"You Will Be Reunited...."

Since I finished reading Vivian Paley's You Can't Say You Can't Play, I've been thinking about documenting my teaching experience. I was inspired by Paley's records: she's kept track of kinders' stories for over 20 years. This blog can't promise anything nearly as insightful, but I do plan to write my reactions to day-to-day events during this, my first year in the classroom.

I might have called this site "Kids Say the Darnedest Things," because most of what I write will be priceless quotes I don't want to forget. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep writing when I move to Boston to teach at The MATCH Middle School. I suppose this won't be a "day in the life of a 5-year-old" then, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Today during lunch, Kevin gave Gus a fortune cookie. After opening it, Gus handed it to me and asked me to read it. Our conversation went something like this:
Gus: Will you read this?
Me: Sure. (Looking at fortune cookie.) "You will soon be reunited with an old friend." (I see that the boys are confused, so I ask:) Do you know what 'reunited' is?
Kevin, Gus, and Evan: No.
Me: Well, it means that you get to see someone you haven't seen in a long time. Do you have a friend like that?
Gus: I do....well, we used to be friends, but we're not anymore because he kept biting me and throwing my shoe in the garbage.
Me: Hmm, that doesn't sound like a very nice friend.
Kevin: I hope you get reunited with a friend who doesn't throw your shoe in the garbage!
I found out later from Chris and Mikel, the assistant teachers in the classroom, that Gus had been biting earlier that day.

Today was also the first time I saw the kids struggle with exclusion. Normally they are very inviting, but everyone was cranky this afternoon. Maybe PE put them in a bad mood (surprisingly, it usually does). Hannah, Kylie, and Alia didn't want Anna to eat lunch with them; Dawit, Augie, and Jasper wouldn't let Chloe be a "jaguar" (kid spy); Chloe "had the worst day of her life" when she got into trouble for excluding Anna; Anna cried when Hannah kicked her out of the handwash sink. Even I wasn't invited to the girls-only make-up party because I was "too old." At storytime, Kathleen asked the kids if they knew what the word "exclusive" meant.
Saskia: I do.
Kathleen: Okay, what does it mean?
Saskia: Here's an example: Say Hannah and Alia are playing a game (She picked the most "popular girls" in the class) and they don't want....(She glanced around. I crossed my fingers that she didn't pick Anna to exclude) Kylie to play. That's excluding.
Kylie: Yeah, and if they let everyone play but me, that would just be mean.
Saskia: But if they let her play, then they would be including.
The troubling thing about this exchange is that the kids know when they are excluding - they just don't do anything about it.

The most exciting part of the day was losing Ryan and Jasper. I hadn't seen Ryan since he put his four "potions" from Science in his cubby. Josie and I couldn't find them and ended up searching the entire yard. When they finally turned up, Kathleen asked the students to tell Ryan and Jasper how they felt when they thought the boys were missing.
Hannah: I was worried.
Augie: I was sad because I thought someone took them.
Chloe: I was sad and worried too.
Andries: Yeah, I was afraid someone took them.
Kevin: I was afraid they chased after a squirrel and couldn't find their way back to our classroom!