Crime Does Not....

I teach first grade.
In reading class,
I teach that there are
a number of ways to figure out what a word is;
two choices are
sounding it out (phonics)
and putting in what makes sense (context clues).
Most kids use a combination of approaches as needed.

I was leading two groups in reading Aliki's Feelings.
The page was about
the verbal consequences of flying a paper airplane in class.
The teacher's words were in capitals,
the boy's thoughts were in lower case letters*,
and a commenting bird's interpretation of feelings were in italics.
At the end of the page,
the bird's final comment is
"Crime does not pay,"
but each time the child read
"Crime does not play."

I guess the knowing the result of classroom misdemeanors
outweighed the phonics in this case.
Kids are so funny.

S.

*Did you know that lower case letters
were kept in the bottom drawer
at the Oxford print shop?
Thus "upper case" and "lower case."
I love trivia.

Mayday! Mayday!

The first day of May has been interesting.

I think I saw a badger on the way to school.
Do we have badgers around here?

The marsh marigolds and skunk cabbage
that I admired in the meadow yesterday
had been shrivelled by frost overnight.

I stopped to tell bridge construction workers
to watch for arrowheads.
My grandparents owned that property sixty-five years ago,
and found arrowheads while working in the garden.

During morning bus duty,
I asked a kindergartener to put his lunch money in his backpack.
He complied,
then made his hand into a gun and shot me.

Diane Brewer challenged me to make her laugh today,
so during the announcements,
I said, "Good morning Juniata. This is Mrs. Brewer...."
Her kids looked at her and said, "That's not you."
Bright kids, those.

We began the day with a fire drill,
and soon after, the rain began.
We had to deliver May baskets to our indoor friends
rather than visiting the neighborhood.
The comment again this year was
"This is like 'ding dong ditch!'"
Since we couldn't get outside for dandelions and crabapple blossoms,
we added Hershey kisses.
There's no great loss without some small gain....

At the end of the day,
my class left to go to their dismissal rooms
and I wanted to use the time to "hot synch" my palm pilot,
but I couldn't remember how.
Technology vs the fiftysomething brain,
not pretty.
When I went to ask Christina,
the hall was jammed with parents and siblings
picking up students in a new location
due to hoagie deliveries in the gym.
Organized chaos.
Half a minute later,
the fire alarm went off.
In that dismissal crowd, a mom had been
holding a two-year-old too close to the alarm box.
Who now is responsible
for the three hundred dollar false alarm fine?

I stopped at a Home Camp ditch
to dig some marsh marigolds for transplanting.
The four foot shovel handle almost disappeared into the muck,
amazing!
and pulling it out covered quite a bit of me with mud,
but the flowers are exquisite.

The weather was warm enough to
finally cut my mom's hair outside
to avoid a mess.
She squirmed like a preschooler.
Good thing she didn't pay for that haircut!

Finally home!
My throat hurts.

Trying to step over the invisible garage door sensor
while carrying hairclippers
and books
and groceries
and school bag
and flowers,
and stuff in general,
the handle on a basket snapped
and an antique milk bottle
that was bound for the historical society
shattered all over the driveway.

I swept it up
and sliced my finger.

Den arrived soon after
and volunteered to make supper.
Bless you, Denny.

Now, after bandaids
and pork chops
and Airborne
and soaking muddy clothes
and listening ears
and a backscratch
and Survivor
and the rest of the bag of espresso chocolate chip cookies,
I'm feeling much better.

May there be relatively few "Maydays!" in your May.

Sue