Tag Archives: preschoolers

What time is it? It’s STORYTIME! Plus, the Littlest Translator

13 Dec

Two “amusing anecdotes” (as my father would say) today:

A little girl was looking at her new pink watch and whispering to a friend. The teacher tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and quiet her down. The girl looked at me, and I asked her what time it was. “It’s storytime!” she chirped.

Don’t we all need a watch like that?

A little boy was jabbering in Spanish, telling me something about the “noche” (I’m fluent, but he was talking so fast I didn’t get it all). Another little boy looked at me and said: “Asi se dice night.” [that’s how you say night]. Thanks, buddy, for the translation! And good on you for being bilingual!

I got the best card from one of my classes today, with a picture of all the kids and their signatures. Things like that I always treasure. I work with some fabulous teachers, and the students they teach are a delight.

 

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On Today’s Episode of Conversations With Preschoolers…

21 Nov

I bring you: these two interesting exchanges I had with a couple of boys this morning:

Boy #1 (pointing to my hand): “What’s that?”

Me: “Uh…my hand?”

Boy #1: “Why do you have it?”

Me: “Because…it grew there?”

And later…

Boy #2 (upon entering the classroom after outside time): “Welcome to our school, Miss Mary!”

Me: “Thank you! That was a very nice thing to say!”

Boy #2 follows up this pleasantry with: “I was being bad outside. I was wrestling.”

Me: “Oh, that makes me sad.”

I guess I bring out the confessional urge in people…

 

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Spring smells like…

18 May

Yesterday we read Will Hillenbrand’s Spring Is Here.  It was a nice day, and the kids were playing outside when I arrived, so we had storytime on the lawn.

On one page Mole sticks his nose out the window and sniffs to check if Spring has arrived. I asked the kids what they thought spring smelled like.

“To me, it smells like grass,” I said, as the distinct smell of fresh mown grass was in the air.

One young man contributed this: “It smells like a good day.”

I think he’s right. Spring smells like a good day.

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It just keeps growing…and growing…and growing…

17 May

I had this conversation with a young man this past week:

“I’m gonna be big soon,” he said.

Thinking he was talking about turning 5 (which is “big” in preschool years), I asked, “oh? When will you be big?”

“When my brain grows,” he replied.

—

I hope your brain never stops growing.

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Early Childhood Education Changes Lives

15 May

On November 13, 2009, I added a postcript to this post  about a young man who spent most of my visit to his school crying. I was able to talk to him, in Spanish, and reassure him that everything was okay. It was his first week of preschool.

This week I made my last visit of the school year to his preschool. He’s still there. In a year and a half, he’s become a confident, sweet, smiling little guy. He speaks to me in accented, but very good, English.

Next year he’ll be in Kindergarten, and I won’t see him.  I will miss him. I wish I could follow him and find out how he progresses in life. I have a feeling, though, that he’s gonna be great.

Never doubt that Early Childhood Education changes lives.

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Inside Of a Bear, It’s Too Dark To Read*

4 May

Today we were reading A Pet For Petunia by Paul Schmid, one of my new favorite books.

Skunks are AWESOME!

Petunia wants, WANTS, WANTS a pet skunk, and is completely indignant when her parents say no. There’s a page-long rant by Petunia that’s great fun to read aloud (and had the kids and teachers laughing). After her rant, Petunia decides to run away to the forest, where, in all likelyhood, she’ll be eaten by a bear. THEN, she declares, her parents will let her have a skunk.

I asked the preschoolers: “Will she be able to have a skunk after she’s eaten by a bear?”

“No,” said one young lady.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because you can’t get out of a bear.”

…

Wise words…

*with apologies to Groucho Marx.

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Life Isn’t Like the Movies, Especially When It Comes to Frogs

27 Apr

My frog puppet, Freddy, was demonstrating his excellent hopping skills. He just kept going, so I asked the kids how we could get him to stop.  One young man, holding his hand out as if he held a remote, said, “pause him.”

Oh, that only works in the movies.

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What Monsters Are Made Of

14 Apr

Today we were reading The Dark, Dark, Night by M. Christina Butler, in which frog discovers what he thinks is a pond monster.

I was informed of this by a young man: “Monsters are made out of costumes.”

I think he has a point.

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I’m sure there are LOTS of things you can do better than Justin Bieber.

26 Mar

After storytime, a girl came up to me and said excitedly, “I’m going roller skating after school today!”

“That sounds like fun,” I replied.

“Yeah, but I have to ask my mommy and daddy first. Because you can’t go skating every day by yourself!” she said knowingly.

“That’s true.”

“I can skate really fast,” she said excitedly.

“Can you?” I replied.

“Yes. I can skate faster than a cheetah, and faster than Justin Beiber!”

Now I haven’t done an exhaustive search for information on Justin Bieber’s*skating skills, but I suspect she’s telling the truth.

*Yes, I did have to go back and correct the spelling of Justin BIEber’s name. And I’m not ashamed of that.

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There is no downside.

14 Mar

We were reading Chris Haughton’s Little Owl Lost (one of my new

He's upside up!

favorites; I adore the color palette!). On the first page, we see Little Owl and his mommy in their nest in the tree, sleeping. There are no words on the page. I asked the kids: “what’s happening?”

Girl: “They’re sleeping upside-up.”

Of course. If there’s an upside-down, can’t there be an upside-up? Or is that downside-down?

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