twinkle, twinkle...john calvin

the other day i mentioned that we got a new toy in my classroom. it's yellow. it's furry. it sings and dances. it has a face. that's the full description. i have no idea what it is.

this morning i heard someone yelling "poop! poop!" and i thought one of the little geniuses crapped on the floor. so i went over, and a boy was pointing at the thing saying "it's a poop! it's a poop!"

boys are gross. you can see it at age two. but that was better than the time one of them brought me a dead bug.

other highlights from today:

- a little girl was crying about nothing. i sang her a hymn and she stopped. i love it when that works. i feel magical. later, it happened again on the playground. it was like lightning struck twice in the same place. i'm kind of a comfort snob. i don't sing them any of that "twinkle, twinkle little star" nonsense. reformation hymns. that's the way to go.

- we teach them things, even though they're young. shapes. colors. counting. animal noises. but some days it feels like our efforts are pointless because the younger ones just stare at us. today, we didn't feel like teaching the usual science lesson. instead of asking "what color is this dinosaur? how many legs does it have? what does a dinosaur sound like?" ...we discussed the differences between herbivores and carnivores. you're welcome, 3rd grade science teachers! cross that lesson off your plans. it's done.

- we had music class today. the teacher asked them to growl like grizzly bears. only one did. and the teacher said he sounded like a constipated bear. can you say that? no, i don't think so.

- minnie mouse visited one of the other classes. she's a man underneath. i'm not really sure what to do with that.

- we had our valentine's day party! i received some:

hoo-hoo-ray! happy valentine's day! (tigger and pooh)
blazing new trails, happy valentine's day! (cars)
just hanging with my pals on valentine's day (mickey and minnie...yikes...)

and

will you be elmo's valentine?

what is that about? it's a disturbing new twist on "be mine." you can't give someone a valentine and hand them off to someone else. that's not how it works.

what a half-ass valentine.