Kindergarten Ready

I have eight delightful four year olds, this year, who keep me on my toes.  Every morning to start our day we gather around for circle time.  We say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing a song or two, and on Mondays, I introduce our letter for the week.  This morning I was having a little difficulty getting everyone to settle down.  There was a constant barrage of questions.  "When can we go outside?"  "I'm hungry, when is snack?"  "Miss Bonnie, I need to go the bathroom. "Are those brownies for us?" ......(you get my point).


I finally gave up and ask everyone to go sit in their chairs, and I pulled my chair up to the table.  I ask the children if their Mommies and Daddies worked?  They all started talking at once, telling me what their parents did.  Once I quietened them down, I ask, "What do you think is Miss Bonnie's job?"  Most of them just looked at me.  One little girl look at me and giggled, "Silly Miss Bonnie,  your don't have a job."  Of course this started everyone giggling.  Not quite the reaction I was hoping for.

I explained to them they will be going to Kindergarten next year, and my job is to get them ready.  " We have  a lot of work to do together.  We need to know our letters, our numbers, we need to be able to cut on a line, and most importantly we need to be able to (pause)  listen and follow directions".  They pretty much stared at me.   Going around the table, I ask each child, "Do you want to go to Kindergarten next year?" The first five answer with an enthusiastic "Yes, Ma'am".   I touched the hand of the next child, "C., do you want to go to Kindergarten next year?"  He stopped fidgeting, looked me straight in the eye and whispered, "I don't know, I need to think about that."

You know?  I would almost do this for free!  Almost!