Kindergarten Puddles

There must be something that happens to little kids when they get on the computer. I think they get so involved with looking at their screen, working with their mouse, and touching the keyboard that they loose their sense of reality.

I started teaching the kindergarten students computers last week. I have one kindergarten class in the morning and another one in the afternoon. The students come into the computer lab 2 times a week. I have four kindergarten classes that I work with.

Day one of kindergarten--My first day of kindergarten computers was interesting. I had quite a few tears. We didn't even have the computers turned on and they still felt the frustration felt by so many computer users. A few shed tears because their head phones didn't fit. Another would cry because his computer wasn't by his friend's computer. The list goes on and on.

I read them a story called Click Clack Moo, and that seemed to help. When we got ready to leave I felt a little girl pull on my arm and in a loud voice say, "teacher, why is there water on that chair?" I knew right away that it wasn't water. The little girl kept insisting that it was water and she wanted answers. The little boy standing by the computer had a wet spot on the seat of his pants that happened to match the puddle on his chair.

I walked them back to class and informed his teacher of the accident. I called the custodian to clean up the "water" and thought that was the end of the kindergarten puddles.

Day 2 of kindergarten-- I picked a different group of students and headed for the computer lab. I stopped by the bathroom and showed them all where they would go if they needed to. I showed them how to get back to my room once they were done. I read the same story and as we left the computer room all dry. I counted this day as a success.

I always have students walk down a certain tile as they go down the hall. At my school we have two green lines of tile that go down both sides of the hall. I like the students to walk on the green tile closest to their classroom. So that I didn't loose any kindergarten students, I walked behind them down the hall.

As I was walking I slipped a little. I took a few more steps and then really slipped. As I was in the process of falling, I heard a few snickers. When I was catching myself with my hands before I completely wiped out the whole group was laughing. I righted myself and got the kids the rest of the way to their class.

I decided that whatever was in the hall that I slipped in should be cleaned up before school got, so I got some paper towels and headed back down the hall. I could not find a puddle of anything like that. Instead I found a few drops here and there all the way down the green tile I had the kindergartens walk down.

I have learned a lot this last week of school.
1. Have the kindergarten students use the bathroom before they go into the computer lab.
2. Have towels available in my classroom.
3. Don't walk behind the students.
4. Stay off the green tiles.