A nice quiet recess

One morning last week the kids were inside because it was raining. When i walked in the class kids were running around, it was loud and hectic. There was no peace to be found. Then i noticed that in the center of the room, with eyes shut and a face of supreme calm (looking seemingly oblivious to the rest of the room) was a little boy playing an imaginary flute.

even pleather would be better

We made dream catchers in class last week and some of the kids were pretty annoyed that I only brought yarn for them to make them instead of real leather. I know that might not seem that interesting but having a group of 6 year olds in your face pretty much calling you cheap can surprizingly uncomfortable.

Welcome to your new life.

Two of my students were sen tto the office today and when I got there one was crying.

As I got him ready for the bus I talked to him and said I already heard what had happened and we didn't need to talk about it tomorrow.

Me: "Don't you worry about it. Tomorrow's a brand new day."

Boy:"Yeah! It's like a brand new life!"

For some reason this was so sweet to me. His eyes were red and seconds ago tears were running down his face but the idea that he could start fresh tomorrow instantly encouraged him. Sometimes it really is that simple.

The Media

Its true that the media has put pressure on women to look a certain way...weight is main focus. Being thin and - not being fat preferred. Little do people know that the insect world is not immune to these pressures. Take Heart! One boy in my class in standing up against these pressures.

Child: That caterpillar is FAT!

Child crusader: Don't say that! We just trying to learn about caterpillars!

Do you hear what I hear?

The other day I was reading my students a story when I heard music from somewhere close by.
Turns out, one of them had a blues emergency and was playing the harmonica in our class bathroom.

The Magician

Tattling is a popular pastime in grade school.
We have caterpillars in our classroom and I had a student tattle a rather serious offense the other day. I was told that a boy in the class had somehow got a hold of a caterpillar and was holding him where we usually read our books.

All the clues added up: The boy had been a sort of assistant when i was transferring the last of the caterpillars, he is sneaky sometimes, he LOVEs critters and a group of students were gathered around him looking at something in his hands...

So I marched up to him and asked him straight up if he had a caterpillar. Then came the astonishing moment for when the boy slowwwwwly opened his hands... there i saw it... he had magically turned his caterpillar into .......a pencil lead.

Thorax

We have a problem in my grade one classroom.

ANTS

Kids love them. They love watching them, squishing them, letting them run all over their hands ...the sad thing is they love them more than math, more than writing, more than reading and more than listening to anything I have to say. This morning I had this conversation with one of these Ant lovers.

Little girl: There's ants marching all over our classroom!

Me: I wish they'd march somewhere else.

Little girl: Yeah, like Newfoundland.


Lastly, I named this post Thorax because I wanted some sort of ant related term. Looks like I actually remember something from elementary other than the bat jokes I put on my grade three animal project.