Why I Love First Graders

...because they are amused by anything that you do...even if that amusement only lasts 15 seconds.

My first graders are so excited to see me when I walk in the door at 8:05ish. Then, by 8:10, they turn their attention to something more important, like making duck noises or funny faces or drawing on their arms.

On my last day with them, I decided to try a memory game with the deck of cards Jer got for me in Balaton. The proper name is "Pelmanism" and I'd like to take this time to impress my CELTA knowledge upon others. So basically, the kids had to flip over one card (for example a red 7) and then they had to find the (black 7).

In order for everyone to see the cards, I put white sticky tack on the front of the cards and stuck them face down to the board. As I did this, everything got quiet in the room. The crazy little kid noises stopped and I swear that I could have heard a pin drop. I had to look back to make sure that everyone was still there and hadn't disappeared into space.

It took me about 2 more seconds to figure out that they were fascinated by my ability to put cards on the board and make them stay.

One of the kids, with wide bulging eyes, and a little finger pointed at me screamed, "Harry Potter!!!" The others started laughing and clapping. Not wanting to credit the white sticky tack just yet, I made exaggerated magician movements. The reason why I was so excited about this Harry Potter comment is because I just finished reading books 1 and 2 last month. Yes, it took me until May 2006 to start the Harry Potter adventure, but, I was getting desperate for reading material and figured, "why not?"

And yes, just like almost everyone else, I got sucked in to the plot.

Teaching first graders was like walking on the moon for the first time...didn't know what to expect, but I did enjoy my time with them (because of the aforementioned event above) even though they were the most difficult to teach of all my students.

****By the way, I've never walked on the moon (just assumed that it would be pretty 'out of this world').