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 :)

Um...That's Really Weird.

Well its a brand-new year, and this year, I'm no longer an aide, but a real-live 4th grade teacher! This gives me even MORE time during the day to experience some of the crazy things kids do and say. For instance:

At dismissal each day, I take the kids down to one of the hallways by the door where they get picked up. They sit there until their names are called (we don't have transportation.) Today, I noticed Jamal pushing himself back and forth across the (tiled) floor. This is the conversation that took place.

Me: Uh, Jamal, what exactly are you doing?
Jamal: Trying to make my legs cold.
Me: Why?
Jamal: I like it when my legs are cold...cuz then I like to rub them.
Me: You like to rub them?
Jamal: Yep...sometimes I like to rub cold things. Is that weird?
Me: Um...that's really weird.

Haha! Even though these aren't first graders, they do some of the same kind of things that first graders do! Stay tuned...with all the craziness that I experience daily, there will be PLENTY more stories to come :)

Do I Have to Eat This?

During our snack today, we were given apple rings and orange slices. The kids were eating away, when Zachary taps me on the shoulder and says, "I really don't like this part..." pointing to the peel on the outside of the orange. "Well of course you don't like that part! You're not supposed to eat that!" I replied. "Well...do I HAVE to eat this?" he asked. He looked so cute and sad when he asked it. "No, you don't have to eat the outside. Just eat the part in the middle." So then I had to make the announcement to everybody that "we don't eat the outside of the orange, just the inside."

After the announcement was made, I then had to take the peels off of about 50 orange slices :)

Vacation Bible School

Since the school year is over for the summer, I've moved on to my next project: Vacation Bible School. I've been put in charge of the PRESCHOOLERS (cue "Jaws" theme)! Every day this week, I've been leading my batch of about 28 three to five year olds through their day. Now I have to say, I thought the first graders I worked with were crazy, but these preschoolers take the cake!

This is the first time that some of these kids have been away from mommy, so I have several criers every morning. This is the first time some of these kids have ever been part of a big group of kids, so I have several who think they can wander off or not follow the rules. Some of these kids have just finished potty training, so there are endless remarks of, "Miss Lisa, I have to go potty again!" But all in all, it's been a lot of fun. Here are two of my favorite stories so far:


Day 1: The theme is the Wild West. For our craft, we were making pouches for the kids to put gold coins in. As we're making the pouches, Claire (3), looks at me, scrunches up her face, and says, "This is NOT a couch." I said, "Not a Couch, a POUCH! Its a kind of like a purse, like mommy has." To which she replies again, "This is NOT a couch."

Day 3: The kids were told to think of different names for God, and we would write them on a huge poster. During one of the activities, I brought Benjamin (4) out into the hallway to help him write on the poster. I said, "Ok Benjamin, can you think of another name for God that we can write on this poster?" He said, "Yes, it starts with a B." "What is it?" I asked. "Benjamin," he replied. "Not Benjamin! We need another name for God!" Again he replied that Benjamin is another name for God. When I told him it wasn't, he became frustrated and said he wanted it to start with a B like Benjamin. I was finally able to satisfy him when I came up with Bread of Life. Just another egocentric moment in the life of a 4 year old.