Recess is such a roller coaster ride; every day is different and you have no idea what to expect. One day, the older kids will be kicking a soccer ball around in a serious game, the next they'll be chasing leaves around, trying to keep them from touching the ground. Today we were in the gym. Some girls decided to build a fort out of some mats and the boys decided to play "bombard the castle." At first the girls were okay with it, but the boys got a little too gung-ho. Of course after recess everyone was like, "Wow! That was the best recess ever! Let's do the exact same thing tomorrow!" (Seriously, I heard at least two people say this.)
I've decided I hate being recess monitor. You are in charge of the welfare of at least 20 kids, if not more, and you have to decide if you're going to let them do the things they want to do. They try to convince you that it's not dangerous, and when you tell them to pick something else to do, they stalk off grumbling about how all the other teachers let them do it. Ergh! I feel like such a bad-guy-stick-in-the-mud.
With the younger grades' recess, you go through the same thing. They start messing around and you have to remind them to go down the slide feet first, or they can't play anymore. They're always asking for underdogs (or underfish, as they like to call them) until you're run ragged. One of the other teachers told me that you can set a maximum limit on how many underdogs you give in a recess. Lately I've been setting the limit at two per person.
On the other hand, the little ones are extremely creative. Watching them play reminds me of the things I would play with my sisters when we were little. Some girls like to play campfire or cooking class or beauty parlor. I remember cooking up lots of tasty things with my two partners in crime. We'd usually make something with cabbage or rice (dandelions and grass seeds). Some girls only swing at recess. They like to sing "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith. I'm not sure if they know what they're singing about, but they sing it at the tops of their lungs.
Today there was a group of four little girls and one first grade boy playing some sort of make-believe game. They all went down the slide together and the boy pretended to be dead once they got to the bottom. All the girls huddled around him calling him Lightning, trying to get him to "wake up." My guess is that he was supposed to be a dog or a horse. Somehow the girls found some way to get their lovely pet back to life. This was after a couple of second grade boys stopped their game of football to investigate whether their first grade classmate was alright. Once they saw he was just pretending, they rolled their eyes and went back to their game.
I got a nice surprise at the end of the day today. I had stayed a little longer to help the 1st and 2nd graders get cleaned up from their art projects (we made underwater portholes out of paper plates). By the time I got back to my classroom, I was a little late. But my 6th graders had cleaned up the room, checked their mailboxes, and packed up for the end of the day. It was amazing! They were all ready to go in record time. We even had enough time left to sing a hymn before the buses came. AND we were the first class out to the bus. Wow. I was super impressed. Hopefully this behavior will continue into Friday when we go on our first field trip.
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