Watercooler Chitchat

It's really entertaining to listen to the conversations that Kindergartners have with each other while they are working. Today, as I approached one of my table groups I heard:

Child 1: Why is your dad in jail?

Child 2: Because he drinked a lot of beer.

Child 1: My mom and dad drink a lot of beer and they don't go to jail.

It's kind of refreshing that these children had this conversation without any awareness that maybe it should be kept private.  They are honest and curious and the conversation  was so matter of fact. Sometime I feel like I shouldn't be hearing some of the stories that my kiddos tell, but there have been some entertaining comments already.

One of my classes had Music today for the first time. They played a follow the leader type game as they sang and snaked around the room in between the tables. At one point, the Music teacher was having them hop like bunnies and there was just an eruption of giggles. I had to stop and just appreciate the joy in all that laughter. What a great sound!

We also had our first fire drill today which only terrified one kiddo. I feel like discussing it before hand actually makes it seem scarier than it really is because the kids just don't know what to expect and what it will be like. The one child who was scared was afraid to go outside and I tried to explain that once we were outside, we would be away from the noise and all we had to do was wait until the principal said we could go inside again. I made sure to hold his hand and stay near him but once we were outside he continued to cry. I crouched down next to him and said, buddy, you did it. That was it. It's over now. He thought it would still be noisy once we went back inside, but once I made him feel like a champ for conquering the dreaded fire drill, he stopped crying and was okay. Fortunately, the drill was in the afternoon, so I had my smaller group with me. As much as it seems relatively easy to walk outside quietly in a line, that is a feat for a lot of kids--even ones that have practiced this routine for years and years. My dad is a fireman, so I always took fire drills very seriously and never made a peep. Telling children not to talk at all and then wait in a line and do nothing for 5-7 minutes creates a pretty challenging situation for 5-year-olds, but overall they did really well.

I am heading to pilates class in a little bit and I can't wait to get my sweat on. This is a different teacher than I had on Saturday, but I had sore buns for days! Hopefully today will be tough as well!