As a Kindergarten teacher, I find myself saying the strangest things sometimes.
Some of my favorites have been:
"Friends, please don't lick your friend."
"Please don't eat the glue."
"Friends, we keep the pencils in our hands and not up our nose or in our ears."
"Did you just cut your hair?"
"Friends, we don't pee on the grass at playtime"
"We don't wipe our nose on our friends or my dress. Please use a tissue next time"
These are just some of the highlights of my typical day, I could write a whole list but today I will share my highlight of the week that literally made me LOL!
But the best line I have ever said was during our latest science lesson.
The objective of the lesson was for students to learn how to sort and classify objects. As we had recently done a short unit on insects I decided to use insects to sort and classify.
Our school has the best resources and manipulatives available for teachers and we can usually head to the giant storeroom on campus and find exactly what we are looking for. Unfortunately for me, other Early Years teachers had just checked out the boxes of plastic insects that I had wanted to use again for my lesson for their own upcoming unit so I had to come up with another alternative.
I could have chosen absolutely anything for the students to sort and classify but I really wanted them to be able to make connections from our previous lessons, so I decided we could use real insects.
Any other time of the year I could send my own birth children on a little nature scavenger hunt for me around my home. In fact, it was only a few weeks ago I had them collect a giant hoard of snails for me. But because it was rainy season here we did much success collecting any insects. It was then I had my light bulb moment..... I could just buy the fried insects from a street seller and use that!
Here in Cambodia, there is a wide array of insect delicacies you can easily pick up in many locations around town. My own children have given many of them a try and find them quite the delicious treat.
I eagerly collected my bag of goodies for school and was excited about the lesson ahead. Knowing the way I had scaffolded the lesson the children would have a blast and be really engaged. I thought I had it all planned out.
My lesson was going off without a hitch the kids were loving it and it was now time for them to work in their small table groups and sort the insects.
As soon as I pulled the little bags out and put them on the tables more than half of my students instantly began licking their lips.
And then it happened....and I cannot believe I hadn't thought of it when planning my lesson. I spot out of the corner of my eye one student quickly put one in her mouth.
I then uttered a few words that I thought would never come out of my mouth while teaching kindergarten..... **"Did you just put the insect in your mouth?" **
"NO! I didn't eat it!!" My student replied, with little parts of the bug smeared all across her tongue and teeth and a suspicious look on her face.
I give my class signal for my students to stop what they are doing and listen to the new directions. "Friends, we don't eat the insects on the tables we are sorting. They have been in all our friends' hands and now have lots of germs on them and we could get sick if we eat them."
"But they taste so good, I want to eat them!" one student called out and many more began chiming in one by one.
Well, this isn't exactly going as I had planned, I thought to myself. I may as well dumped a bag of candy on each of my students' tables and had them sort them as I was noticing the temptation to eat the bugs for many of them was evidently HUGE.
As I moved around to another table group I saw a child plucking crunchy legs off some of the bugs and quickly hiding them under his arm and swooping them all up and into his mouth at a speed far more rapid than when he pulled a huge boogie out of his nose at circle time that morning that he also chose to consume.
I really had not thought this through thoroughly at all!
At the end of the lesson, I collected up the insects and knew I had to find a "safe place" to dispose of them because no doubt had I tossed them into the bin, one of my little friends would have picked some out of the bin as an extra snack.
Lesson learned..... don't use "real food" for group hands-on lessons unless we are actually meant to eat it!
So there you have it. A few words that I thought would never come out of my mouth while teaching kindergarten slipped right through my lips, "Friends, we don't eat the insects on the tables we are sorting."
I found it absolutely hilarious and decided to share it with you all for my entry to the @steemitmamas #humormemama competition in hope of getting my little hands on the 10 SBI prize pot.
Check out the post here for more information on how to join yourself here https://steempeak.com/humormemama/@steemitmamas/steemitmamas-contest-1-what-is-the-funniest-thing-that-happened-to-you-this-week
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I have to admit though when your drinking beer those fried crickets aren't too bad... they are like crunchy salty peanuts.
I can see why the kids would want to get stuck into them 😂
!TRDO
!BEER
!TRDO
Or maybe your just a little drunk and think they aren't that bad ?!? Hahaha
😂😂😂
I knew it was a bad idea from the moment I started reading. You should have tasted the insects to confirm. #pypt
Hahaha, I have tried some...but won't again LOL! Not my thing haha!
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WOW! Thank you @thekittygirl this is awesome! I must check out Inner blocks again. After hearing about them introducing the community over on The Ramble I thought it was a wonderful concept!
Thank you for your curation <3
Very funny! I was a math teacher so I understand. I learned the hard way (this way) that one can not use candy as manipulatives in a classroom. But it was a great idea, all scaffold-ed and relevent.
I saw your post on #pypt.
Thanks for visiting @owasco. I guess it's these experiences that help us grow as teachers...or at least keep us even further entertained during our day!
I have your tab open to check out your story about your visit to the prison https://steempeak.com/freedom/@owasco/freedom-revisited I had quickly realized once I opened it that I would want to go back and read part 1 and didn't have the time at that time. But I have now made afresh cup of coffee and found a comfy spot and am ready to dive in!
So glad we found each other at #PYPT
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This has made my day!! Thank you so much for the feature <3 #newsteem
Eeeeek! I can’t imagine intentionally eating bugs (don’t wanna know how many I’ve eaten unknowingly in my life lol) but obviously this is a popular treat where you’re from.
Lol wow, I can imagine the look on your face when you saw the pieces of bug smeared on your student’s mouth. 😄 So hilarious! Lesson learned haha!
My face went from a questioning look, to disgusted, to that strange face one makes when trying to be serious but dying from laughter on the inside lol.
Yep, the experience definitely gave me some food for thought! lol
Lol I can imagine the different emotions you went through! 😂
hahaha this is fun to read. By the way you mean the student gave you an insect but they didn't it? So you're the one who's eating it teacher? How did it taste like that you're saying, "yuck." lol
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I have tried some insects before while living here. Surprisingly crickets are not that bad....but some of them just taste NASTY lol.
Bahahahahahaaaa sounds like a normal day with small children XD
And given that you can buy fried insects in the street markets it didn't occur to you at the time that the kids would just want to eat them? XD
I know right!?! Not one of my finest thinking hahaha!
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i was a teacher in Thailand a number of years ago and it wasn't for me but this sounds like your class is actually pretty good.
I am not stranger to the edible bugs and even though I always tell people that they need to step out of their comfort zone as far as food is concerned over here in SEA, the bugs thing was something I just couldn't get past.
I do admire the fact that these kids consider them to be too tasty to resist. I think in my kindergarten there would have been people throwing up if someone at a bug. Probably lawsuits against the school as well haha.
Hahahaha you made my day - love this post