Kindergarten Quote: DON'T sound it out.

School starts tomorrow.

So if you were wondering why I have not blogged (or called or emailed) recently, now you know: School starts tomorrow.

I think it's a good time, on this, the day before school starts, to share another Kindergarten quote. Unfortunately this quote is a written one and the student in the story does not say a word. In fact, she only writes three letters. But they're funny ones.

Lizzie is (or was, when she was in Kindergarten) and impulsive thinker. That is, she does her best when she answers quickly, without taking time to think. When she stops to think, the correct answer - which she had as soon as she heard the question - slips away.

I asked the children, during a spelling test, to write the word "out." I sounded it clearly. I used finger cues to show them that the word has three letters. I sounded it clearly again. Lizzie immediately took pencil to paper and... stopped to think. I sounded it again, gave finger cues again. Lizzie went ahead and wrote the letter she was sure of: t. Then she stopped to think some more.

I encouraged the students to test their spelling by sounding out the word they had spelled. Essentially, to read their word. If it sounds like "out," it's "out."

Lizzie was well and truly stuck. She looked up at me as I walked over to her desk, her eyes clearly communicating, "Mrs. Lynch, can't you just tell me how to spell it?" I knelt down and said, "Lizzie, you just need a two-letter phonogram in front of the t. I'm going to say the word again and I want you to - as quickly as you can - write the two-letter phonogram in front of the t. Are you ready?"

She nodded.

I enunciated clearly, "out."

Quickly, she added the two-letter phonogram.

The two-letter phonogram she added? sh

I quickly covered her word "sht" with my hand and said, "Don't sound it out."

"With a great deal of funkiness"

When I was a little girl, my sister and friends and I loved to put on shows. We once spent an entire summer creating, planning and rehearsing a show and actually performed it at a party at my mom's house. We called our group "The Funky Junkies." We thought "junkies" were people who lived in junky places and our parents let us keep the name, in lieu of telling us what a junkie actually was.

As for "funky," hey, it was the 70's. The 70's were a funky time. One of our numbers was "Do what you want to do" by T-Connection. That is a seriously funky song. We also did an Elvis song (Teddy), Greased Lightning from Grease and a whole bunch of Free to Be You and Me. I actually still have a program. Here is my "autograph":

Was I outrageously funky, or what?!?!?

When I had infant daughters and thought ahead to what adventures they would enjoy as they grew up, "putting on shows" was one of the things I was most excited about. I knew that my girls would be creative and talented and entertaining, just like I thought I was.

I was wrong.

That may seem harsh, but today I reviewed a video of their show "Thumbelina." "Thumbelina" has a cast of four: Brooks, Madison, Abigail and Ember. Abigail and Ember (and their mom, Michelle) are our best friends. Thumbelina is difficult to watch. For one thing, there are, as far as I can tell, two directors of this show - Brooks and Abigail. Unfortunately, the directors are also principal cast members, so they do their directing during the show, from center stage. Also, there was no rehearsal, nor even vague agreement as to how the show would go. Watching Thumbelina feels a little bit like torture.

I have editted the video (you're welcome) to just the "directing" scenes because I love you (six people who read this blog). You'll need sound for this, though there is some physical direction given, too. And you might hear the moms chime in (or freak out) as well.

Hey! Freak out - another funky 70's song.

CLICK HERE to watch Thumbelina Directors' Edit.

Kindergarten Quote: Popeye

"Popeye smells garlic so he can grow strong!" - Kaitlin E., Berean Academy Kindergarten Class of 07-08

Lowry Park Zoo with Tian July 24, 2009

Tian is a good friend of mine. He was a student in my Kindergarten class last year, his father is my pastor and I work with his mom. I had the privilege, recently, of spending the day with Tian and my girls at Lowry Park Zoo, while Tian's mother took care of his big sister, Emily, who had her wisdom teeth pulled.

The very moment I mentioned going to the zoo, Tian informed me he didn't want to go on "The Alligator." "The Alligator" is Gator Falls, a water flume ride at the zoo. But it's not just any water flume ride. Gator Falls may be the smallest flume ride in existence. I've seen bigger flume rides in back yards, powered by garden hoses. Of course, I reassured Tian that if he didn't want to go on "The Alligator" he didn't have to. There are many other things to do at Lowry Park Zoo.

I gave my girls a quick-yet-stern lecture about enjoying the other rides and exhibits and how we wouldn't want our friends to go on a ride without us and that we can ride Gator Falls some other day. They did make a few comments throughout the day, usually thinly veiled attempts to convince Tian that he did, in fact, want to go on Gator Falls. In general, though, they let it go and enjoyed the day.

Feeding the Sting Rays was a big hit - after I explained that the stinging part of the ray had been removed. Tian, Brooks and Madison reached in to touch their wings as the rays glided past. The rays expected to be fed, so they came to the side and splashed us, hoping for a morsel. All three kids wanted to feed the rays, so we bought a dish of fish parts. We stood next to the tank and contemplated holding the food at the bottom of the pool while the rays surged forward to take the fish from our fingers with their teeth. We contemplated that for a while, and then we just dropped the food in and let the rays came to the surface to find it, which was pretty cool and not as scary.

We saw the alligator exhibit, too. The actual reptile alligators. They were out sunning and there were eight of them. "No, nine!" "Eleven!" "And there's a big one in the back corner!" It was kind of like being on safari, trying to find them all, if not for the eight-foot wall surrounding the enclosure and the 72 kids on a field trip with a summer camp who were also finding alligators. "Twelve!"

