Going to work everyday is a wonderful thing, because of the adorable kids in my class. Some of the things that come out of their precious mouths are just too good to be kept to myself. I thought I would share with you some of my favourite classroom quotes. Some names have been omitted to protect the privacy of their embarrassed parents. The most recent quotes are on the top, previous years are below.
Sacred Heart of Jesus - Junior Kindergarten 2004/2005
Siobhan announces to me when the class comes back from the gym with Mrs. Hamel, "Miss White! We're home!"
While I was serving the much anticipated dirt n' worm cake on Halloween, one of the children said, "No thank you Miss White. I'm allergic to dirt."
During the month of October (colour month), I was dismissing the children for snack by the colour of their clothing. The first colour I called was blue and one little guy dressed all in red stood up and smiled at me and said, "I AM wearing blue Miss White. My underwear is blue!"
I told the afternoon class that they would be meeting their new reading buddies that day and explained that they will be coming to read to them for a little while every Friday. At snack time I overheard a conversation between two children asking each other if they really think the bunnies could read.
I overheard one student say to her mom (after her 20 minute meet-the-teacher visit), "I thought Miss White would have white hair!" Another little girl thought I should be wearing a white dress.
On the first day of school, one proud little guy announced to me first thing, "I'm wearing my CLEAN underwear today!"
Natalie and I wear having a chat during snack time and I asked her if she was eating banana muffins. She looked puzzled, so I
re-phrased, "Do your muffins taste like bananas?" She laughed at me and said, "No, they taste like muffins!"
Sacred Heart of Jesus - Grade 1 2003/2004
One of the students was asking Miss Crabbe what another students sweatshirt said. Miss Crabbe told her, "Roots". She looked puzzled
and Brianna explained to her, "It means it's really good quality".
While visiting one of the grade 2 classes, one of my former students said, "Hey Lady! Are you
married yet?" When I told him no, he told me I better hurry up!
Out of the blue, Tyler asked me if I was the president of Toronto. I told him no, and added
that Toronto has a mayor instead of a president. He went back to Ryan G. and said, "See! I told you she's
not the president of Toronto. She's the mayor!!!"
"I really love your classroom, Miss White! Thank you for a great day!" - Myles on the first day of school
When Enzo was presenting his answers for the Star of the Week board, he told us his favourite
food is spaghetti. Tyler says, "Now you're speaking my language!"
Sacred Heart of Jesus - Grade 1 2002/2003
"How do you think we could be more like Jesus?" Miss White asked during a conversation about caring about others.
"I know, I know!" Michael said, "We could all ride donkeys!"
After giving his friend a necklace he made for him, Riley's eyes lit up and he said with such expression, "That looks
SO good on you. Not girly or anything."
A line in a book we read in class, "When you feel good about yourself, you can do anything." Diego said, "No, actually...you
can never be invisible or fly."
Michael saw Julian wetting his hair at the water fountain to make it stick up. He told him he shouldn't do that because it will make
him look like a rock star and then all the girls will want to kiss him.
"Who can tell me what a Food Drive is?" Miss White asked. Marisa raised her hand and answered, "You bring in food for the poor
and grown-ups drive it to them." (Pretty accurate actually)
"Miss White! Your hair is turning brown!" - In other words...it's time to colour the roots...
Overheard during morning prayers, "Our Father, who aren't in heaven"...
Overheard during our Belonging Party, "Miss White sure knows how to throw a party!"
A poem written by Rachel:
Miss Kingsbury was assessing what each child knows about the human body. When she called Cody up and
asked what the heart does, he said, "It gives love". After agreeing this was the most important
thing it does she asked if he knew of anything else it does. He said, "Yes, it also pumps blood!"
After the Halloween Dance-A-Thon, I asked the children what they liked the most about the dance.
Chelsea replied, "I liked when we danced the macaroni!" (a.k.a. the macarena)
After I fixed the aforementioned roots, I heard one Monday morning..."Miss White is full of surprises! We
never know what colour her hair is going to be...or where our desks are going to be next!"
After looking at his perfect score on his spelling test, Austen said, "I KNOW I'm going to succeed in life now!"
