This week I am teaching Kindergarten. They are some of my favorite lessons - the beginning of special sounds, China, after numbers, and lots of review. But the fun parts of teaching are outside of the lessons.
I have five kiddies. They are all adorable and loving, full of hugs and smiles, and so concerned about other children making mistakes. The three boys are naughty little wiggle worms and the two girls are a mix of bossy-ness and affection. I loved teaching them music, but I love them even more now that I get to spend all day with them.
Today, during art, their teacher made them masks. Instead of being bandits or ninjas, they were superheroes. They thought of it themselves after I said they may not really hit when they were fighting. Superheroes zap, bang, and pow without touching each other so it worked out quite well.
After we learned about China, they decided to build the Great Wall with their building blocks. It turned into a castle, and no grown-ups were allowed. So I put on a mask too, and tried to sneak into their castle. Unfortunately they were not fooled by my clever disguise, and instead kidnapped me and chained me to the bookshelf with counting-chains.* They only fed me stale bread and water, but when they packed up to go home, one of the girls sneaked away and rescued me. I wish I had a picture to show because it was absolutely hilarious.
I am reading one of my favorite short, chapter books, Fu-Dog, rather than the one their teacher started with them. It is about a little girl who is given a little toy Fu-dog by her great uncle. She then tries to go visit Chinese Great Uncle in London, but nothing goes quite as planned. It is a great story, and very well written and illustrated. These kids have been sitting in rapt attention while I have been reading. You can see their little brains picturing the story and making connections. It is amazing to me to see these little wiggle worms so fascinated by this story, but I am very glad. We saw a drawing of a little Chinese girl during our Social Studies class, and they wanted to know if she was Li-la.
It is good to teach Kindergarten again, but I will be glad for a not full-time week. My house is less than clean and orderly and I don't like getting up at 5:45.
I tutor twice a week and usually have 2nd or 4th grade - I do best with the 4th graders, the 2nd graders always keep trying to talk or point out someone else they think is cheating. but I'm sure it'd be easier if there were just five of them!
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