A few years back there was a very popular book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” written by Robert Fulghum. There may even be a copy lying around Casa Del Rogue somewhere. It’s an interesting book, with some good, common sense advice.
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Rogues’ kindergarten class to talk a little bit about some basic principles of structural engineering, and to help the kids build towers using spaghetti and gumdrops. It’s a lot of fun, and exhausting, and educational. Sometimes even for the kids…
I usually start by talking with the kids and asking them a few questions; next we learn about pushing and pulling forces, and then we try and figure out if triangles are stronger than rectangles. After that the tower building begins.
I usually start with “Does anyone know what an architect is?”
Suddenly, the classroom becomes a cacophony of pint-sized Arnold Horshak’s, with nine hands in the air and nine little voices saying “ooohhh” “ooohhh.”
“Bobby, you raised your hand first, what is an architect?” I asked.
“I think it’s something that can kill you,” he replied.
At that point I knew I was in for an interesting day…
One youngster, dressed in camouflage from head to toe, told me he was building a tower from which you could shoot a flamethrower. I asked if he was worried that the flamethrower might cook the spaghetti and melt the gumdrops, causing his tower to collapse. He looked at me as though I was the biggest dork on the planet. I get that look a lot, now that I think about it…
Another youngster told me that he was going to be “either a fireman or a trash man” when he grew up.
Mrs. R teaches both a morning and an afternoon session, so I stayed for lunch after the morning session ended. Eating lunch with a group of five year-olds is not for the faint -of-heart.
Five year-olds don’t eat food so much as destroy it. It’s really quite remarkable, and should be a topic for one of those PBS specials. Food gets on their faces, hair, clothes, kids next to them, table, floor, chair, ceiling, walls, and other places to numerous to mention. Some food may actually make it to their mouths, but there is no scientific evidence to support that hypothesis.
I tried to convince the kids that Easter Bunny lives at the North Pole, and only comes south to get warm in the spring. My theory is that he needs a place to keep all of the Easter eggs cold. They weren’t buying it, and were very vocal in their opposition. I felt like a Democrat at an NRA convention.
Near the end of the day, one of the kids gave me a treasure map, and said I could keep it. Right before I left, he had a change of heart, and asked for it back. I don’t blame him, it was a fine map.
As I said, all I really need to know…
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Rogues’ kindergarten class to talk a little bit about some basic principles of structural engineering, and to help the kids build towers using spaghetti and gumdrops. It’s a lot of fun, and exhausting, and educational. Sometimes even for the kids…
I usually start by talking with the kids and asking them a few questions; next we learn about pushing and pulling forces, and then we try and figure out if triangles are stronger than rectangles. After that the tower building begins.
I usually start with “Does anyone know what an architect is?”
Suddenly, the classroom becomes a cacophony of pint-sized Arnold Horshak’s, with nine hands in the air and nine little voices saying “ooohhh” “ooohhh.”
“Bobby, you raised your hand first, what is an architect?” I asked.
“I think it’s something that can kill you,” he replied.
At that point I knew I was in for an interesting day…
One youngster, dressed in camouflage from head to toe, told me he was building a tower from which you could shoot a flamethrower. I asked if he was worried that the flamethrower might cook the spaghetti and melt the gumdrops, causing his tower to collapse. He looked at me as though I was the biggest dork on the planet. I get that look a lot, now that I think about it…
Another youngster told me that he was going to be “either a fireman or a trash man” when he grew up.
Mrs. R teaches both a morning and an afternoon session, so I stayed for lunch after the morning session ended. Eating lunch with a group of five year-olds is not for the faint -of-heart.
Five year-olds don’t eat food so much as destroy it. It’s really quite remarkable, and should be a topic for one of those PBS specials. Food gets on their faces, hair, clothes, kids next to them, table, floor, chair, ceiling, walls, and other places to numerous to mention. Some food may actually make it to their mouths, but there is no scientific evidence to support that hypothesis.
I tried to convince the kids that Easter Bunny lives at the North Pole, and only comes south to get warm in the spring. My theory is that he needs a place to keep all of the Easter eggs cold. They weren’t buying it, and were very vocal in their opposition. I felt like a Democrat at an NRA convention.
Near the end of the day, one of the kids gave me a treasure map, and said I could keep it. Right before I left, he had a change of heart, and asked for it back. I don’t blame him, it was a fine map.
As I said, all I really need to know…
3 comments:
Mrs. Rogue, here,
Yes, we had a good day. I keep focusing on the word "exhausting"...This is why Mrs. Rogue is so tired in the evenings. Also, an addendum to the lunching with kindies--S. Rogue failed to mention that Mrs. Rogue had her eyes on each individual child, reminding one to use good manners, reminding 2 others to eat their sandwich before their dessert, opening multiple juice containers, sporks, chewing with mouths closed, not talking with mouths full, and listening to many stories about girlfriends, burps, flatulance, not to mention diarrhea stories which are frequent at lunch time. Quoting S. Rogue: "Man, you have eagle eyes!" Yep, I do. In the immortal words of Eeyore, "Thanks for noticing."
From the mother of Camo-Boy,
Thank you for spending the day with the Kindies, Mr. Rogue. The flamethrower tower was the object of much pride this weekend. It is just too bad that Camo-Boy's mom is too "mean" (his words, not mine) to go back to the school and break into the Kindie Enrichment camper to get his tower! And just a side note, it is not considered a toy at our house unless some sort of projectile (flame or otherwise) shoots out of it!
Mrs. Rogue's teammate here,
I see S. Rogue kept you busy during lunch (can't you get him to stop talking about all his girlfriends while he's burping and tooting?)...how did you possibly keep an eye on the "other" children?!
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