surprises

I enjoy sitting back and watching what my kids do.  I think that’s one of the great things about teaching.  When things are going smoothly and no one need help, we can have a few minutes to sit back and watch.  To see what they’ll do next.  And many times, we can be surprised by the way these little people think and act.

Today we were playing on the playground, as normal.  They were all engaged in some sort of monster game…running around and screaming.  I was standing back watching, occasionally reminding one or other of my boys to keep their hands to themselves and not push or pull people down.

Then suddenly they all got the idea to lay down and look at the clouds.  At first the comments were, “Look how fluffy they are!” and “Wow, those are big!”  Eventually the comments changed to things like, “Look, there’s a pirate ship!”  and “Yeah, it’s chasing after a sea monster!”

I was very surprised, and delighted, to hear them taking turns pointing out cloud pictures and weaving it all into a collaborative story.  It was quite possibly the most awesome thing to happen all day.  And all unprovoked .  All on their own.  This is the first class I’ve ever had do something like this.  Despite all of our difficult moments, all of our ups and downs, this class still holds a lot of pleasant surprises.  🙂