Kinder Day

KinderDay

It wasn't at all what I pictured. I got to the North Berwick Elementary school early, about 45 minutes early actually. Maybe it was the fact that I've grown about two feet since I was last there, but I felt kind of constricted by the school, compressed almost, like the feeling your head gets when its you're at the bottom of a pool. I met Ms. Hunt in the hall as I left the office with my nametag- a bright yellow rectangle with VISITOR'S PASS and my name in red marker. We went to her room and talked about the day's schedule. After 20 minutes or so, kindergartners began to trickle in. I was sent on a mission to retrieve a printed document, which turned into a much harder task than It should have been. To make a long story short, it ended with the computer teacher telling us that our 50 year old macintosh wasn't connected to the printer.
I finally got the page printed, and returned to find the room full of people half my height. I was introduced, and received many enthusiastic smiles in exchange for my hello. I heard a familiar sound coming from the computer desk, and noticed an extraordinarily small boy with glasses equally extraordinary in their thickness playing math blaster, an old favorite. I soon learned that his name was Caleb, and once he figured out my name by sounding out the red letters on my nametag, we were instant friends. I was led by Caleb to the morning's 'schoolwide meeting' by my pinky finger, the only finger he could grasp. There, about 5 students received good citizen awards, something I did not recall from my days at the school. These awards were for such heroic feats as 'being a good friend to Sarah', or 'helping someone on the way to recess'. Children barely a meter high literally sprinted to and from the principal, grasping their green, 8 ½ by 11 inch commendations. After the ceremonies, I followed the kids to Music Class, where we attempted to watch a movie. Bad idea. I soon realized that movies are not a great plan for kindergartners, especially movies they don't care about. The film was a symphony put to pictures and poetry- the Carnival for the Animals- and most kids spent the half hour period trying to guess the gender of the animals on the screen. Ms. Guptill the music teacher, not one for talking, allowed mild chaos to ensue. Ms. Hunt arrived just in time to prevent any physical damage, and led us back to the room for Centers. My self appointed table learned about frog development. I helped Caleb learn the words 'tail', 'egg' and 'growing', and together we accomplished the task of cutting and glueing that he later claimed he had done 'all by himself.' Pinky outstretched, I was led away to Reading. I was read to from pseudo-books, tiny little bound cardboard accounts of topics such as 'little things' or 'zoo time'. Caleb knew what was up. The only thing he learned from me was how to spell 'giraffe'. He finished his five books and was skillfully ejected from his lawn chair by a new acquaintance: Adrianna. A blonde shorter than Caleb (was this possible?!) beamed at me from the chair. "I'm going to read to you now. Well, ok. It seemed I had no choice. She had been watching my reading time with Caleb, and wasted no time in telling and showing me that her books had way more words per page than his did. I liked her. We finished one book, resulting in Adrianna's learning the word 'cuckoo'. I told her that she had done a nice job reading, and was answered with "you want to be a teacher? I told her I wasn't sure, but that I was thinking about it. She thought long and hard on that, with a very determined look on her face, and finally told me, "OK. Accompanied by my new friend, I followed my classmates to a lecture from the teacher.
We had learned from the principal that "playground games involving guns (he makes a gun with his hand and viciously moves it through the air) are NOT allowed. Ms. Hunt thought it would be a good idea to talk about this with the class. "What other ways can we get rid of bad guys? she asked. Duncan, a small boy (well, I guess they're all tiny) and apparently new to the class offered, "we could fight them... After stunned silence, Adrianna smoothed the situation over. "We can talk to them about it, and bring them over to our side. Indeed. Now off to recess.

As much as I had been looking forward to this part of the day, it wasn't really what I was expecting. The day was cold, practically freezing temperatures, and I was not in the mood. Neither, I soon found out, were the kids - except Caleb. He eventually rounded everyone up into a game of freeze tag that had no special rules or regulations- I secretly dubbed it 'Run, Flail Around and Laugh.' After our rousing game of RFAL or 'raffle', we returned to Reading and Calendar accompanied by Snack. We learned that sharing was OK, but just not with food. We learned to count by 5's and 2's, and then count backwards. We learned how many days it was until Riley's birthday, and last but not least we learned about the letter Y. We moved on to some writing practice- 4 words that had the word 'and' inside them. It was difficult for a few, and I think by the end of it I had convinced Nicholas that an S looks like an S, not a Z. Four kids including Caleb were dismissed (they only come for half the day) and the rest went to lunch, while I conducted my interview with Ms. Hunt. I learned of her bitter distaste for the No Child Left Behind regime, and that she is just as disorganized a person as I am. A few rounds of the Same Game followed. Teacher chooses all the kids in the class that have one trait in common, and people guess what it is. I made a new friend, Raven, a girl with coffee colored hair and skin to match. She seemed a little self conscious of her exotic color, and kept asking if the trait in question was skin hue. "They all have white skin, was proposed many times. This may have been why we ended the game early.
Ms. Hunt found out that I planned to go into music during college, and suggested I show the kids how to play her auto harp. I obliged, and a line was formed at my newly appointed 'center' to learn. Most kids opted out in favor of legos or computer games, but my two friends were very musically inclined, and they turned out to be pretty adept at the instrument. Raven commanded her position at the front of the line for as long as she could, explaining the rules of a 'line' to anyone within earshot, and flaunting her leading position in said line very openly. She graduated auto harp training and the other kids swarmed in and went to work, producing the worst sound I had ever heard from this harp. I told them it was probably time to pack it up, and reached for the instrument and its box, but the two together and Ms. Hunt took my lead, announcing another reading period. She read from a book about horses and cowboys that Adrianna obsessed over. She informed all of us that she was a horse girl, she loved horses and knew all about them. During the reading, Lucas, a round, crew cut 6-year-old produced the loudest fart in the history of North Berwick Elementary. Everyone but Duncan handled this event with more maturity than high school students. I was impressed. For the first time, I seriously considered teaching a kindergarten class. Then it was time for dismissal. Adrianna led me to the gym to wait for my bus, and then went to hang with her friends. I watched her get wrongly accused for an insult and sent to 'the wall' - most horrid of punishments. I joined her on the wall, remembering how demeaning the situation could be if you were alone and 'on the wall'. We talked about her horses and ponies, she asked about my age and what I liked to do, if I liked school, how did you pronounce my last name. We spontaneously began a game of 'makeasmanyweirdfacesaspossibleandtrynottolaugh' which she won. I stood to catch my bus and she rose with me, clinging to my neck and demanding that I stay. I untied her and set her down, apologizing and saying goodbye while a teacher told her to stop it and asked if we knew each other. I laughed out loud, thought for a moment and sincerely replied yes, we did.
It occurred to me during the bus ride home that I had just had many conversations with kindergartners that had been more rewarding than many I had had with fellow high school students. Though I had been job shadowing a teacher, I think I learned more than anyone else in the classroom, and I learned it from 5 year olds.