Now That's What I Call a Tome!

As I knelt at a gap-toothed first grader's desk and encouraged him to do his best in school today, he reached into his backpack, pulled out a book, and said in all seriousness, " Here, Miss Mimi. I thought you might like to read this to us in guidance class." Hiding a grin, I checked and discovered that the book had 1096 pages. Now that would be one 
l-o-o-o-o-n-g guidance lesson!

Now Where Did THAT Come From??

Friday afternoon, I heard a tiny knock on my office door. Opening it, I was thrilled to see one of my favorite boys from last school year, who has moved on to third grade at our sister school. He was just stopping by with his grandparents, who were picking up his younger brother from school. We both jumped for joy, squealing and flapping our hands with glee! Since I had just that moment finished eating lunch in my room and was in the process of cleaning up after myself, I reached for the hand sanitizer. " My hands smell like dill pickles," I said. Grinning and shaking his head, my freckle-faced friend said, "I'm not a pickle fan. I'd rather smell a camel than eat a pickle." This popped out of his mouth without a second's forethought, and THAT, my friends, is an example of why this child had the title of last year's second grade Mr. Personality, and why I miss him so much this year!

Mini-Chairs

Thursday morning, I went by to check on a little kindergarten girl before the bell rang. She and I walked out into the hall to chit chat and fill out a chart. There was a table right outside her classroom that I thought we'd sit at. The child said in a dismayed tone of voice, "Oh no! Let's don't sit at this table. The chairs are mini!" I glanced down at the chairs, and yes indeed, their seats were about 8 inches off the floor! I just love the way kids describe things!

A Double Giggle!

Two funny stories from my shaggy haired second grade friend, whom I write about often because he's always cracking me up:

He came in to see me while I was busy talking to a little girl. Settling down in his favorite chair anyway, he said that he'd learned something new from Charlie Brown. This child is a huge Peanuts fan and has learned all sorts of interesting trivia from reading compilations of this comic strip. Anyway, he went on to say that he knew how many ozzies were in a lib. We said, "Say what? Are you speaking English or Greek?" He repeated it a few times, and since you're being given the advantage of seeing this in writing, you've probably figured out that he was talking about 16 ounces in a pound! With purely verbal hints to go by, it took me a while!

Funny #2: His grandma lives on a farm with lots of animals, and my friend told me a tale of a boy dog and a girl dog who licked each other and somehow had puppies.

What a scream this little boy is! There's rarely a dull moment when he's around, for sure!

Hello-o-o-o-o, THAT'S Not Nice!

Let me set the stage by giving you a picture of the "star" of this story. When I entered his kindergarten
classroom at 1:00 Friday, all the children were sitting on the carpet anticipating my entrance. Since they'd just returned to class from the playground, they were hot and sweaty and tired. This was obvious in the children's appearance, as their faces were red, their hair looked damp and tousled, and some of them looked "slam worn out"! One short orange-haired boy stood out. His freckled face had vertical streaks of dirt down both sides. As she greeted me, his teacher noticed his filthy face, grinned, and asked him to go wash it. She later explained that the little boy had been crying on the playground and had wiped his eyes, evidently with very dirty hands! Now fast-forward to later in my guidance lesson. We were learning about making I-Messages, which are statements that help us express feelings respectfully and assertively, even when we're upset. After practicing making a few, we read a book called STAND TALL, MOLLY LOU MELON! Molly Lou kept getting mistreated by another story character, Ronald Durkin, and my students came up with I-Messages that Molly Lou could have used to deal with Ronald's meanness. Well my red-haired buddy, who was calm and happy by this point in the lesson, was very familiar with this book. He was bouncing with excitement because we were reading it and could predict that we'd be deciding how to help Molly Lou stand up for herself when Ronald Durkin struck. When I read about the first incident, which depicted Ronald calling Molly "shrimpo" due to her small size, the little boy pointed to the ceiling with an upraised hand and blurted, "Hello-o-o-o, THAT'S not nice!" Next, Ronald called Molly Lou "bucky-tooth beaver", making fun of her teeth. Again, my friend threw up a hand and said, "Hello-o-o-o, THAT'S not nice!" When Ronald made fun of Molly's unusual voice, "Hello-o-o-o, THAT'S not nice!" When he told Molly she'd made her snowflake all wrong, "Hello-o-o-o, THAT'S not nice!", all accompanied by that upraised finger. Seriously, I was so tickled I could hardly read. I have about 8 more kindergarten classes to teach this lesson to, and if it was possible, I'd take my "assistant" with me to all of them. I can guarantee he'd liven up the lesson and have a fan club by the time he left the rooms. He's already got a fan in me!

