Free jokes in KG

Now, most of us go to see stand up comedies and other things like that when we want a good laugh ... Well, i get it for free! LOL You might ask how is that possible ...
When you teach 5 year olds, believe me you will laugh a million times a day!!!
This is a fresh story .... as i was trying to explain the classroom rules with rewards and consequences i had to talk about the headmaster - so, i basically told them that if they do not listen to the teacher and they get constant warnings, and end up on red (on our traffic light) they are going to the headmaster's office. As most of them have English as their second language, i wanted to make sure they know what is a headmaster (and what i am talking about) Can you say headmaster?, i asked .... They go: HeadMonster!!!!
:)))))))))))))

Funny story

I cannot remember if i have put this story on the blog or not; i saw somebody who reminded me as i almost forgot about it.
This is from last year - in one of my very private conversations with my pupils (we got loads of those - from why i am not married, to i should get married, to do i have a baby in my tummy, to how babies are born but most of them about my personal and not so private life - since i am sharing it with everybody)... one of them suggested that if i cannot find a man, i should marry a woman! My response: I will think about it!
We didnt get that 2 years ago in schools!! :) Children are more and more up to date nowadays!
It made me smile!!

My children are sorting out my love life

Alright .. now that we have only a few more weeks/days of school my children are really interested and concerned about me and my love life (they've been concerned all year! maybe now more than ever, just because it is the end of our time together).
So, amongst our endless conversation about jelly fish yesterday (very long story) they thought i should get married today only for a day. Needless to say i tried to tell them i need to find a man first ... when "Cucumber" says: "Well, if you dont find a man, you should marry a girl!"
What do you think? I told them i would consider!! :D:D:D There's more women than men anyway!! Hahaha!!
Cant believe how their little brains can actually think about these things! They made me laugh!!

Things that brighten my day/life

Some time ago we studied about Planets in Science and i decided to make the planets with the children out of balloons and papier-mache. Imagine 14 little monkeys presented with glue mixed up with water, balloons and newspaper. Our classroom looked like a jungle ... they were all excited, getting glue not only on the balloons but on their shirts as well and all over their hands.
At that point a little girl shouts out: "THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!" "Miss Mocanuuuu, YOU'RE THE BEST TEACHER EVEEEEER!!!!!!!". Imagine that sentence shouted out from the top of a 5 year old's lungs. It did make me smile though!

When am i getting married?

This was the first question i got from my KG kids on Monday morning.
"Miss Mocanu, but when are you getting married?"
Answer: "I dont' know!"
"Hmm... i think you should get married next year!"
Me to myself: "Inshallah!!" :))

Cute!

I was reading the story "Thumbelina" last week to my children and when i got to the part where the big frog comes and wants Thumbelina to marry her ugly son i got some funny replies from my kids. Amongst questions like "why" and "when" one of my boys said: "Well, the reason they cannot marry is because he is a frog and she is human!!". then he continued: "... and they cannot kiss!!!"
It made my day!!

How is it like to be a teacher with no voice?

Answer: TERRIBLE!!!!!!!
It's been a long week ... i can't even remember the things i did!! :)) One thing that happened was that on Tuesday i completely lost my voice; i guess i caught a cold and it has affected my voice. I was ok, only voice missing ...

Of course, i couldn't take the day off, as there was nobody to sub for me! I had to teach!! Luckily my children had Arabic that day and Design and Technology, so that saved part of my day.

The children have not been very supportive either - they kept chattering all day and i tried using a bell, to get their attention .. it didnt really work! For a minute i thought i am loosing it and going crazy!! We had a Science project - making the planets - papier-mache and painting them. So, we were at the stage of painting them, when one of the girls took one planet (wet paint) and starting wandering around the classroom with it .... so all the kids got blue paint on their shirts on Sunday. I was busy with other children .. i tried calling out her name, but nothing came out of my mouth, so i had to go and take the planet out of her hands. Now, that i look back, it seems funny!! It wasnt then!!