During a Family Life lesson, we were discussing babies as a gift from God. I asked the children to raise their hand if
they want to get married and have kids when they grow up. Matt said, "Of course! I wouldn't want to be a hobo...You know those guys
with no families and stuff." Joey added that he doesn't want to grow up because grown-ups can't play with toys. And to that
Marshall added, "No, my dad plays with my toys all the time!"
During recess supervision, I wear the washroom passes around my neck to keep my hands free. Melissa commented that I
was a "human hanger".
During indoor recess one day, I taught the kids how to play "7-up". Being one of the 7 "up" myself, I had to touch one person's head
while their eyes are closed and when 7 had been touched, they guess who touched them. Michael was just bursting waiting for his turn to
guess and announced he KNEW it was me. When I asked how he KNEW, he said, "Well, I was just sitting here and then I felt this huge, giant
hand, and it completely covered my WHOLE head! I knew it couldn't be a kid!"
During Religion, I asked the children (as they sat in a circle) to think of a nice compliment about the person sitting on the left and on
the right of them and we shared our compliments with each other. Here are a few of my favourites:
Matt has nice curly hair and a great shirt (pause)...and he face is just so BEAUTIFUL! - Joey
Riley had doubts that "Green Eyes", our special classroom frog, actually typed the letters (writing back to the kids who wrote him).
He accused me of helping him and when I denied it, he said, "Green Eyes can't type! He's a stuffed animal. He must have
told you what to write and you typed for him!"
While waiting for her mom to pick her up, Melissa asked if I could see her mom from "way up there".
WHAT IS A FRIEND? ... St. Luke's - Junior Kindergarten 2001/2002
"Miss White, my belly is thirsty!" - Brandon
At the beginning of the year I asked Niamh, "Did you make lots of new friends at school this week?" Niamh's response, "Yes! EVERYONE is my new friend".
The children sometimes ask if I'll wash their fruit before they eat it at snack time (after observing that I do with mine). A couple minutes after I wash an apple for Daniel, I hear, "Miss White, my apple doesn't taste like anything". Alexandra certainly knew why. She told him, "Miss White washed all the taste off!"
During snack time drinking from her water bottle - "Mmmmm....My mom makes the BEST water" - Alexandra
We recently had another class discussion about germs, washing hands after we go to the washroom, covering our mouths when we cough, etc. One student raised her hand and said, "Miss White, I need to go wash my hands! I forgot yesterday when I went pee". Seven other hands shot up and exclaimed simultaneously, "Me too!". This has now become a more frequent topic of conversation in our class.
"Miss White, your nails are way too long! My mom can come cut them for you." - Rachel
On Donovan's birthday, many children started asking me how old I was. I told them that I am much, much older than they are. John asked quite seriously, "Do you mean like 9?"
I sometimes call the kids "munchkins" and realized that many do not know what a munchkin is. I explained that I call them that because they are much smaller than me and munchkins are cute, small people. All of a sudden, both classes started calling me a munchkin back. I told them I couldn't be a munchkin, because I'm too tall. One of the afternoon kids told me, "Yes, Miss White. You ARE a munchkin. You are the cute, TALL type. They don't just come in small sizes you know!"
"Miss White, you made a mistake this morning when you got dressed. Rings go on fingers, not on your thumb".
"This is the bestest school in the whole, big world...and you are the most beautiful teacher!" - Brandon
Mrs. Doleman (our library technician) and I have the same first name. One day, during our class visit to the library, she pointed this out to a child. "Do you know Miss White and I have the same first name?" she said. The child took a couple seconds to think about it and decided she was wrong. "No", she said. "Miss White's first name is Miss and your first name is Mrs."
We've been growing flowers in the class. The flowers are called "4 o'clocks" because their blooms open late in the afternoon and stay open into the evening. I explained this to the children and showed them a picture of what they will look like. The first day a green stem started popping out of the ground, one kid exclaimed, "Wow, I don't know how to tell time, but it must be 4:00!"
