My day ended on a high note one day! My last class was to teach first graders how to make I-Messages. These are peacemaking sentences that start with the word "I", and they can help us speak respectfully even when we're upset. We practiced making these statements in response to scenarios, and the children did a good job. One boy said, "I feel mad when you mess up my room. Please clean it up." Another said, I'm sorry you feel that way." Someone said, "I don't like for you to laugh at me. Please stop." After creating I-Messages for a while, we read a story about a dog who used several I-Messages to help solve his friendship problems. As I was leaving the room with my arms full of teaching materials, I was waylaid at the door by a snaggle-toothed boy. Looking up at me from behind his glasses, he said, "Miss Mimi, I feel glad when you come to teach us a guidance lesson." His teacher was correct when she told him that he'd just warmed Miss Mimi's heart! It's really exciting to have a child apply the lesson you've just taught before you even leave the room. Thanks for making my day, Buddy!

Each year, our school welcomes around 300 new kindergarten students. Since I teach guidance classes to the entire student body of around 1000 children, I'm responsible for trying to deal with the behaviors and misbehaviors of every student in our building. With kindergarten, I always go to the first guidance class "green", not knowing much about who can sit still and listen and who can't. It can be a little daunting for those first couple of weeks of each school year! Well, there are several children this year who have major behavior problems. Some will probably end up getting extra services, but since this takes time, they're in a regular class with twenty-something other children and one teacher trying to make the best of the situation. One particular little boy has extreme difficulty paying attention and letting other children learn. At my first class with him, he had the benefit of an assistant sitting with him to help him attend. This was only a short-term solution, though, as we tried to help him acclimate to school. The second time I went to his class, I knew I'd be on my own and felt a little nervous about handling things appropriately. The child stayed in his spot, and although he made lots of noises and played with a stuffed animal, the other children were very adept at ignoring him and focusing on me. Since the little boy was obviously trying and seemed to enjoy his "pet", I decided to let him be one of the 5 students chosen to hold a puppet during my story. I knew this was risky, as he could act too silly and loud with it, but I wanted to reward his efforts at staying in our group. The little boy chose an eagle puppet, and although I had to remind him a couple of times to keep the eagle still and quiet instead of flying him around and squawking, he soon settled down, sucked his thumb, and paid good attention to our story. At the end of class while I was packing up to leave, he brought me his puppet, as instructed. I thanked him for taking such good care of Eddie Eagle, and he looked at me with huge brown eyes and wrapped both arms around me in a sideways hug. As he turned to go back to his seat, he came back and hugged me again. Then he walked a couple of steps toward his seat, turned around again, looked in my eyes, and gave me a thumbs up. I actually felt tears spring into my eyes, knowing that we'd bonded and that things would be better from here on out. I asked the teacher discreetly whether she thought it would be a good idea for this child to get to hold a puppet every time since it seemed to mean so much to him. She said yes, and that she thought his peers would understand and not be jealous that he got to hold one EVERY time. As I left, this little boy held the door for me, and we discussed swimming, fishing, and going to the ocean to surf and catch sharks. I felt so happy as I walked back to my office, grateful for the patient teachers and compassionate children in this world!

Children with a good sense of humor are such fun to joke around with! One of my favorites is a freckle-faced blond first grader who has an adorable cowlick and reminds me of my brother Robert. Each time he visits me, we review what we talked about the last time he came in order to refresh our memories. We have an ongoing light-hearted conversation that we usually get to, which is the little boy's crush on a curly-haired brunette in his class. He always claims that she loves him but that he doesn't love her back, but his ear-to-ear grin causes me to HIGHLY doubt his denial! To begin our session, we talk about good news and bad news from the previous week, covering the areas of school, family, and friends. I typically draw a happy face and a sad face on a paper and write the child's news under the corresponding expression. This particular child often takes my pen and draws a third face, one with a straight mouth, to depict "okay" news. One day this week, he came into my office talking about his girlfriend. Once again, he smilingly said that she still loved him but that he didn't feel the same way about her. As I always do, I teased him about the big grin that kept me from believing him and then sent him to my mirror to see what I was talking about. While he giggled and blushed, I said playfully, "I see your face, and I KNOW how you feel about her. You've got pink and red hearts floating in the air around your head. Oh look, I see a PURPLE one, and it's throbbing with love!" Ducking his head and laughingly protesting, he came and sat down, and we got down to the business of discussing his current good news and bad news. After talking about several topics, the little boy took my pen, saying that he wanted to draw one more face. Expecting it to be the straight-mouth face, I cracked up with surprise when I saw what he had drawn. Near the bottom of the paper, this little imp had drawn a face with a huge smile and a mass of HEARTS in the air above it. Ha ha! The boy has been bitten by the love bug big-time!

