Bad Words

There is inevitably a time in every educator's life when they will have to address a child using bad language. I have had two such occasions already in my first year…

Before Christmas break, we were "enjoying" yet another indoor recess. My students had really taken off in their writing and were really excited about being able to write in their very own notebooks. I was working in my classroom and our aide brought two boys into my classroom. The first thing that I heard was, "you're not going to call our moms are you?" So I knew that they had done something bad… turns out the boys were writing bad words in their writing notebooks and showing them off to their classmates. The words that they had written were butt and sh-t. Both boys knew that they were in big trouble. We discussed the words and why they were not ok for school. When I emailed their parents, I told them, "the silver lining, if you choose to see it that way, is that the words were spelled correctly-so at least they are learning something!"

Now this week… we were having guided reading in our classroom. There was a group of students working with me and the other kids were working in groups on other tasks. All of the sudden I overheard the word sh-t. I stopped and looked at the group and asked them who did it. They gave her up right away. I sent the girl to the office and told her that I would come talk to her about it. When I got in to the office she insisted that it was not her and that other students had said the bad word. So I went to get the rest of her group to talk it over with them. When they all came into the room one of the girls looked at me and shrugged, "I am just really confused because I don't even know what sh-t means!"

After we had our serious talk about the bad language, I needed a minute before I went back. When I got to the door, one of the kids tattled right away, "(he) already said a bad word!" He came out of the room looking sheepish. I asked him what word he had said and he told me, "the c word." Oh boy. So many dread-filled thoughts filled my mind about kids asking me what that c-word meant or why it was so terrible. With fear I asked him what c-word he said. He looked down in shame and whispered to me, "crap…"
Whew.

The Darndest Things

So many times my little 5 and 6 year old angels shock and surprise me with the things that they think, say, or remember. I have a few that I would like to share.

My little friend R needs a lot of encouragement to do tasks that he is more than capable of. We are working on the "sometimes you gotta do things that you don't wanna do" train of thought. So when he completes a task with minimal prodding, I try to encourage and praise. As I was looking over his paper one day, I told him that I had enjoyed the same part of a story that he had written about. I said, "great minds think alike, huh?" He pats me on the hand and tells me, "good job!"

Another little boy, D, is the youngest of 4 and has a very developed sense of humor. He is one of those kiddos that I can joke with or tease and he just gets it. In our classroom we have an old pickle jar that has been repurposed as a 'word jar.' We have used the jar on occasion, all of the kids know what it is, or so I thought. D picks it up one day and asks me "what is this thing?" I gave him a confused look and told him "that's where I keep fingers of naughty little boys." He looked like he was thinking about it to decide if I was serious or not. He then looked down at his hand and asked me "then why do I still have all of mine?"

Finally, at the beginning of the year I was explaining to my kids what a pen pal was. We have pals that are just on the other side of SD in a town called Belle Fourche. I explained to the kids that it means "beautiful fork" and showed them what a fork in a river or a road was. Well fast forward to now, I have a little one who has quite the advanced vocabulary. We were waiting for her to be picked up one day after school and she was telling another student, "We wrote letters to our pen pals today. They live far away-you know-where the beautiful river forks?"

Sometimes they are soo sweet!

Today was our Friday (Hallelujah!) and we had our Valentine's party. One of the activities I thought up for us to do before our party was to make Valentine's for some of the staff around the school that doesn't usually get as much attention/appreciation (teachers' aides, janitors, lunch ladies). 

The kids were so cute decorating them. I got out my staff directory so that they could see the face of the person that they were making it for-we see people in school every day and may not even know their name! Then we set out to deliver our Valentines. 

When we returned from our little trip, I wanted to check in and make sure that they understood why we would do something like this. I posed the question to my kiddos and their responses absolutely melted my heart. 

One kiddo said, "to make people feel special and good."

Another, "we didn't want anyone to be forgotten."

We also talked about how it made us feel. I asked them if anyone was mad that they were delivering a Valentine. Of course they responded "NO!" like I was crazy. But then we discussed how people were surprised, touched, and excited to be receiving a gift. 

What a great ending to a crazy week!

Why didn't I think of that?

I have a little girl in my class whose vocabulary is off the charts. On one of the first days of school I was outside on recess duty and she ran over to me and explained that the different areas of the playground had special names. "This (she points) is Safari Africa and this is Rainbow City. Well it looks like Safari Africa could use a little bit of organization. So if you want to stay here and watch these kids, I will go over there and organize that!" I couldn't do much but giggle and agree to her proposal.

Now, a little background information. I am on a journey of weight-loss. My kids are getting used to me drinking my Spark in class (they know it as my vitamins) and taking my MNS daily vitamins when the alarm goes off before lunch. Just a few weeks ago I started weight training with a trainer four days a week before school. Well on my first triceps/chest day, I thought I would die. I was not sure how I was going to make it through the day-couldn't life a pencil-HA! So I thought I would have a little talk with my kids about my hard work. I hoped it would be something that they could connect with, as I explained that just like reading is hard for them, I am working out. It's hard for me, but I want to be really strong, so I will keep going and not give up.

Well even though this particular child is very intelligent. She missed the connection. After my whole schpeel about working hard and giving it our best, she raises her hand. "Mrs. Otten? Maybe you just shouldn't pick up such heavy stuff!" Problem solved.

Poop Sauce

Yep, you read that right. 

I thought I would use this as a source to share all of the awesome, heartwarming, funny, and terrible things that happen to me every day in kindergarten!

One of the best stories to happen so far this year comes from one of my little angels, we will call him R. One day I was walking around the room during rest time and I thought that I smelled something. I knew that this student had a history of accidents and pulled him out into the hall and asked him if he'd had an accident. He says to me, "yeah…well…at first recess (9:45-it's now 2:30) I thought I felt a little poop sauce in my underwear."

POOP SAUCE??

As I am trying to help R change his pants, he does not seem phased by this whole situation. In the bathroom, I help him get clean and get him into his underwear. I ask him if he thinks he can get his pants on by himself. He says, "sure!" This is his favorite word by the way, after HEY! As I am in my classroom teaching, I look out and there he is, out in our hallway (right by our front doors) standing in his whitie tighties. He tells me, "Hey! I can't get my pants on."

Some days I just have to shake my head and laugh. Meet them where they are at, right?

Mrs. O