Subbing in the Kindergarten Class

I sometimes sub at one of the Christian schools in my area. It's fun to teach for a while and it's nice to go home after and enjoy the quiet. This year all of my subbing (all 2.5 days) has been with the kindergarten class. There are around 19 of them (maybe 20, but they've never all be there) and they're all pretty good kids on the whole. There is the occasional dispute over toys, but those are easily handled. There are sometimes tears for whatever reason 5-year-olds get emotional (partly because change is hard), but they are also easily dealt with. The kids are also very sweet and I got a lot of hugs on Friday!

These kids are also pretty smart. They told me all the letter sounds, including short and long vowels, and were able to read words and simple sentences. They are also learning how to tell when a vowel makes a long or short sound. They know their numbers and can count to 60, and backwards from 10. 

What they did not know was where food comes from. We were talking about where their snacks came from. They're city kids, so for them, food comes from the store. It took an extra question: "Where was it before it got to the store?" for them to remember that apples and oranges come from trees and cheese and yogurt come from milk which comes from cows. (There was the suggestion that cheese also comes from trees, but he may have been joking.) Bread was a bit more complicated, but we managed "bread is made from flour, flour comes from wheat, and wheat comes from the ground." And yet they had not problem with "Carrots come from in the ground".

It was a crazy, busy, noisy, tiring day, but I quite enjoyed it. I don't think I'd do it for a living, though. I would do much better with older students on a regular basis.