smells like someone pooped their pants"
"hey, Poop starts with P!"
"Pants start with P!"

Good jobs you guys, what else starts with p?

"Potty!"

"PENIS!"
Yes, yes it does L

Anything else that starts with p?

Penguin, GOOD! Yes, Penguin starts with P

L noticed something very important
"you didn't write penis down on the paper!"

Me, "uhhh"

Anything else that starts with P?

"Panana!"

Ok, guys lets go play

Lipstick

Before we entered our classroom for the morning I let the children get a drink.
Ok C get a drink
Ok B get a drink
Up next A, go get a drink Hun
She just stood there staring at that shiny fountain
"A get a drink!"
Still stood there
"A hurry up, your friends are waiting"
"I can't!" Came the reply
"Yes you can. Just push the button and get a drink!"
"I can't" she replied as she turned around to face me
"I'm wearing lipstick!"

Oh the life of a 4 year old

Count the Bears

As part of getting our children ready for kindergarten we have  started our first round of tests. Simple questions like what color is this, what letter is this, what number is this, etc.

Do you remember playing with plastic counters as a child? Those colorful plastic figurines that helped you add 1 + 1

We have some of those and as part of the test we asked our children to count how many bears we had

"Count the Bears
"
"1,2,3,4,5,6"
Looking down  and seeing 7 Bears was not promising
Count the Bears again please
"1,2,3,4,5,6" again skipping over the same bear
Honey, count the Bears, I said pointing to each one
As I moved my finger to each bear she counted
1,2,3,4,pause "That one is a cat!" 5,6

Next time I will be sure to use all the same Bears so they won't be mistaken for cats

The Letter F

Friday morning had arrived. 

As usual I was sitting down with my class doing group time. 

We talked about the weather, 

we talked about what letter we were talking about this week (the letter F),

then we  talked about the days of the week. 

I asked my helper to tell me what day it was. (Friday)

She repeated back to me "FRIDAY!"

Then came the excited chattering "Friday starts with the letter F!" 

YES! (this is one of those moments when you feel like a successful teacher)

Then. . . 

"Just like FURSDAY!!!"

About 3/4 of the class nodded their heads enthusiastically 

 "Fursday starts with the letter F!" they all joined in. 

I couldn't help but laugh. 

Then we had a long lesson about the difference between TH and F 

 

Road Trip to Texas

I like listening to the kids at lunch. Their simple, innocent conversations are entertaining to listen to. 

The other day I over heard some crazy plans. M and A, who are totally BFF, are apparently planning a road trip to Texas. Ha! 

Have they ever been to Texas before? no. Do they even know where Texas is? no. Funny kids. 

Apparently, "Buddy," A's 2 year old bother is going to drive them there. 

They are going to sit in the back seat M on the left behind Buddy and A on the right. Someone needs to bring snacks, a movie, and something for them to do so they divvied out the assignments. But apparently no one else can come, you know, like parents, because there isn't room with their booster seats. At that point I just started laughing out loud and M looked at me and said "it's true, nobody else will fit because our booster seats are too big" 

Dot A Do Patterns

 As part of Number week the children were instructed to: 

1: Draw a REALLY big number 1-10, enough to cover the entire paper

2: create a pattern using dot a do stamps over their number

The activity started our GREAT!

The kids drew their numbers and started making their patterns. 

Apparently the number 1 and 4 are very popular amongst 4 year olds. 

As instructed the children would stamp one color, place it on the table, grab the other color, stamp, place it back on the table, grab the other color, stamp, . .  you get the idea. 

The imagination of a child never ceases to amaze me. 

Some kids decided to get "fancy" and use both hands. One color in each hand and alternate. I never told them to do this, just watched in awe. 

Then I got distracted and forgot to watch a kid. Lets call him C. 

C sat down, excited a ready to do his art. 

I asked him to write down a number 1-10 on his paper.

I got distracted and looked away. 

when I looked back I saw a big 100 on his paper.

He had a huge GRIN on his face. He then said "I'm going to have the biggest number in the entire class!" huh,  ok! Good for him for knowing that 100 is way bigger than 10. 

Then I got distracted by another child again. 

I was listening to him doing his art. 

Thump, pause, thump, pause, thump, pause 

Blue, Orange, Blue, Orange, Blue, Orange, Blue, Orange. . . . Etc. 

The sound was correct. It meant he was alternating his colors and pausing to change colors 

I didn't feel like I needed to watch until. . . 

THUMP THUMP, pause, thump, pause, THUMP THUMP

WAIT!

Two thumps! No No NO NO NO that's not a pattern. Or is it? 

I looked over about to stop him when I saw he WAS making a pattern. 

Blue, Blue, Orange, Blue, Blue, Orange, Blue, Blue, Orange. 

Like I said before, kids amaze me. 

Then to further amaze me

Thump, Thump, Thump, pause, THUMP THUMP, pause, 

Thump, Thump, Thump, pause, THUMP THUMP, pause, 

This kid figured out a 3-2 pattern.
Way to go C! You make us proud! You will go far some day.