What Did You Say?

Friday, May 15, 2009 at 8:06pm

In case you missed me whining today, let me complain one more time: today was Field Day at school. Now many of you may have fond memories of Field Day, I used to, unfortunately it has been forever ruined since I’ve become a teacher. Field Day is hell. The kids are hyper all morning as they wait for the afternoon, then I have to traipse around in the hot sun for two and a half hours. Relays, obstacle courses, tag games and other adventures await us. I must create even teams, while reminding everyone that this is fun and not a competition. I’m also responsible for making sure no one gets hurt, dehydrated, sun burned, lost and has a potty break without missing a single activity. Are you picturing the fun?

So, let’s just say I was not looking forward to today. It went pretty much as I expected, I’m so exhausted right now. However, there was one funny spot in the day that is still making me giggle. It was one of those “kids say the darnedest things” moments. When it first happened I was glad my “filter” worked and I didn’t say,”What the hell?”

My group had just completed the “Sponge Relay.” They had a blast, but were soaking wet. It was not cold outside, but of course once the relay was over several began to complain they were cold. We had a few moments before our next rotation so we took a break. They all decided the best way to warm up was to lie on the concrete in the sun. All sixteen did this. Shortly one student yelled,”Flip!” and they all rolled over. Seconds later someone else shouted,”Flip!” and they rolled back. This went on for a few minutes. When it was finally time to go to our next station one of my boys excitedly ran up to me and exclaimed,”Mrs. J. did you see us master baking?”

This is where I paused, got control of myself and calmly asked,”What were you guys doing?”

“We we were master baking.” he told me again. One little girl in the class overheard him this time and looked at me sharply, wide eyed.

Still calm and mostly straight faced I asked,”What’s that?”

He looked at me strangely and then replied,”Master baking, you know, sun bathing.”

Finally I could smile as I said,”I did see you all sun bathing. You should all be plenty warm now.”

Phew! I thought. He’d had me worried for a second. I wasn’t sure what kind of damage control I was going to have to do. Thankfully overall third grade is still pretty innocent and so for a moment Field Day wasn’t so bad.