Tuesday, December 14, 2010

i heart my job

Today I sat down with some bright kindergarten girls for guided reading. We were about to dive into a book about one of our favorite characters- a golden retriever named Danny. In this particular book Danny and his dog friend Abby play tag in the grass after Dad mows the lawn. I know, riveting, right?  (Don't mock it, we DIE for Danny books in kindergarten).

Since none of the girls live in houses with yards I wasn't sure that they'd have the schema to know what the man in the picture was doing with the grass. Suspecting this could interfere with their reading I showed them the picture of the character mowing the lawn and asked them what he was doing.

Crickets.

Finally one girl said, "Wait, I know this, he's, he's...."  she gestured frantically...  "breaking the grass!"

I adore listening to kids learning English find ways to describe what their thinking. I think "breaking the grass" is extremely accurate.

**  **  **
During snack I plopped down beside some kindergarten boys to try to work on answering questions on topic.

"What do you celebrate at your house?"  I asked.

"Santa Claus!" one answered, proudly. "My family doesn't celebrate Christmas, we celebrate Santa."

1 comment:

magpie said...

This reminds me of my son when he first saw me shaving.
Mum asked "Where's Dad?" He said "He's just mowing his face."
☺☺☺