Welcome to Fun Friday in my Special Ed classroom.
It isn’t only the students who learn.
I put out paper, paint, water, and brushes. As I handed the last kid his brush I noticed paint on his fingers. I looked up. His cheek and lips were swabbed in navy blue paint.
“Why is there paint on your face?†I ask.
He says, “I no know.â€
His teeth and tongue are also blue.
I say, “We don’t eat paint!â€
He says, “No eat. Taste yukky.†And then he drank the paint water — luckily, it was still clean.
Fun Friday isn’t all fun and games. Some learning also happens — usually by me.
(For those now horrified, the paint is Crayola Brand, it’s non-toxic & washable. It is perfectly kid-safe. Some days, I am not sure I am.)
“I dunno, dude, that kid might be smarta than she thinks.”
“Yeah?”
“Did she ask tha kid ta draw a Pict-ure?”
“Whoa!”
“Nah, dude. Woad.”
“Dude?”
“Yeah?”
“Ya started tokin’ a’ready? Wit’out me?!?”
Dudes, like you two, except for his nose, that kid’s never Pict.
Well at least he tried it. Hope he’s as good at eating his greens!
Lol! Well, green was right next to the blue and remained unslurped. However, he pretty much “red†everything on the table.
SMH
No, Nat. Smack MY head. It has been almost a year and I still over-estimate my littles at every turn. I am not used to teaching kinder and first grade in the first place, so I constantly under-estimate what my Special Ed kinder and first graders don’t know. I put little dollops of paint on a plastic “dish” (paint tray) in front of him, I should have EXPECTED him to eat it, but instead, since he was excited and enthusiastic when I said we were going to paint, I assumed he knew — emphasis on “ass.”