Shayne's Day #76: The one with the sheep

* This post is supposed to be before the one with the American kids: Part 1, but I couldn't get it to post in the proper order.  So, if you are reading our blog chronologically, read the American kids one first and this one second.  My lack of tech-savyness strikes again!

Yesterday, I taught EC (early childhood). When I got my assignment and learned that EC was the 3 and 4 year olds, I just had to laugh. Never, in my wildest dreams would I have imagined teaching babies. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE kindergarteners, but I wasn't sure how kinder minus two years was gonna go! First off, these little kiddos turned out to be the cutest darn things you have ever seen. Between their little runny noses, their tiny boxes of snack pack raisins, and their mini british accents, my heart was theirs 6 seconds after walking through the door. It took all I had not to scoop them up, put them in my pocket, squeeze them, and say, "You idddle, widddle babies!" But, being the teaching professional that I am, I did not switch my "R's" to "W's" and I attempted to teach these little munchkins rather than wiggle their toes and coo at them.

Obviously, I knew it would be a great Thursday. How could it not be with baby brits! However, when I learned that the theme of the day was sheep, it just got better. The whole day was dedicated to sheep. We colored sheep (when I told Jake this he started laughing and asked, "What did you have to color?"), we played as make-believe sheep, we pretended to eat our snack with only bottom teeth like sheep, and we even sang the sheep song. At lunch I almost ran out and bought a sheep suit. I totally jumped on board the sheep train! This whole year I taught 5th grade and our daily themes were long division, bullying, and weather systems. Those were all great, but it's been a long time since I crawled around the floor and baaaaa'd my little heart out. It was a baaaaa-rific kind of day!

After 3 hours of all things sheep, we met on the carpet to talk it out. I asked the students questions about what they learned that day and ended up with two comments that I think will ALWAYS be on my top ten "kids say the darndest things" list of all time. When you read these, you MUST picture the comments being said in a teeny tiny voice and, most importantly, with a british accent....trust me, my heart turned to mush (or maybe soft, fluffy wool).

Ms. Shayne: "So boys and girls, how do sheep sleep?"

Petra: "Well, they count themselves!"

Ms. Shayne: "Why do you think that none of us are wearing wool today?"

Keller: "Because we aren't sheep."

Lessons Learned: 1) Sheep don't have top teeth, 2) Sheep count themselves to get sleepy, 3) For all of you going through the terrible two's with your own kids, give it a year...they are about to become the cutest little buggers you have ever seen!