Wednesday it was much better!! They were all happy! "Miss Mocanu, you have your voice back!". I was like: "Yeap, you guys took it with you on Monday afternoon... now i am happy you brought it back!".

Hilarious!!

One of our Social Studies topic is Pocahontas (looking at the history behind it actually and the way people used to live back in the old days). So, as an introduction to the topic, i thought it would be good to watch the movie. I have to admit though, that i do like the Disney versions of many stories, although they are not 100% accurate. I opted for the Disney version this time too, as

there was no other available. So i got everything ready, the children were all excited ... Disney always tries to point out the romance in a story (which was not really the case in the story of Pocahontas), and that little detail slipped my mind.

There is one scene where John Smith kisses Pocahontas. One of my little boys jumped up with surprise/shock saying: "LOOK, MISS MOCANU, HE IS BITING HER LIPS!!!!!"Poor little thing, he was really concerned!! My reaction: speechless. Oops!!

Well, that is what adults do (i was just about to type "unfortunately" - mistake!!) ...

I have many "wait until you grow up!" moments almost every day but this one is #1.

I love my job!!

As i said before... after a long week, Thursday came!!! Last day of the week, had my kids only until 11:30, i had plenty of time to do some more stuff (working on setting up a shop in our role-play area - i've been collecting empy cans, cartons of milk and juice etc for more than 2 weeks).
There were some experiences this week that made me doubt my teaching skills (one of those moments when you feel the kids just dont get it!), but on Thursday one thing happened. We were watching a Barnaby Bear video, part of our Social Studies curriculum and one of my little boys looked at me and said: "Miss Mocanu, you are a very good teacher!!" He just made my day!!!

Smiles which brighten my day

Many funny and exciting things happen in KG - too many to write them all down. But the ones that make my day, i do want to put down, as they're very important to me and make me forget about the disadvantages of living far from home or living in Egypt (and everything that comes with it).

We are learning to read and two of the words for this week were: "i" and "like"; so we all started talking about what we like (mainly food - chocholate in particular - especially that day, my boss came in and brought me a Snickers bar :D). So, the children started saying: "i like icecream", "i like Mc'Donalds", "i like Barnaby Bear" and suddenly, one of my little boys said: "I like YOU!"

I thought that was so cute, especially coming from this little character that does naughty things and whose name i call out 50 times a day! That was special to me and probably i will keep that moment in my heart for many years from now on!!

PS: the "fat like you" incident repeated ... it did not make me smile, as the first time but once again i asked myself: don't i just love being in KG?

Don't you just love the honesty and innocence of a child?

Wednesday .. special day for many reasons - my sister's bday, my boss' bday, plenty of teacher treats in the kitchen (we've been praying for some) and special because i got to spend another marvelous day in KG.

I just love the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" because you can teach so much using it!! So, we've been using it for Literacy and for Science looking at the life cycle of a butterfly and of course - Art - painting our own butterflies. Luckily, one of the little girls brought in a video and we got to watch that too, after i struggled for half an hour to set up the VCR.

The funny part is that earlier during the day, i read the sotry to them and when i got to the part that says: "Now, he was not a little caterpillar anymore, but a big, fat caterpillar", i imediately got a reply: "JUST LIKE YOU!!" - i looked down and saw a happy face with a huge smile who was just as honest as she can be!! I did not get offended at all - it just brightened my day!! I smiled back and carried on with the story!

Well, i am not that big ... but i guess children see me big and they're not shy about telling me what they think; for eg: "do you have a baby in your tummy?" (of course i dont!) - in the end, i do think i should not wear that long dress, coz it makes me look pregnant; i was talking about my dress with Nichole ... she said i don't look pregnant at all!! Well, children are always honest and say what they truly think. :)

I love them so much and i am happy to be their teacher, though most of the times they are not angels. They bring a lot of happiness to my life at this point and every day with them is a challenge and a new reason to celebrate life!