I was a novice my first week of student teaching. Yes, I do have lots of experience with younger children, however nothing can prepare you for what is to come in a kindergarten classroom. Nothing can prepare you whatsoever, that is for sure. You live and you learn. Some of these just become second nature in a classroom with such young children. You will never know what each day will bring. All I know for sure is that I love and care about all 20 of them. Here are some moments to put on the highlight reel for what you will see.

1. Bathroom accidents. (i.e. pooping their pants but not always telling us right away).

And that is how you find out that it has happened, you must seek the child out and send them off to the nurses with their extra clothes in tow.

2. Taking their clothes off, pulling them up, having them fall down. With children they do not always want to take the time to adjust their clothes, or they simply just want them off. So you will turn around in the hallway and one of your boys will be like:

And then you’re like um why? And also…

3. Looking at every child’s wiggly tooth that has one and then waiting for them to come out in the near future.

Children have no problems sticking their fingers in their mouth all day every day.

4. You see one of the children do this pose everyday:

So then you’re like:

Hopefully your face isn’t that scary though.

5. Almost every day one of them will show you a miniscule cut that you can barely see but they think it needs profound medical attention. They really want to see the nurse to get a band-aid. But, you’re just like:

6. You begin to realize that almost all of the girls have a crush on the same boy. They are young and do not know how to handle it. So, dumping mulch on his head because he was not playing with you at recess is the perfect solution, right? However there is always one girl who does this:

Never a dull moment in Kindergarten. In between all the silly and crazy moments and the ones where you have so many things going at once that you have never been so overwhelmed in your life. You watch a child’s face light up because you were there for them and taught them something unforgettably important. You put a smile on a child’s face and got them excited about learning. Is not that we all strive for as teachers? Special thanks to that child for almost making me well up when he almost jumped out of his seat from excitement on filling out the number 10 on his blank number board.