There was a man cutting down a tree, which you usually don't think of as a zoo exhibit, and I admit wasn't an official attraction. A bunch of zoo people stood around in khaki clothes, talking to each other about better ways to cut down a tree, while one man - who was tied to the tree - used a chainsaw to cut the tree. The top section of the tree was held by a cable connected to a crane. When the tree was severed, the top portion swung free and the man ducked out of the way just in time - while holding a running chainsaw. The kids may only be 7, 8 and 9 years old, but they know danger when they see it. It was awesome.

We went to the aviary and saw bats asleep in a dark corner. As cool as I thought that was, the big hit in the aviary was the row of hanging plastic chains that allow people to come in and out, while discouraging the birds from attempting escape. Tian absolutely loved going back and forth through the chains, so we did that for a mind-numbingly long time.

In the children's zoo area Madison and Tian rode a little roller coaster together. Tian screamed at the top of his lungs EVERY SINGLE MOMENT that the ride was in motion. When they came off I asked Tian if he was afraid and he said "no." I asked why he was screaming so much and he said, "Maddie told me to." I looked at Maddie for an explanation. She just smiled. I told Tian, "You don't have to obey Madison." He just smiled.

Summer in Florida is hot, of course, so the kids used the heat as an excuse to play in the water area and within minutes they were drenched. And once Tian was wet, he didn't mind getting wetter, so he said, "Can we go on 'The Alligator?'" Oh, the joy! By the looks on my girls' faces you would have thought it was Christmas morning, or that they were allowed to get a puppy, or that I let them go to bed without brushing their teeth.

We immediately set off, negotiating for prime seating. Maddie wanted to ride all by herself, but Brooks was worried that Maddie would somehow be injured. If she absolutely had to ride with us, then Maddie only wanted the front spot. Brooks wanted to sit next to me and next to Tian. Tian decided that the seats in the back were where the riders get the wettest (he was right), so he wanted to be in the front, too. I wanted to sit at a shady bench and read.

Maddie climbed in first, hurrying to the front. Tian scrambled in, but somehow ended up facing backwards in the back of the boat. Brooks was concerned that they were in but we were not, so she tried to hold on to the boat and me, while simultaneously insisting that Tian turn around and move to the front and whining at me to please, get in, get in, get in! We finally settled into our seats as the ride approached the end of the loading area at what felt like a glacial inch-per-minute.

And then... wait for it...another 4 inches...wait for it... oh, for goodness' sake...we were off!

We have some flume ride experience. We've done Splash Mountain at Disney, which winds through an animatronic telling of the Uncle Remus stories, has a few small falls, and ends with a 50 foot drop into Brer Rabbit's briar patch. It's the girls' favorite Disney ride and takes a full 8 minutes from beginning to end, not counting, of course, the 75 minutes of waiting in line to get on the ride. The Tidal Wave at Busch Gardens seats 24 people per boat, winds through African-themed villages, complete with basket weaving huts and lush landscaping, and takes about 4 minutes.

Gator Falls is, as I've mentioned, small. You can see the entire thing from any one place on the ride. Aside from a few signs "Waterfall Ahead!" painted on artificially weathered wooden planks, there's no attempt to create a theme. I can only assume that the word "Gator" is in the name of the ride because so many University of Florida supporters enjoy the ride. There certainly aren't any actual alligators, fake, painted or otherwise, anywhere near the ride. It also takes 4 minutes, but the first two are spent on the conveyor belt in the loading area and there's another full minute on the conveyor belt that brings you to the top.

Two things, though, that do compare with the other flumes. First, the deluge of water upon hitting the bottom. We were soaked from head to toe, from t-shirt to underwear, in a split-second. So quickly, in fact, that I didn't have time to close my mouth and I swallowed a few ounces of that disgusting recycled-through-the-ride-all-day water.

Second, of course, is the drop. The last 4 seconds of the ride are fun and thrilling and stomach-tickling. The girls like to try to keep their hands up high and I just smile as I hear them scream and laugh. Tian said he liked it and even wanted to do it again, so we did.

It wasn't until we looked at the souvenir photos that I saw exactly how thrilling the ride was for Tian. The photo speaks for itself and I'll let it tell the last thousand words of this blog entry.

Enjoy.

Kindergarten Quote: Dog Backward

Morning in Kindergarten. Sunlight filters through the blinds, illuminating backpacks and lunchboxes, untied shoes, stuffed animals, toys and rows of books. The students sit at their desks, hands folded and paying attention. Or, maybe, daydreaming and playing with the colorful eraser stuck on the end of their pencil, wishing recess time would hurry up and come.

I'm at the board, teaching the week's spelling words. In Kindergarten we get the short words: top, an, six, run. It sounds easy, but each word is fraught with potential for error. "Pin" sounds a whole lot like "pen" and which side of the line do you put the round shape on (p/q)? "I" only has one letter, but if you write it in lower case (i) it's wrong, because it stands for a name!?!? And "but," well, that's just funny. I tell them that it doesn't mean "bottom," it means "however." Of course, I won't tell them how you actually spell the butt that means bottom, so they're suspicious.

It's easy, though, when we get to the word "dog." Most of them already know this one. Even as I speak the word for the first time, "dog," a little hand flies up. Oh, she's excited! Lizzie knows this one and can't wait to tell all of us. I'm thrilled with her enthusiasm as I call on her, expecting her to spell it for us. "Yes, Lizzie?"

"Mrs. Lynch," she says. "Did you know that if you put DOG backward, it spells ... LORD."