blue-green

I substitute taught for a Kindergarten class. It was a good leap into the world of subbing. I came home tired but happy to have had an opportunity to work.
For one of the activities the kindergarteners were paired with a third grader who helped them color a picture of a rainbow and then to fill in a poem:

Rainbow Riches
They say at the rainbow’s end
A pot of gold you’ll find.
But I wish that pot was filled with

____________________________
and that they were all mine.

The example had “money” written in the blank and then displayed quickly colored green rectangles poking out of a black pot. When the children came up to me to staple the pictures, I would ask them what they put in their pot, and they would flip to the last page and show me their desired bounty. A few stood out to me including:
1. pickles
2. teeth (This one was really funny to me. Maybe they associate teeth with money because they can put it under their pillow for the tooth fairy.)
3. cake with gold (This seemed like it was a compromise. I can picture the kindergartener wanting a cake and the third grader, seeing this as an opportunity to wish for anything, convincing the kindergartener to do a cake decorated with gold)
4. potatoes

A few other highlights from the day included:
-A kindergartener and third grader asked me to spell turquoise. I stalled and told them to look on a crayon. The crayon ended up saying ‘blue-green’. I am nervous about spelling but I told myself to suck it up; they are kindergarteners and third graders. So I started, “Er…T,” and then I thought for just a half second, “U-R-Q-U-O-I-S-E.” Yay! Good job, self!
-In the afternoon session I had a girl who wanted me to supervise her every move. This was not possible because I was supervising an entire class. Some of her tablemates informed me as I did a walk by to help them write their numbers that she did not have any erasers on her pencils because she ate them. I nodded, and smiled a little, then continued around the room to help others. A few minutes later I heard a high-pitched shriek from the other side of the room, “Teacher! Monica is eating her eraser!” I turn around to see that she had taken a neighbor’s pencil and was nibbling the delectable pink tip. I then found myself walking over there, grabbing her hand and saying in a stern voice, “Monica! Stop eating your eraser!” I thought this was funny/unusual but actually, I am finding it is fairly normal. In a few other classes I’ve been to I have found other eraser eaters.
-At the end of the morning session I was walking the Kindergarteners out to meet their rides home. They hit the outdoors and then ran around the corner to their busses and moms. A minute later a little light haired boy in a red striped sweater came running back, threw his arms out wide, hugged my legs, and then ran back around the corner out of sight. I loved it. And I love kindergarteners.
* Mel’s note: I looked up turquoise just now on a spelling bee list (for grades 4 and up into high school). They ranked l the words by difficulty into brackets by letters of the alphabet, A-T; turquoise was listed as an “S” difficulty. I guess I have that going for me.