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Today I had the pleasure of talking with a very articulate second grade boy for the first time. His teacher had told me how advanced his vocabulary was, and I found out for myself when he nonchalantly said, "I'd like school better if they'd refresh our ancient playground." I cracked up!

For the first few weeks of school each year, I work on morning bus duty. This can be quite an adventure since our school has 1000 children all in kindergarten, first, or second grade! Also,we typically have lots of anxious parents in attendance at the very beginning of the year. Well, one day last week, my gaze fell upon a little boy with his hand in the air, a child I believed to be new to our school. I walked over to see what he needed and noticed that his eyes were red-rimmed, as if he were about to cry. He said, "My mama said I was supposed to eat breakfast." I said, "Okay! Do you have money, or did your mom buy you a ticket?" The child, whom I didn't recognize from the year before, looked solemn and shook his head no. I said, "Hang on, I'll go check." The lady at the cash register immediately said, "Oh he can eat." I asked if she could look his name up to see whether he had an account or not, and she said, "Yes, I can look it up, but we never turn anybody away." As it turned out, the child's mother had indeed paid for his meals, so I was able to go give him the good news. As I was walking to his table, I smiled and nodded at him, and he leaped from his seat with a grin and went to help himself. Although our school is in an affluent area of town, it did my heart good to know that our cafeteria staff is so welcoming of all children who are hungry, and that they won't turn anyone down for breakfast, even if they don't have the means to pay.

Kindergarten kids crack me up! As I was unpacking the stuff I needed to teach a guidance class yesterday, I bragged on the children's test-taking ability. You see, every class in the school takes a quiz at the end of my lessons. They simply have to put a thumb up or down underneath their chins to indicate yes or no, and this helps me know whether they understood the lesson or not. Well, with kindergarten students, having 100% fast participation takes some practice, as you might imagine. To reinforce effort in this department, I've been counting how many times I have to say the word "thumb" to remind someone to take the test. In this particular class, I hadn't had to say it one single time during our last class, and this is what I was praising them for. I told them that they were the undisputed test-taking champions of all the kindergarten classes in the whole school. "You didn't need ANY reminders to show me your thumbs last time, none, nada, zero, zippity-doo-dah! " One squeaky-voiced little girl said, "What's zippity-doo-dah?" I said, "Well, zip is a funny way to say zero, and I just changed zip to zippity-doo-dah." Spontaneously, a big group of children started sing-songing, "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zippety-doo-dah!" I thought that was so clever and quick, and of course the teacher and I shared a giggle over her students' silly antics!

A little boy on the verge of tears tracked me down in the hall early yesterday morning. He and his younger brother had been slowpokes about getting out of bed and off to school, and their mom had been understandably frustrated with their lack of cooperation. Tears rolled down the child's face as he talked about the rotten start to his morning, and his unhappiness was fueled by the fact that he blamed his brother for causing most of the problem. At one point he said that his mom had mentioned that she was going to spank them if they didn't improve. Then he said, "I thought she had forgotten all about spankings!" Wanting to let him know that I understood, I told him about how my mama used to switch me when I disobeyed her and how my legs would dance a jig as she did so. I also told him about how my husband's mom would send him outside to get his own switch. He'd intentionally choose a rather thick one and partially break it, knowing it would snap when his mother switched him, causing her to feel guilty and consequently stop the spanking! After these humorous reminiscences, the child and I were both giggling, and it was obvious that he felt better. It was then that he said something that cracked me up. In an incredulous tone of voice, he said, "My mom has absolutely no embarrassment. She carries a wooden spoon everywhere she goes, even out in public." Laughing out loud, I said, "I just have a mental image of your mother pulling that spoon out of her purse at the grocery story, brandishing it in your faces, and giving you and your brother the evil eye. Your mama's got game!" He snickered along with me, and our conversation ended on a positive note!

