It came without ribbons! It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes or bags! The end of the year has come once again, and teachers
are rushing to fit everything in!
I think I can speak for most teachers when I tell you what
most of us all across the country are saying. “It’s May?
MAY???? We cannot possibly
have a month of school left.
“There’s so much left to teach. I haven’t covered the Pythagorean theorem; they need to
learn their square roots to a million; how to conjugate verbs in Chinese, and
how to leap a tall building in a single bound! There’s SO much left to do!!”
Yep, in the blink of an eye it’s here. But the truth of the
matter is, no matter how many hours are in the day and no matter how many days
are in a year, all teachers end the year feeling that they need a BIT more time
with their class.
I sat with the children on carpet today and we talked about
all the things that they had learned in this, their first year of school.
“Boys and girls, we’ve been in school a billion days…or
maybe 153. Can you tell me
some of the things you’ve learned this year?”
I learned that numbers keep going. They never, ever stop!
I learned my times tables and multiplication! (Huh? I’m better than I thought! I wasn’t even TRYING to do that!)
I learned that if you don’t want something you say, “No
thank you!” We learned to always
bring our good manners to school.
I learned that if something happens, and you have a bad day
at school that the next day at school is a brand new day and you can always
start over! Every day is a
new day!
I learned that you always flush the toilet. Oh, and that you always shut the door
when you go to the bathroom.
I didn’t learn anything. (Wait, aren’t you the one who is reading now? Doesn’t that count??)
I learned you should never be too active- because I was too
active and fell off the table.
I learned that a wetland doesn’t have to be wet. (Well, we are waiting for Mother Nature
to fill our new wetland. It WILL
be wet.)
I learned to be nice, and to say yes if someone wants to
play with you.
I learned that friendship never ends. Even if you get mad at someone, the
next minute you are friends again!
I learned that if you want to keep a friend you have to be
a friend.
After our discussion, we took a short trip down to the first
grade hallway to see the “big kids”, meet some first grade teachers and ask
them some burning questions. (I overheard one little fella say to another,
“Boy, I hope we get a nap in first grade.
I kind of miss that…) As we made our way down the hall, our
little Ruthii turned to me and said, “Mrs. Smythe, we’re not actually GOING to
first grade to STAY, are we?”
“No, we’re just going for a quick visit!”
“Whew. I was
worried. I’m not quite done with
kindergarten yet.” And with a
smile and a Skip to My Lou, she rushed ahead to join her curious classmates on
the next leg of what will prove to be an exciting adventure.
(This is one of my kindergarten columns from several years ago. I am WAY too busy to think this week.....and if you're a teacher, you KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!)
