This afternoon I spent thirty minutes in a first grade classroom. All but ten of the students had gone home on the early bus and, after saying hello to their teacher, I sat down to play a matching game. Miss "Apple" has a huge bag filled with small lamented cards that all have matches. The kids had laid out maybe twenty cards so I took the bag and began to lay 0ut as many matches as I could. I told the kids we were all on the same team and that we needed a team name. "How about the Dragons?" I asked. And enthusiastic cheer, and off we went. By the end almost all of them were gathered around, finding matches, asking if anyone had seen the other skunk, and counting how many points we had already won together. We had a blast. Miss Apple is a very calm woman, who is wonderful with the children in just the right way. I have been in many classrooms for my job, and Friday afternoons are usually the craziest! But, today it was so pleasant. In the time I have been in her classroom I haven't seen one discipline problem, argument, etc. She is gentle, kind, and appreciates all their personalities. Thanks Miss Apple, I think you are doing a great job.
I was trying to remember what my first grade classroom was like...and one of the memories that comes to mind was when I colored a rock at recess with a yellow crayon, and then showed everyone my piece of gold at show-and-tell. What was I thinking?
