Kindergarten teachers charm, challenge pupils

It’s not every day a witch crashes into a tree, but last
Thursday night one apparently did at Mattie Washburn Elementary
School.
As the kindergartners of room two arrive on Friday morning, they
discover a broken broomstick in the tree just outside their
classroom, and a package in the mailbox.
“Look, a note,” says kindergarten teacher Jeannie Green.
Nineteen excited students follow Green into the classroom,
gathering round to hear Green read the note. It turns out that
Matilda the witch had crashed into the tree. After apologizing to
the students, Matilda offers gifts.
“What is it?” asks one of the students. Green tells her class to
guess.
“Can you eat it?” begins one.
“No.”
“Can you drink it?”
“No.”
“Can you play with it?”
“No.”
“Is it squeaky?”
“No.”
“Is it a spider web?”
“No, but you’re awful close.”
“Is it a spider?”
Each student is awarded a glow-in-the-dark spider, a gift from
Matilda. The spiders bounce. They glow. The students attach them to
shirts, shorts and skirts. So begins a day in kindergarten at
Mattie Washburn Elementary School.
After the excitement of the glowing, jumping spiders dies down,
students sit down and write Matilda a letter, with Green’s help.
They thank Matilda for the gifts and offer to help her with her
broom. Then it’s time for roll call.
Instead of simply calling out a child’s name and listening for
“here,” Green asks her students to answer a question when their
name comes up: What do you see on Halloween?
One by one the students answer, calling out, “ghosts,”
“pumpkins,” “candy,” while Green marks them off on the roll
sheet.
After roll call, students line up at the door for a quick trip
to Jody McGoogan’s first grade classroom for a reading-buddies
activity. During reading buddies, a student from kindergarten finds
a first grade buddy to read with. Twenty groups find 20 reading
spots – under desks and on couches.
After reading buddies is over, Green’s students gather in a
circle, and talk about their lives.
“I had a good dream!” announces Dylan Buren, describing his
rocket-powered dream with two classmates.
“I sat in a corner,” jokes Isabella La Rocca, and the class
erupted in laughter. Three more students had done the same
thing.
“I fell off my bed,” said Zackary Swift.
By the time all the students have shared the news, the clock
reads 9:15 a.m. For the next hour, students practice numbers and
words in Halloween activities, including a song that counts a black
cat, two pumpkins, three white ghosts, four witches brooms and five
black bats. Another activity teaches students ‘m’ and ‘s’ sounds,
accompanied by M&Ms and Skittles candies.
Snack time is at 10:10, and students decide to follow the narrow
curb used to shape the lawn landscaping, instead of taking the
sidewalk.
During the break, Principal Benita Jones takes a few minutes to
describe what makes a good kindergarten teacher. “They really need
a sense of creativity,” Jones says. “They need to be able to take
the lessons and make them fun.” Besides fun, Jones say schools are
required to teach kindergarteners reading, letters, letter sounds,
math, writing and patterning skills.
“Jeannie Green is the perfect example of an energetic,
supportive, positive kindergarten teacher,” says Jones, and
continues by praising her entire staff. “They’re all just wonderful
teachers here at Mattie.”
By 10:50 the Green’s students are back in class, writing
individual letters to Matilda. Then they walk to the multi-purpose
room to sing with all the kindergarten classes. After 40 minutes of
singing they break for lunch.
The students are led to the kindergarten play area, which is
separated from the first graders. Students stand in line to ride
tricycles around a large play structure, which is covered with more
children. Picnic tables stand off to the side, where other kids eat
bag lunches.
At 12:30 the children line up and return to room two, where they
line up again and head to the library. Sitting on colorful
cushions, they listen to stories, then browse the walls of books to
find one they’d like to take home. After all the books are checked
out it’s time to go back to class, where the students gather to
discuss next week’s activities. The day ends at 1:45 with a song.
“Goodbye now, goodbye now, the clock says we’re done,” sing the
students.
The children pack their bags, and parents come into the
classroom to visit. As the students leave, Green is left wondering
if what they tell their parents is as strange as what the students
tell her goes on at home.
“I tell the parents that I’ll believe half of what their kids
say about what goes on at home if they’ll believe half of what they
say about here,” she says.