Kindergarten Sub

Each year, as an incentive to get employees to contribute to the United Way, we put the names of all contributors in a hat and I draw one. That individual gets a free day off with me as a sub. Last fall I drew the name of Stephanie Breeding, Kindergarten teacher, South Elementary.

Last week it was time to pay up. Mrs. Breeding got her day off and I worked all day in Kindergarten. It was exhausting. The day went by so fast. I don’t remember if I used the bathroom or not. It’s brutal down there in kindergarten.

OK. I’ll be honest. I was not alone.

Mrs. Breeding is a team teacher with Lisa Fox. There is also a student teacher. So, there was help. But 5 year olds can be verrrry demanding.

Most of the time I was assigned to work at a kidney shaped table with small groups of varying abilities. In reading we worked on forming words with random consonants and vowels and sounding them out. Admittedly that makes some words that are nonsense, but the children understand that and gamely work on pronouncing them. Then we added the silent e – also called the magic e. The magic e, though silent, makes the vowel say its name. Did you know of the magic e?

In math we played subtraction bingo. There was calendar time and stories and computers and library time and recess and lunch. There was singing and dancing and movement. And there was a nice juicy plum for a snack in late afternoon. I needed that.

I feel I must point out that it was a very diverse group. There are a lot of misperceptions about a school district in agriculture country like this. This class was made up of students of various colors, students with special needs and students who were learning English – Guatemalan, Mexican, Haitian, Puerto Rican and Turkish.

We have good kids and this class was no exception - so fresh and innocent. They represented America’s future right in front of me. This is where they begin the American Dream. Right here in Lake Forest.