AKA Cindy Smith

Although I don't use children's names on the posts I write, I have to use a fake one so this story will make sense. You see, it's all about names! In kindergarten guidance classes, I always give out puppets for children to hold while I read them a story. Since I can't carry 20-something puppets to every class, we have to take turns. As I go down the class list and call students' names to come choose a puppet, I rhyme their names the way they're done in the "Name Game" song. For example, Jimmy's name would be "Jimmy Jimmy Bo Bimmy Banana Fanna Fo Fimmy, Fee Fi Mo MImmy, Jimmy!" Sandy's would be "Sandy Sandy Bo Bandy Banana Fanna Fo Fandy, Fee Fi Mo Mandy, Sandy!" I know this is silly, but it's fun! Well one day last week I called a little girl's name, which I'll change to Cindy Smith. "Cindy Cindy Bo Bindy Banana Fanna Fo Findy, Fee Fi Mo MIndy, Cindy," I chimed. With a big smile, the petite child jumped up to select the puppet she wanted. As she headed back to her spot on the carpet, she glanced at me in all seriousness and said, "Actually, my last name's Smith." As I've said in several recent stories, can you say LITERAL?? The teacher and I looked at each other and shared a giggle!

Natural-Born Peacemaker!

We've been learning to be peacemakers in kindergarten guidance classes and to show that we care. As part of this process, we're learning to tell how people feel by picking up on clues given by their faces, bodies, and what's going on around them. Understanding their feelings will help us be a good friend by treating them the way they need to be treated. Today, I showed large photographs to a class, and they figured out how the people shown in the pictures felt. Afterwards, they told me what the person might need, an action that a peacemaker might take based on someone's feelings. For example, a happy boy wouldn't necessarily need us to do anything except be happy with him. A sad girl might need us to ask what was wrong or try to cheer her up. Well, we came to a picture of a furious little boy. He had sqinched up eyes, a furrowed brow, a beet red face, a tight little mouth, and arms bent and held tightly against his torso. After the children correctly labeled the feeling of anger, I told them that when someone is THAT mad, we usually need to stay away from him until he calms down because he might yell at us for trying to help. As I gave this explanation, a blue-eyed boy on the front row softly said, "You could tell him that God is always with him." His teacher and I glanced at each other in mutual admiration of this little child's love and faith, and my heart began to melt. I don't think that this particular peacemaker needs much help learning about empathy
!

No Barbies For Me!

Today, we had a birthday boy in one of my kindergarten guidance classes. Our lesson included looking at pictures of children exhibiting a variety of feelings, labeling those feelings, and classifying each as comfortable or uncomfortable . Our clues were to notice the pictured child's face, his body language, and what was going on around him, the context. Coming to a picture of a girl opening a present and showing big wide eyes and an open mouth, the children correctly figured out that she felt surprised. "Is this a comfortable surprise or an uncomfortable one?" I asked. "Comfortable," the children said. "Yes, this is a comfortable surprise, but sometimes surprises can be uncomfortable, such as when a field trip to the zoo gets rained out at the last minute." Immediately, the excited birthday boy piped up from the back of the group, "Or when somebody gives you a Barbie doll for your birthday!" I cracked up as the other boys moaned and groaned at the horror of such a thing happening. Let's just hope that this is one uncomfortable surprise our birthday boy didn't have to deal with today!

They Aim to Please!

At the beginning of the school year, I try to give kindergartners immediate success experiences in guidance class. Not only do I want them to be active participants in my lessons, but I want them to feel good about their ability to listen, follow directions, and learn learn learn! During our very first lesson, I teach students 5 ways to be peacemakers, and one of those ways is to listen to each other. Onto that thought, I add the fact that good students need to listen AND follow directions. In guidance class, we usually stand up a couple of times and bounce as we chant teaching points of that day's particular lesson. A couple of days ago, I introduced the lesson concept and said, "Okay, we're gonna bounce. Please stand up." To make a game of it, I said, "I'm hiding my eyes, and when I get to zero, I hope everybody will be listening and following directions. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero!" As I prepared to open my eyes, I hoped to see all twenty-something students standing. If that happened to be the case, I intended to clap and jump up and down and say, "Yea! You were ALL listening and following directions!" Peeking at the children from between my fingers, I realized that my hopes had been surpassed. With big smiles and quiet feet, every single child was silently bouncing up and down as if on invisible pogo sticks! They had not only heard the stand up instruction, but they'd also gone ahead and started bouncing, not waiting for me to tell them what words we were bouncing to. Adorable! These sweet little children REALLY want to please, and on that day, they succeeded!

Learning Rocks!

