Thursday, January 31, 2008

Why I Love First Graders

Most Thursdays, I spend some time in Supergirl's class. Usually, it is reading or writing assistance and then back in the afternoon for the weekly cooking project. Today, things got a bit jumbled up, as there was a rather unplanned assembly first thing, and then we had a special guest speaker on the continent of the month (Africa). But because Bubbles was having a speech therapy session, and because he does so much better when the mama is not there, the 1st grade teacher and I continued to pretend that I was still a Very Important Helper, and I stayed until it was safe to return home.

Instead of helping children spell 'can haz playdate?' or read 'Zig Bug can run!', I got to sit back and cuddle some kids, while listening to Annie's daddy (Mark) tell us all about his trip to Cameroon. Mrs. H did her usual prepping for the presentation. "Children, please remember to use your very respectful listening ears, and if you have something to say, please do not interrupt Annie's daddy. If you have a question that only Annie's daddy can answer, then it would be okay to raise your hand. But only if it is a question!"
Mark very gamely began talking about Cameroon, engaging the children with stories of 'bushkill' and answering questions like, "Did you see a lot of animals?" with answers like, "Yes! We did, but most of them were dead."
Then Kelly raised her hand.
"Yes? Do you have a question, Kelly?"
"Umm, yeah. Did you know that some Zebras have a white belly?"
Mrs. H: "Kelly, that is good information, but it is not a question."
Emi's hand shot up.
"Yes, Emi? A question?"
"You know, when you ate that porcupine, you could have used it's pointy things for a straw in your juice!"
"Umm, wow. I hadn't thought of that. But one thing I did notice in Africa was that people are very resouceful and find a way to use almost everything. Anyway, Annie's mommy and I did like some of the wood carvings we saw, and now I will pass these masks around the room for you to touch and look at."
Gabby's hand shot up.
"Yes, Gabby? Do you have a question?"
"Yes, I do. I was wondering, umm, did you give that mask to Annie first because she is your daughter and you like her best?"

3 comments:

Jan Ross said...

At least their comments were REMOTELY about the current topic. My first graders raise their hands in the middle of a story to tell me they lost a tooth last night or they have new shoes on and can I please look at them RIGHT NOW!

pretty day said...

Love the wine-on-computer triptych! So eloquent, so funny, and so sad! Hope it all works out.

Denise said...

That my friend is priceless.