Eggs!

"Teacher Alex the egg's funny." C came up to me with a very puzzled look on her face.

"Let me see," I said, thinking she was just having trouble peeling the hard boiled egg. She led me over to her table and I knelt down to look at the egg in the little cup. "You're right. That egg's not cooked."

Earlier O had noticed that there were no more eggs for peeling and I told him he could take the bowl and go out and ask the other adult out in the hallway if he could have some more for our classroom. He came back in a minute or two later and I didn't think anything of it until C showed me the raw egg she was trying to peel. Kind of a really difficult trick to pull off!

So we laughed about it a little bit, luckily she hadn't cracked it too hard and had even had the good sense to put it back in the little cup once it started leaking. So I went out to get the hard boiled eggs, checking with the other adult in the hallway who told me "Yeah, O didn't ask me about the eggs, I just saw him walking back to class with the bowl. Though I was curious why there were only 10 eggs in the carton when I went to boil them...."

Apparently O had gone out, and lacking an adult for direction decided to help himself to the eggs. He knew they were in the fridge and must have recognized the carton and helped himself to a couple. No problem. That's what Montessori kids are supposed to do after all; solve their own problems.

A little too exuberant

M had forgotten for a while about watering the plants. She loved the work when I first showed it too her, but as our plants got a little too much watering love I had to have her stop for a few days. She suddenly re-discovered it today and this was the result-

You can't tell in the photo but this entire vase is full of water. She ran out of plants and proceeded to use the watering can to fill up all the vases with flowers in them. The only problem...this one's a fake. Ooops!

Does the copy machine work on people?

Does the copy machine work on people? Because I sure could have used an extra one or two of me after recess today. Ok, so it was a little bit of my own fault. The other staff who normally helps me get the nappers ready was gone for the day, and I figured, "Hey, there's only 9 of them, I can handle it alone." Umm...yeah, not so much.

Getting ready for nap is a half an hour process; the kids come in, take their boots off, grab their inside shoes, take off their outdoor clothing and stow it, use the bathroom (only two at a time!) and then head into the darkened nap room. Almost 3 months into the school year, you'd think they'd know the routine by now. Nope. I had one kid still taking off his boots in the back hallway. two running circles around the rug near the boot shelves, four in the coat room playing hide and go seek, one wandering up and down the bathroom hallway, and the last sitting in the nap room fully dressed because she's been hitting one of her friends with a mitten.

Yeah, I could have used at least four more copies of myself. They all got through it, only five minutes late , but I guess they were pretty restless in the nap room. On a normal day we end up with about 7 or 8 who actually sleep. Today only 5 did. Sigh. Tomorrow I think I'll give a presentation after recess on how to take off our outdoor clothing. At least it will keep them all together in one group!