When our students go to special area classes, they wear tank tops labeled with their names, which helps us get to know them. With a school of 1000 children, we need all the help we can get! Well today, the main point of our second grade guidance lesson was that our behavior is like a boomerang. What we "throw out" to others is what will often come back to us. If we throw out peace and goodwill, we'll usually get kindness back, and of course the opposite is true, too. After our story, I asked the kids to think of ways we can throw out trouble and ways we throw out sunshine. As I called on individuals to give examples, I looked down at a little blond boy's tank top. I realized that the name on his shirt wasn't his, and that he had on another child's jersey. Looking around, I spotted the boy he'd gotten his shirt mixed up with. Spontaneously, the two took off their tanks and tossed them across the group to each other. Laughing, I said, "Okay, y'all played a trick on me! You were throwing out thunderstorms!" As quick as a wink, a clever boy sitting in the line of fire quipped, "No, they're not throwing out thunderstorms, they're throwing out tank tops!" His classmates loved it, and so did I!

Since I work in a primary school, I have some puppets that help me teach important lessons on peacemaking, problem-solving, emotion management, dealing with bullying, and study skills. Two of the children's favorites are puppy and snail. Recently, I introduced anger control, with snail teaching puppy how to calm down and stop growling so he could think about a good way to solve his problem. One of the ideas taught was to click off your mad thoughts onto happy or calming ones. Snail said that he liked to picture himself sitting in the sunshine, sucking on an apple, because he loved apple juice and the feel of sunbeams on his shell. He asked Puppy for an example of what made him happy and was met by "red-faced" giggles. Following a bit of prodding and after extracting a promise from Snail not to laugh, Puppy informed Snail that he was in love. When the shock had passed, Snail asked for details and found that Puppy had fallen for a pretty pink poodle named Priscilla who had moved in across the street. She had soft pale pink curls and wore bows in her hair and smelled good and liked to laugh and play chase, and she was sweet and a good sport, and just beau---ti---ful! After the puppet show was over, the children wanted to meet Priscilla, of course. I brought her out, she had a mini-conversation with the students in her feminine Southern drawl, and they were utterly charmed. When it came time to give out the puppets for the kids to hold during story time, I stressed the importance of taking good care of Priscilla so that she'd stay pretty and clean for Puppy. I asked the class to make sure they spread sunshine, not thunderstorms, by doing the right thing with Priscilla. "Don't rub her on the floor, pull out her bows, pull on her curls, spit on her, or blow your nose on her." Now that last part was just to get a giggle, as surely to goodness nobody would do such a thing! Anyway, one little boy with an adorable cowlick stuck his index finger up in the air, flashed a grin, and blurted, "Now THAT would be spreading STUNDERTHORMS!" Everybody cracked up!

Walking down the hall with two wild and wacky first grade boys this morning, I heard one of them say to the other, "I'm so hungry I could eat the food in your belly!" Now THAT'S pretty hungry!

All week, I've been teaching an empathy lesson to the second graders. We've watched a short video called "But Names Will Never Hurt Me", which is about a girl who's made fun of and left out because she's overweight. Although there are some sad parts, of course it has a happy ending, with all the mean kids learning an important lesson about bullying and inclusion. After the video, we've had important discussions about what we can learn from the show. Well, the class I taught this afternoon had three different girls who had very insightful comments, which I'll try to share accurately. In the video, the main character, Rebecca, was being bullied. Her dad had died in a plane crash two years earlier, but most of the children didn't know that. One of my teaching points was that we can't look at people and know what kinds of problems they've had to deal with in their lives, so we need to be gentle with everyone and treat them with respect. In response to this point, a curly-haired child with a sprinkling of freckles raised her hand and said, "It's like you're holding a glass ball in your hands. You need to protect it and be very careful with it, or you could break it." Another little girl, this one with long thick hair and a gap-toothed smile, said, "You know how you hear that some people have hearts of stone and some have hearts of gold? Well, the bullies had hearts of stone and the bystanders who helped Rebecca had hearts of gold." As I was packing up to leave, a chubby golden haired child gave me a hug and said, "Miss Mimi, I wish you could be the teacher of everybody in the whole world. You could teach them how to take belly breaths and calm down so they wouldn't do mean things to people." I'm always happy to have a funny or sweet incident occur at school, as these remarkable moments make my day, but today I was blessed to have three wise and compassionate comments happen in the very same class.

