Friday, April 28, 2006

The littlest ones...

Okay, so I think I've already written about my youngest class. I know the youngest one is three, and I think the older ones are either 5 or 6. I love this class, but it's exhausting and someone always has to go to the bathroom smack dab in the middle of class in spite of my insistence that they go beforehand.

So, today we were singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes when one little boy went down while his neighbor went up. Thus, someone's head connected with his nose (which were two of the target words, by the way) and there were plenty of tears. To distract everyone, I told them to line up and we would take a 'trip' outside. Apparently, French kids line up in pairs and hold hands. I think this is a pretty sensible idea as it limits the running around. Anyway, we learned how to count big steps and little steps in English, which was still a bit challenging, but they tried to follow the directions exactly as I said them, so I consider it a success. They learned, "Go stand in line," the difference between "big/little," and what "Take 5 steps" meant, and it was all bonus material. Plus, the little fellow forgot about his nose!

On the way back, one girl spotted the bathroom and decided she had to go. Last week, a little boy peed his pants before I could get him there, so I was happy enough for her to go in the potty and not on the floor. I left the door open so I could keep an ear on her while getting the others started on making Pinocchio noses. After a few minutes I heard this little voice: "Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy-oooooooooooh! Heeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy-ooh!" I asked her what she needed, and she said, "I've done number 2!" (obviously she said this in French. I like to think they learn from me, but we're not quite at that level of fluency yet). Dear Heavens. So, I asked her to wait while I got the other kids busy on their nose and went to help her when I could. When I arrived, she was in prime wipe position. At that point, I decided if kids were old enough to learn English, they are old enough to wipe themselves. I gave her plenty of t.p. and said, "Do your best and don't forget to wash your hands afterwards." I don't know exactly what happened, but she seemed fine with that and I heard the hand-dryer, so she seemed pretty together with it. Once again, let me say that I adore preschool teachers. People think it's easy, but it's not. They have my respect.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! vous ĂȘtes excellente.

Kim/Thomas said...

uugh, my 6 year old still needs help wiping, I hope and pray, he doesn't go #2 anywhere else but home:)