To get the children ready for the Valentine's Day Dance-A-Thon, I taught them a couple dances that I knew would be played for us...the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, the Twist, etc. During the dance, Carson came up to me and said, "Why do you always play sleepy music in our classroom (refering to the classical and Solitudes music I play at snack time), when we could listen to music like THIS?" After the dance, I was serving snacks and asked Carson what his liked the most about the dance and he said he like dancing the macaroni the best.
At the beginning of the year, one J.K. refused to sit for snack. There was only one spot left, and we figured out it was sitting at that table that was making her upset. She came to me and explained that it was the, "bad hair table". Sure enough, Mrs. Wright (parent volunteer) and I looked over, and as it sometimes happens on rainy days such as this one, all the children at that table did have messy hair.
During some of the regular school recess breaks, a teacher comes to our room to relieve me for a break. I often stay in the classroom, but the teacher assists with opening snacks, so I can get some other things done. One afternoon I was sitting at my desk writing something and Laura ran over to me carrying her snack saying, "Miss White! Miss White!" I said, "Pretend I'm invisible Laura. Mrs. Rogers would love to help". Laura turned in Mrs. Rogers direction and said, "Mrs. Rogers! Mrs. Rogers!". Mrs. Rogers said, "Yes Laura?" Laura exclaimed, "Miss White is INVISIBLE!"
"Where is your bed Miss White? Where do you sleep when we go home?" - Melissa
"Hey Miss White! Your mom painted your nails too?!?" - Laura S.
Jessica and Owen were discussing their parents' "real" names. When Owen said, "My mom's name is Mia", Jessica exclaimed, "She's a Mama Mia, like the song! You should call her that from now on."
During prayers, I noticed Daniel was upset about something. He told me making the "In the name of the Father" made him poke himself in the eye!
When I asked what the children did over the 3-day weekend during Circle Time, I got answers like, "We went to the cottage" and "I played with my sister". Then Rachel told me, "I fell in love with Matthew, and he is in love with me too!".
We unfortunately found a few dead baby birds in our playground. Madelaine came to school the next day and told me she had been thinking about the bird that she had seen the day before. She said it did not know how to fly when it lived here, but last night God taught it how to fly all the way to heaven.
Carson was so excited about his the play-doh tower he was building, I told him he could come over to the craft table when he was finished to make his napkin rings for our Mother's Day Celebration. He came over a few minutes later announcing he was ready to make his "onion" rings now.
"Sometimes my sister talks in a big sister voice and sometimes she talks like a normal person voice, like mine" - Chantal
When I count backwards, it's a warning for the children to do what they are supposed to be doing before I get to one. After I counted one day at Circle Time, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1"...I hear from the washroom a little voice say, "blast-off!" - Carson
The children need to ask permission to go in the cubby area. Laura asked me one day if she could go "past the stop sign" to get something from her backpack. As I'm trying to monitor all the toys from home coming into the classroom and trying to stop the cubby room from being the new J.K. hangout, I asked her what she needed from her backpack. I caught her off-guard and she admitted she hadn't really decided what she needed yet.
After teaching an action song that lets them be silly - "Miss White, are you sure you're a grown-up?"
I love Miss White
Because she is my teacher
She is a great teacher
And also, she is a good
teacher!
Marshall likes the Toronto Maple Leafs and likes to dance. - Jessica
Miss White is nice and beautiful and has the exact same eyes as my dad and my brother. - Cody
I say a friend is someone who makes me feel nice inside. - Austen
I say a friend is a special person who likes to play with me and I like to play with them and they are fun to be with! - Jessica
I say a friend is someone you enjoy playing with. - Michael
I say a friend is someone to play with at your house. - Marisa
I say a friend is someone you can play with and never forget. - Cody E.
I say a friend is someone who makes you laugh, helps you, plays with you, teaches you, listens to you and takes care of you. - Marshall
I say a friend is someone that is always there to help you. - Celina
I say a friend is someone who is nice to you. - Dylan
I say a friend is nice, sharing, plays nicely, helpful. - Gwen
I say a friend is somebody who feels like my family. - Joey
I say a friend is nice and fun. - Luca
I say a friend is someone to play with. - Daniel
