"You're my best friend, Miss Sarah" as she comfortably leaned into me. Little A, I'm loving you more and more.

What's a book for?

Yesterday I had to tell a student, "Books are not for hitting your friends in the face."

Wednesday Thursday

A was excited to show me his shirt with a "galana" on it. Translation: iguana

During circle time Miss Jessica was asking the students to help her figure out the month. Sweet S enthusiastically responded "Thursday!" Nice try.

During morning play little A likes these particular dinosaurs, she calls them kangaroos. They do look like them in some ways. She brought me a pterodactyl and told me it was a bat. She brought me some sort of cattle with horns and called it a moose. She brought rocks for "share something from your garden" share time, and she has a balloon weight that's the face of Mickey Mouse on a string and drags it, at the end where a balloon normally would be, like it's her little pet. She's a fun one, my little A.

Pterodactyl or Tattoo?

We were washing hands when I said, "Ooo! Cool pterodactyl tattoo!

She responded a little irked, "It's not a pterodactyl! It's a tattoo!"

"If you fall and hurt your knees then you have to go to the dentist"

Big Heads

Little kids have big heads considering their small frame, it's because they are so smart and are learning so much all the time! But this often causes trouble with the putting on and taking off of clothing. Once, sweet little C was trying to take off his sweatshirt, but came to realize he was stuck, so he threw out a request:

"Can you get my head out?"

A Daddy's Job

I just had a memory today of something my little O said back in May. Our theme was Community Helpers. We had a double dosage of firefighter visits that month. The city fire station made a visit to our school where we were able to walk around and sit in a fire truck and learn a little about the ambulance. But we also had a special treat. One of my student's daddy is a firefighter, and he came to our class to show us all his gear and tell us about living in the fire station. It was really nice that he gave us so much of his time. It was on his day off and he was on less of a time constraint than the organized visit from the city station.

The day before the visit we had told the kids that A's daddy was a firefighter and he was going to come share with us. O said that her daddy was a firefighter, too.

The next day when the firefighter actually came she changed her mind and told us, "Um. My daddy's not a firefighter. He just puts people to sleep and makes sure they don't wake up."

Three-year-olds and their understanding of the world...

Bounce House

Today we had "carnival day" at our school. While the preschool director set up some fun activities throughout the field, they were pretty much neglected by the students who spent our whole allotted time in the bounce house. And with good reason. It was awesome!! We had 8 students and us 2 teachers in there and it was a fantastic time. As a kid I was always scared in the bounce house; it was always packed with kids, and felt kind of like a survival of the fittest competition. You had to be tough, and if you fell down in there nobody really cared, they just kept on bouncing and you just hoped they didn't bounce on you. Well, this time I was the biggest one, and I was there to watch out for the little people and make sure no one was bounced on, and it was such a thrill to bounce so high! It was a nice way to redeem a lost enjoyment of childhood. This bounce house was huge and it had a slide inside, which took some traffic control as the kids went up and down it like they were a motorized toy.

Once our turn in the bounce house was through we walked on over to the sno-cone area for a nice cool treat. I like carnival day. It was a great time for all of us.

A Portrait of Us

B in the three year old room drew this picture of himself and me one early morning.

I'm the one on the right.

Name Claimed

So little Mr. K told me he liked my pink shorts. I responded, "Thank you, I like them, too. They're cute aren't they?"

He replied, "Yes, they are pretty."

I said, "Yeah, they're cute. And pretty."

He corrected me saying, "No, they're pretty. I'm cute."

He doesn't mess around.

Summer Heat

Summer session has started, and with it we've received new students to love and get to know. One sweet girl tells me she's thirsty, except she calls it "drinky."

Naptime Jabber

While patting A to sleep I asked her to take her hands out of her mouth. Following that thought, she said, "I wanna eat my mouth. My mouth is full of germs."

I want to follow Jesus

Mrs. Nicole made a beautiful bulletin board with the students' footprints that read across it "I Want To Follow Jesus." She used C's little feet to go across the butcher paper like footsteps, then just made a set of footprints for each child to be matted and displayed.

When she first asked him,"Can I borrow your feet?"

C accurately replied, "No! They stick to me!"

Mail Time

Today I taught my students about mail. We had a great time :) I love mail. They received little notes from their parents, and we wrote them letters back. We also played a matching game, sorting envelopes to their appropriate pigeon holes.

Police Visit

The officer turned on the lights and sirens. Afterward we walked around the car and little A said, "It's very loud, friends! Don't touch it!"

What to eat. And what not to eat.

"Cheese helps your bones."

"Ugh! Spiders are not good to eat."

Yet he doesn't even let me give him kisses.

Community Helpers Week

We learned about the grocery store today. Afterward we had some dramatic play with shopping baskets, real grocery products, real money, and real shopping baskets. It was awesome and so fun to watch!

a man with answers

Me: "why are you so darn cute?!"
K: "Because God made me that way"

heave ho!

After using the toilet, K was having trouble getting his pants up and cried out, "My pants are too heavy!"

necktie

I wore this scarf today, one of my students said she liked my"necktie."

splash

Today one of my students fell in the toilet.

I heard him calling, "I fell in the toilet."

I came to check, and surely he had. The bottom of his shirt was a little wet, and his buns were all wet. Someone had left the toilet seat up.

art interpretations

Here's an excerpt from P. D. Eastman's book Are You My Mother?:

Three-year-old D commented, "That's not a cow. See, it has horns. That's a water buffalo"

Of all things, a water buffalo. And he said it so matter-of-factly.

a new take on a classic children's song

K was singing away as he was waiting for the rest of the friends to finish up in the potty,

"I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my hole."

Mrs. Nicole realized he'd got the lyrics a little off, "It's HEART. Down in my HEART!"

sweet o

watched this at work today

On potty training

snacktime prayer

There are a number of sing-song prayers we say for each snack time and lunch. One of them goes like this:

"Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus

For our food, for our food

Bless it to our bodies, bless it to our bodies

Amen, amen"

While praying this with my students, I heard one of them reciting it as:

"...Bless it to our bottoms, bless it to our bottoms

Amen, amen"

Another teacher commented, "Some of us might need a blessing there, too."

I suppose she's right.

flush

We were in the bathrooms, I sent a student to use one of the toilets. I walked by and saw her flushing the toilet..

Me: "Sweetie, did you go potty yet?"

S: "No"

Me: "We don't flush the toilet till after we go potty."

S: "But there was too much water in it."

Me: "No, that's how much water it's supposed to have in it."

praying

This afternoon I prayed with one of my students to have better listening ears and be more obedient. The ending went something like this..

Me: "Thank You for loving us.."

R: "Thank You for loving us"

Me: "And thank You for Your grace.."

R: "And thank You for Your grapes."

Me: "Amen.."

R: "Amen."

little tikes

One of my students was rocking on a plastic little tikes rocking horse on the playground saying excitedly,
"Teeto totta teeto totta. This is my new favorite adventure!"

It was pretty darn cute.

things i've heard this week

"the lizard of Oz"

"gentlemess"

"my boy grandma bought this jacket for me. he got it at the store and he gave it to me"

five days a week, in my pockets, my shoes, and the cuffs of my pants

woodchips galore

ice buildings

try to stack ice cubes

it's tricky.

arctic

I was busy behind the changing table, unable to see what was going on in the class when I heard my co-worker say to a student

"Would you like it if I came to your house and put your toys in my nose?"

"No"

"Then please do not put my toys in your nose"

The child had stuck the tusks of a plush walrus up his nose.