Now we all know that kindergarten students have a developmentally rudimentary perspective on time spans, but this comment just brought out the giggles in me! Here's what happened. In a lesson explaining conscience and how it can help us make decisions, I told a true story about some double trouble I got into when I was 4 years old. My little sister Beth and I did something wrong and were about to get punished when I looked my mama right in the eyes and blamed the whole incident on Beth, who didn't even take up for herself. Instead, Beth got punished and I didn't. "Now you MIGHT think I was happy that I didn't get in trouble," I said to the class. "But I felt like the rottenest kid on earth. I couldn't sleep a wink that night, but just tossed and turned and turned and tossed. I kept thinking about my sweet little sister, who took a punishment for me, and I remembered how much I love my parents and how I'd lied to my mama's face and how she trusted me. My conscience was causing me to feel guilty and ashamed and worried, and it was helping me think about right and wrong." The children sat mesmerized, as they LOVE to hear their teachers' childhood stories, and I could tell that they were shocked and disappointed in me for being so mean to my little sister. At the conclusion of my story, I told the kindergartners that this story happened a L-O-O-O-N-G time ago, and the reason I still remember it is that it was the day I realized I had a conscience, and I still feel bad about what I did that day. Now here comes the funny part. In the midst of this solemn conversation, one of my favorite little girls, a tiny blonde with beautiful blue eyes, blurted out in all seriousness, "Hey, that was a REALLY long time ago....I was still a BABY!" (Who knew that "babyhood" lasted for over 50 years!!)

Last week, our primary school celebrated the 100th day of school. Many fun activities involving the number 100 were carried out in every classroom. These included making fruit loop necklaces of 100 pieces of cereal, counting 100 steps down the hallway, having snacks of 100 small edibles, and creating very cool pictures with an app that ages children's photos to show what they'll look like at the ripe old age of 100. Many students and staff members dressed up as elderly people, and their disguises were ultra-creative and clever! I saw lots of canes, granny glasses, gray wigs, hats, rolled-down knee-high panty hose, curlers, shawls, and even some purposely smeared lipstick. When I went downstairs to check on a second grade boy that morning, I cackled at his get-up. He had so much baby powder in his hair that it poofed out all over me every time he shook his head, which he took great delight in doing. Creases and wrinkles lined his face, he wore wire-framed glasses and a gray cardigan vest, and he carried a cane and hobbled into the hall. But the funniest part of my brief visit with this little boy was the explanation he offered. "Miss Mimi, do you know why I don't have on those strappy things?" At this point he pulled invisible suspenders out from his chest.. "Suspenders?" I asked. "No,why didn't you wear them today?" With a grin, the child said, "Because if I had them on, I wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom!" Now that's what I call planning ahead!

Have you ever impulsively said something to incriminate yourself? Well a mischievous little boy did that very thing while talking with me in my office recently. He was telling me about a classmate of whom he's not very fond and was getting all worked up. "I mean he blames me for EVERYTHING, even things HE actually did...not ME! I'm telling you that boy can LIE! He lies better than I do, and I LOVE to lie." The funny thing was that my visitor was intensely passionate about that last statement and was staring at me with wide eyes and an ultra serious stare when the lightbulb came on and he realized what he'd just said. "Busted!" I said with a grin. The child blushed, shook his head, and joined in the laughter, and afterwards we had a productive conversation about getting along with peers. To this I can relate very well, as sometimes my big mouth gets me into hot water, too!