When I begin teaching kindergarten classes in the fall, I have LOTS to teach them. In our first lesson, they learn that peacemakers spread sunshine, along with ways to do that. Next, they learn ways to tell how people feel. When we can understand how others feel, we can be a friend to them, which is a part of peacemaking. The clues we look for are face, body, and what's going on around the person. In order to make this easy to remember, I teach a rhythmic chant that we stand up and bounce to: "Face, Body, What's going on!" We discuss how facial expressions change with different feelings, along with how bodies change. For example, mad eyes are squinchy, teeth might me clenching, face might turn red, heart might beat faster, arms might be on hips, etc. Then we look at pictures and detect how people feel. Well yesterday, in preparation for having a kindergarten class stand up and bounce to "face, body, what's going on" for the first time, I asked the children to practice SAYING the chant while they were still sitting criss-cross on the floor. I wanted to make sure they'd be able to repeat the words while they were bouncing, as opposed to simply bouncing and laughing and not learning a thing! I was prepared to model the chant, then have them join me in repeating it several times, and then see if they could do it without my help. At that point, we'd stand, bounce, and chant together. As I began modeling the words we'd be bouncing to, an adorable freckle-faced boy who was sitting attentively on the floor began gyrating from the waist up, pushing out his shoulders along with my rhythm, grinning from ear to ear, and belting out confidently, "Face, smile, spread sunshine!" His teacher and I shared a sneaky sideways glance, tickled to pieces at his enthusiasm. Obviously this little child had paid attention to his first 2 guidance lessons, and although he mixed up a few messages, he made up for it in spirit! Oh the joys of teaching excited little souls!

AKA Phlegm

As I do every morning, I stopped by to check on a very emotional first grade boy. Unfortunately, the minute I walked into his room he realized that his desk had been moved out of the group in order to keep him from becoming so distracted during work time, and he burst into tears. We walked into the hall and sat at a table to talk, which helped him calm down rather quickly. The handsome little boy, who was smiling by this point, tried to clear his throat and asked to run get a paper towel in the bathroom. Half a minute later, he returned, grinning from ear to ear. "Miss Mimi, do you have any children?" he asked. "No, I have ZERO children," I answered. "Well if you GET some children, I hope they don't get woogies in their throat like I just did," he went on. "I call them oysters, and yeah, they can be pretty gross," I said. Two thoughts crossed my mind: What interesting conversations primary school educators are accustomed to, and at my age, how thrilling to hear that my first grade friend thought I might still "get" some children of my own!

Whatever You Say, Miss Mimi!

While introducing my Care Cat puppet to kindergartners for the very first time, I pointed out the heart-shaped pin on his chest. Since Care Cat is a staple of my program and my ambassador for peacemaking, I made sure that the children understood that the heart shape stood for love. Then I read the pin's message, which said "I Care", and asked the students to repeat it. "Say 'I Care' for me," I requested. All together, in obedient little voices, the children said, "I Care for me." Can you say LITERAL??!

New (School) Year's Resolution

After recently teaching a kindergarten class for the first time, I was powerfully reminded of an important lesson. A little blond boy had been extremely high maintenance throughout the 40 minutes I'd spent in his room. Instead of sitting and listening, he stood up several times and then sprawled flat on the floor sideways, drawing impatient reminders from his classmates. Since I knew nothing about this child except what I was seeing before me, the teacher, who was privy to his background information, discreetly beckoned him to a comfy stool at the back of the group. While the child did stay on the stool, he lay on his stomach and spun around frequently. Since he was behind the other children and not bothering them, I was able to ignore this behavior. About halfway through the class, the time came for me to give out puppets, which I always do before the story we read. Choosing 7 names from the class roll, I made sure to give this little fellow a turn. Because he was having such a hard time attending, I didn't want him to see me as a mean old witch and forevermore dread the thought of guidance class. In other words, I was attempting to balance the negatives with something fun for him to do. As I read the story, his teacher tiptoed over and took the puppet away from the boy because he was slinging it around. I heard her tell him softly that he could have it back when he was able to keep it still, and within a minute or so, he earned the puppet back. During our song and dance time, the wiggly child stood and sang and danced appropriately, although his puppet had some wild and crazy moves! As I was packing up to leave, the little boy came up and gave me a big hug around the waist, which I appreciated, as I wanted our first lesson to end on a happy note. Because this class occurred at the very end of the day, I was able to talk with the child's teacher soon afterwards. Her story was heartbreaking. This little fair-skinned boy had been hit in the head by a relative while he was very young, and the perpetrator is in jail because of the abuse. Upon hearing this tragic tale, my eyes instantly filled with tears, and of course I fell in love with the child immediately. The lesson I was beneficially reminded of is that children will usually behave when they can. If there's a stand-out misbehavior occurring repeatedly, there's a reason for it. I need to have more empathy and less judgment with everyone with whom I come in contact, not just children. Not too long ago, I read a quote that fits this story well: "There isn't a person you wouldn't love if you could read their story." My resolution is to take this lesson to heart and be more aware of and interested in people's motives, which I hope will make me a better counselor and friend!