Thursday, April 10, 2008

Phenomena of Five

I know some of you have kids this age, some don't. Maybe this happens at home, maybe not.

Picture a large room full of various musical instruments and a giant area carpet. There's a music teacher in there who has about 5 minutes between classes to put away materials from one class and get ready for the next. This music teacher doesn't fall high on the neatly put things away bell curve. In fact she's on the low end.

Also a factor is the fact that the students that filter in and out wear shoes. Shoes that they have worn outside to recess. Sometimes they get to dance on the area carpet.

Now imagine kids that are 5 come into the room. As they sit waiting to see what delights await them, they explore their immediate surroundings. Some of these kids (thanks to good parenting I'm assuming) score off the charts on the neatly put things away bell curve.

These children pick up any random object within the invisible force field that surrounds them, bring it up to said music teacher and announce "I found this."

In my head- You didn't FIND it! It was laying in a disorganized mess in our general area!

They "find" pebbles, erasers, pieces of sticks, earring backs, minute pieces of string. You name it, it's been found. Their finds are either artifacts left from a previous class or a random shaker or drum that I've failed to properly put away.

One time with a particularly clever student teacher, I "planted" things to be "found." They had a 100% success rate and found things that weren't even part of the experiment.

All I'm saying is if you've got kids that complain about not being able to find important things, just tell them to pretend they're in the music room.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

My kids can't find anything...it's usually up to me. Can I borrow your students??

Cindy said...

I love this. BTW, are you getting close to the end of the school year? My brother teaches high school creative writing and lit. He's beginning to fray around the edges a bit and he has until the end of May.

Anonymous said...

Hey, your great you got the rug rats to clean the floor and be quiet at the same time.

Tammy said...

lol - I have a 14 yo who still can't "find" ANYTHING... including the piece of trash or his shoes that are sitting right in front of him. It's amazing, really. Maybe he needs to hang out with your 5 yo class.

Yarnhog said...

I live in house full of boys. Whenever they can't find anything, I tell them to take off their "man eyes" and put on their "woman eyes." Works like a charm. I'm sure they'll be scarred for life.

Lydee said...

ROTFLOL! That is hilarious!
And yarnhog's "man eyes" vs "woman's eyes", oh that is too much!

Anonymous said...

My students' favorite thing to find in my classroom is old staples from the bulletin board. I haven't put up or taken down any bulletin boards all year and yet they find staples in the carpet almost daily.

Gingersnaps with Tea... said...

Yaeh, I'm not sure when boys first begin to develop "man eyes" but they definitely have them by the time they turn 14 'cause my 14-year-old son couldn't find his shoes if they were on his feet and can look at a fridge packed full of food from a grocery shopping done THAT morning and bellow, "Mom I can't find anything to eat."

Carol said...

Do you think htey could find my wits? My mind went looking for them, but hasn't returned yet!

Haley said...

great post!