After having kindergartners sit and listen for a while, I always let them stand up and wiggle a bit, which obviously helps them continue to focus and learn. Today, we had a lesson on calming down strong feelings. We reviewed some ideas we'd previously learned, practiced using them, and then stood up to bounce as we chanted the main teaching points. "Breathe, count, click, and boss!" we said over and over, jumping in rhythm while facing front, then side, then back, then other side, then front, side, back, other side, and front again. Next, we "panted like a bird dog" to catch our breath before sitting back down for a story. Well this particular kindergarten class has a new little boy, one who has only had my class one time before today. Furrowing his brow as we jumped around and around shouting out words, this freckle-faced child walked a few steps over to the active board, pushed a pretend button, and pulled an imaginary lever. Then he made an X shape with his forearms and used his voice to make a repetitive alarm sound, "Aagh, aagh, aagh, aagh!" Knowing what he probably meant, I stifled a laugh and looked at him quizzically. "When things get too wild, " he said, "I have to push a button." Playing along, I said, "Oh, so you pressed the cuckoo button to get us under control, huh?" At this point, the other children caught on, crossed their arms in the X shape, and "bonged" me..."Aagh, aagh, aagh,aagh!" Uh-oh...I better watch my p's and q's with this group!

Each morning, I visit a couple of teachers' classrooms to check on how their students behaved the previous day. Each class has two specific goals, such as to use kind words and to follow first request. After receiving a 1-10 score for each goal from the teacher, I choose a child to color in vertical bar graphs on a rainbow chart. For example, if the score is 7, the child colors 7 boxes on the graph. Well today I asked a handsome dark-haired boy to color in two fantastic scores...a 10 and a 10. As he pondered which crayons to use, a fair-skinned girl at his table predicted that he'd choose pink. "Yeah, he colors everything pink," said a tawny-haired neighbor. Curious, I asked the boy who was about to color, "So do you like the color pink?" Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he said, "Yeah, for PIGS." I snorted with laughter!

While teaching a kindergarten class a few months ago, the canvas seat of the director's chair in which I was sitting collapsed, turning me into a literal Screaming Mimi. Well, the kids howled with laughter while I pretended to huffily accuse them of booby trapping me. Since that time, I always carefully check the "booby trap chair" before sitting down to teach the lesson. Today I was unpacking my teaching materials in preparation for their class, and I noticed that the chair's seat had once again come loose from its wooden supports. Noticing me checking out the situation, one of my favorite mischievous little boys said, "Watch out for the booby chair!" His teacher came over and put her shoulder next to mine, we both turned our faces away from the kids, and simultaneously we silently cracked up! Booby chair indeed!

One day, as a way of getting my kindergartners interested in a lesson on listening, I told them about a meeting I recently attended. I explained that the counselors were supposed to be paying attention to a speaker who was teaching us about bullying. At first, I paid very good attention, doing all 7 of the important listening jobs. My brain was thinking, my nose was pointed at the speaker, my ears were listening, my mouth was quiet, my eyes were looking, my body was still, and my heart was caring about what the man was teaching us. However, right before lunchtime I stopped listening because I was hungry. I told the kindergarten class that I leaned over and started whispering to my friend about when we were getting out for lunch, where we were going to eat, and the fact that I wanted a big old cheeseburger and fries. Pointing out to the children that you can't listen and talk at the same time, I said, "While I was talking to my friend, the speaker asked me what I thought about something he had said. Of course I didn't know what to say to him because I didn't even know what he'd asked me since I'd been talking to my friend about lunch. So I looked at the speaker with wide eyes and had to tell him that I was busted!" At this point, one handsome little dark-skinned boy sitting on the back row said, "Did you have to pull your card?" (For those of you who don't have or work with young children, pulling cards is a discipline system in many classrooms, so this little inquisitive boy was asking whether I'd gotten in big-time trouble with our speaker!)

