Kinder All-Stars

Kinder went on field trip today and left behind kids that did not pay or lost the trip because of their behavior. I had those kids today. It was like an All-star game for bad behavior. A select group of kids. The wildest from each of the seven classes of kindergarteners. Jajuan hit me in the back. Khalil told me to shut up, called me a fat head and pulled a hair out of Coach Reid's leg. Evan tried to stuff David's sweater down a drainage pipe. Coach Reid and I had them running sprints outside on the track. They never got tired! It was like they wanted more and more! My energy ran out and they overpowered me. It was the longest forty-five minutes I have ever experienced. Gotta go, here come the second graders. hooray.

Tattle Tales

MIGUEL: Mr. Bowers, Chinoso called me a dummy!
MR. BOWERS: Well, are you a dummy?
MIGUEL: No!
MR. BOWERS: Then go tell him, "YOU'RE WRONG! I AM NOT A DUMMY!"

He did it. Chinoso was so surprised.

Simile and Metaphore

The other day, the kids had to tell the rest of the class a non-fiction story that happened to them. I told them that to make the story more exciting I wanted them to use some simile's and metaphores. Kiante (4th grade) had this story to tell:

It was the day after Halloween and I was getting ready for school. I put some candy in my backpack to take with me and then I got in the shower. When I got out of the shower and went back to my room, I saw my mom trying to get some candy out of my back pack. She was like a racoon digging in a trash can.


I love it!

A New Snack

The Kindergarteners were eating their snack and Owen offered me one of his fruit gummy type snacks. It was wonderful. I asked him what they were called. He looked at the package and said, "It's just called Variety Pack."

Troy

Troy is a cool kid that moved here at the end of last year. He and his family were Katrina victims and ended up in Houston.

Troy wanted to learn to whistle really loud like me. I am a really loud whistler. I learned to whistle really loud in 5th grade, so whenever a kid asks me to teach them how to whistle, I always tell them that they will learn to whistle in 5th grade. Our school only goes up to the 4th grade so I never have to teach any of them to whistle! (Next year my school will be getting 5th grade--that'll be fun.)

Anyway, Troy was very persistent, so one day on the track I showed him how I learned to whistle. I told him that he will really have to practice and he can't practice around a bunch of people or he will bother them. I learned at a pep rally where no one cared how loud I was.

A few weeks later, Troy came up to me and said that he got it! We went outside and he blew out this really loud whistle! I decided to show him how to do a referee whistle that I can do. I told him that it will take him a long time to learn it. He came to me the next day and he could do the referee whistle too! I was so proud of him, I told him, "Troy, see, you can do ANYTHING! You just have to practice!" He was so happy and so proud of himself.

Friday Troy’s dad got arrested. Monday he didn't show up to school and then the papers came to check him out. He and his family moved back to New Orleans. I will miss Troy.

Tired?

This kid named Shane (big time trouble) was sitting on the stage kicking the railing and the railing was coming loose from where is was attached. He was mad because a teacher told him to go sit out because of his behavior. He got really mad when another teacher, "told him to sit down when he was already sitting." I started talking to him because he was breaking the railing. He got all upset and shouted, "I'm tired of this school!" I just said to him, "Well if you can find a school where they let you destroy property and yell at teachers, then please, move to that school!." AAAAGGGHHHH!!!!

The Ride of the Tiger

We were working on fictional tales in class today and the kids had to tell stories about things that happened to them--that didn't really happen to them. The game is called "Tell Me About The Time You..."

I asked a third grade girl named Rachel to tell me about the time she rode on the back of a tiger. She told how she was running for class president and to get votes, she rode on the back of a tiger. She said that it was very fun. It was even fun when the tiger ate her foot--(then she paused to think for a second)--because it's fun to watch tigers eat!

Sometimes First Graders are Funny Too

Katy, a first grader, was standing in line and stated, "I feel like I just ate a hamburger with catsup and mustard." It was only nine-thirty in the morning so I asked her the obvious question, "What did you have for breakfast?" Her reply, "The skins of a muffin. I didn't want to eat the blueberries."

I told this to her teacher and her teacher said that Katy is always cracking her up. She said that one day a girl in her class was standing there with her arms folded and Katy went up to her and asked, "Are you doing the margarita dance?" (She really meant to say "Macarena")

Why?

Whenever a kid comes up to me and says something like, "Mr. Bowers, Bobby hit me" or, "Mr. Bowers, Kelly pushed me." I will say to them, "Did you ask them why they did it?" If they say, "No" then I tell them to go and ask them, "why?"

Usually the other kid says something like, "Because you hit me first" or "Because you cut in front of me."

If someone came up to me and hit me I would usually know the reason why they did it. If I didn't know why they hit me, I would want to know.

I always tell them that hitting or pushing is no way to solve a problem--even if the other person hits first. I want the kids to start settling their messes by communicating with each other.

That Crazy Teegerstrom

The activity was a about character building. The assignment for each child was to come up with a character and an emotion. Then, I would give them a line to start a monologue with.

Teegerstrom (grade 4) came up for his turn. The character he came up with was half-ninja-half-wizard. AWESOME! What a great idea for a character. I am surprised there hasn't been some kind of movie with a half-ninja-half-wizard character. His emotion was anger, but he told me that it was really revenge.

The line I gave him to start his monologue with was, "Do you know me?"

"Do you know me? Well I know you, you are the one who killed my Sensay (sp?) Now you will pay!"

At this point he quit speaking and started doing this imaginary fight with lots of magical sounds and fantastic moves. I imagined him throwing stars with one hand and using his wand with the other. At one point he allowed his character to be thrown across the room, then he came back and defeated whoever he was fighting against. Even though he didn't have much of a monologue, he earned trememdous applause from his classmates--and from his teacher.