pork.

We've been doing a unit on Presidents lately for Social Studies.

We're nearing the end of the unit and I wanted to discuss Obama.

Since this is our current President, I was curious to see what the kids already knew about him.

They pretty much knew nothing, except that his wife's name is Michelle, and she wears pretty clothes.

I asked if the kids knew the reason why Obama is so important.

No one did, so I said, "Barack Obama is the very first African American president the United States has ever had."

Everyone just kind of stared at me.

So then I asked my class (which is about 90% African American) "Does anyone know what African American means?"

Cricket. Cricket.

No one knew. I was trying to figure out how to explain it in Kinder-friendly, but also politically correct lingo when I saw a hand shoot up in the air.

"I remember what African American means..." (says one of my African American students)

..."African American means you can't eat no pork!"

Oh boy.

"my lunch box was on the floor..."

My class uses cubbies that are around the corner from our classroom...out of sight.

They are in prime traffic position, because they are right by the staircase.

A lot of times, when we walk by, we see that our coats, hats, boots, etc. have gotten knocked out of our cubbies by all the people who walk by every day.

But that's not a huge deal.

Yesterday, something happened that WAS a big deal.

Before lunch, we line up outside the bathroom to do our business and wash hands before I take them to the lunchroom.

When we are about to leave, I send the students who packed their lunches to grab them.

After I'd sent them, one of my little girls comes back with wide eyes and says in her tiny little voice, "Mrs. Miller, my lunchbox was on the floor. I opened it up, and the only thing that was left in there was my water."

I instantly saw red.

Someone had come to our cubbies in the middle of the morning, taken her lunchbox out, opened it up, and took her food.

I explained to her what had happened, told her how sorry I was, and that I'd have to give her a lunch card to buy a hot lunch instead today so she'd have something to eat.

Again, the tiny voice: "But Mrs. Miller, I don't know how to get a lunch with my lunch card. I don't know what to do."

Her mom packs her lunch every day, and she's never gotten a hot lunch before. She was clearly worried about doing something new. I assigned her a buddy that would help her, and she seemed fine the rest of the day.

But I wasn't.

It made me absolutely sick to my stomach that someone would think to steal from a 5 year old.

They're babies. How can you steal from a baby?

I have the sweetest kids in the world, and to think that someone would purposely take something from them makes me so mad.

I wrote a note to her mom to explain the situation, and told her that from now on, I'm going to let my students bring their lunches into the classroom, to prevent things like this from happening in the future.

If I have anything to do about it, this will NOT happen again.

Not on my watch.

abraham lincoln.

We're doing a unit about presidents in Social Studies right now.

Today we learned a little bit about Abraham Lincoln.

At dismissal today, one of our second grade teachers was talking to one of my girls about what she learned in kindergarten today.

The little girl told her she learned that Abraham Lincoln died.

Then, to see how much she remembered, I said, "How did he die?"

 This was her response:
"Well he went to the movie theater, and he was watching tv. Then there was this guy who really hated him, so he sneekedted up behind Abraham Lincoln and shooted him in the head!"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of Lincoln's assassination, told in the words of a 5 year old. :)

chilly.

every morning, we have an assembly in our gym before school starts.

it has been beyond cold in there lately.

while my little line of kinders was walking in there earlier this morning, one of my girls walks up to me and says,

"Mrs. Miller, its so cold! my armpit hairs are frozen because i didn't wear an undershirt today!"

she's 5.

if she has armpit hair already, she has bigger issues than being cold.

:)

apparently i appear to be cheap

During recess today, one of my girls comes bouncing up to me excitedly.

"Guess what Mrs. Miller?"

"What?" I replied.

"I came from inside my mommy's belly! Did you know that?"

"Wow! You did?!" I said.

"Yep!" she replied.

Then came the kicker.

"Where did you come from, Mrs. Miller? Dollar General?"

ouch.

She then informed me that Dollar General was her favorite store.

Whatever. The damage was already done. :)

oh no.

As I was lining my kinders up for a quick bathroom break before lunch today, the nurse popped into my room and announced: "Yeah...I'm gonna have to do a quick head check on all you guys..."

To which I instantly replied, "Oh no...seriously?"

Yep...you guessed it.

One of my lovelies (absent today, obviously) has been infested with lice. Ugh.

After a minor freakout on my part, I found out that luckily, the rest of us are all good. But I was still itchy the rest of the day, since yesterday at dismissal, I let this student play "barber shop" with my hair. Smart move...not.

I have a student who is quite a bit of a worrier. She came up to me and asked, "Why did the nurse have to check our hair?" Clearly I didn't want to tell her why, because she'd freak out. So I simply replied, "She just wanted to look at all of your pretty hair!" That seemed to satisfy her, and she walked away. She came back a minute later and said, "Was she checking to make sure we don't have any tangles?"

Hee hee!

"Yep." I replied. "That's exactly what she was doing. Do you have any tangles?"

"Nope. Mommy brushed my hair this morning!"

Phew! At least now I can rest assured this weekend knowing that none of us have lice...or tangles :)

snack time.

Well its been awhile. So long that I haven't even posted that I switched from 4th grade to kindergarten. Long story for another time...or maybe never at all.

Anyway, today was our first day back after Xmas break. Today at snack time, one of my tables asked me if they could pray before snack. Being in a public school, I was unsure how to answer that question, but I figured that if I wasn't leading them in the prayer, then they could do whatever they wanted. So I said yes, and continued making my rounds, passing out Goldfish.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that everyone at this table grabbed hands with each other. Then one of my girls took it upon herself to lead the table in this prayer:

"Jesus, thank you for this awesome snack. We love goldfish, especially the pizza ones. Please let these fishies make us healthy, and bring us another yummy snack tomorrow. Amen."

It was so adorable, I couldn't help but smile/giggle. I definitely wish I would've had my camera handy :)