One morning this week, I was talking casually with a group of 3 kindergarten students. One curly-haired boy bounded down the hall in my direction saying enthusiastically, "Miss Mimi, guess where I went for spring break. Michigan!" A fair-haired girl said, "I went to Disney!" Turning to the third child, who was a little carrot-top, I said, "Did you go anywhere for spring break, or did you stay home like I did?" Without hesitation, he looked at me and said in all seriousness, "I went to Deja Boo." Now in case you're wondering what in the world he meant, I think he was trying to outdo his friends. He had heard the word deja vu and thought it sounded exotic, so he decided that's where he would say he'd been for spring break. However, he made a slight boo boo on the pronunciation (pun intended), as I'm sure you noticed!

While hurrying down the school hallway one morning the week before Christmas vacation, I came upon two second grade girls leaning against the wall chatting. I stopped to speak, and they informed me that they were both on their way to see Nurse Connie. One said she had a sprained ankle, and it was hurting more than usual because she had stumbled while getting out of the car that morning. The other said that she'd hit her leg on a bus seat, causing pain. At this point they started walking toward the nurse's office, but not just regular old walking, mind you. The girl with the sprained ankle hobbled, and the other swooped her unbent leg out to the side in a circular motion. "She's having surgery," said the shorter girl with the ankle pain, nodding in her friend's direction. "I'm just going to the doctor, but she's having surgery." The funny part of this story is that there was no surgery scheduled, nor any NEED for such a thing. These two little characters were just ready for Christmas break to hurry up and get here and were seizing any excuse to liven up their monotonous last week of school routine. I do believe I just encountered two drama queens in the making!

Grandmas and Grandpas, Nanas and Papas, Mamaws and Papaws galore paraded down the hallways of our school recently as we celebrated the 100th day of school. Children and staff were encouraged to dress as if they were 100 years old, and as you might imagine, creativity reigned supreme in wardrobe, makeup, and hardware choices! I was at school very early, and since my office is in a central location near the front doors, I had a good spot for viewing children as they trickled in on this dark Monday morning. Due to three consecutive snow days and a weekend, we hadn't been at school for almost a week. As I entered the hallway to run an errand in the office, I saw a petite second grade grandmother walking hesitantly in the direction of the gym, where her classmates await the time to go to class. Of course I had to gush over her get-up, for she was an absolute doll. Her hair was in a neat bun and powdered to look gray, she wore a white lacy cardigan, a long strand of pearls, granny glasses on a chain, and on her arm she balanced an old lady handbag. However, the little girl turned around, stood still, and gazed at me solemnly through worried blue eyes. "Is something wrong?" I asked. With a furrowed brow, she said, "I'm just afraid that my mom got the day wrong and that it's not really Hundreds Day." With a giggle, I was happy to explain that yes indeed, I had seen several other children dressed as old folks. With a grin and a relieved sigh, Mamaw turned on her heel and jauntily took herself and her prominent purse to meet her classmates. Thinking about her dilemma, I could completely empathize. Since we hadn't been at school in so long, the little girl wasn't 100% positive that this was the dress-up day, and honeybun, she would have been mortified to be the only geriatric among a class of 7 year olds. Bless her little heart. Glad I could quickly remedy that fear so she could enjoy her special day!

In a unit on skills for learning, I'm teaching self-talk (bossing yourself around) to students. In other words, I want them to tell themselves to get busy, ignore, focus, calm down, etc. I think this poster will have to become part of that lesson!

Easy back to school dinner ideas! These fun weeknight dinners are kid-approved and perfect for picky eaters.

Our Beef Chuck Roast is braised slowly to create a wonderfully tender and flavorful meal!

Warm, soft, and rich, nothing beats a piece of this homemade naan bread recipe alongside your favorite rich curry.

FREE Editable Name MATS perfect to use all over the classroom to help preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten kiddos learn their names.

Made with tender meat chunks, carrots, and potatoes in a deliciously seasoned sauce on a stove-top.

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With just a few simple ingredients, you can create beautiful and delicious charcuterie boards for beginners that everyone will love.

Lentil curry is one of our best lentil recipes as it’s easy to make, it can be frozen for those lazy weeknights, and it’s full of flavor, vitamins, and antioxidants.