Have I ever mentioned how much I adore recess time? It’s the greatest way to really observe my students and get to know them as people. This year’s students have very unique recess habits! Usually, they split into lots of small groups. This year’s bunch loves to play together… but they tend to split into one big group of girls and one big group of boys.

My girls are highly organized players. They all get together to jumprope (“Ice cream, ice cream, with a cherry on top… how many boyfriends do you got? OR “Barbershop, barbershop, how you like your hair cut? Short, long, medium, bald-headed…”), they act out scenes from High School Musical (complete with choreography), they play the game of the week (a game I teach everyone on Tuesdays), etc. They are very organized and so cute to watch!

The boys, however, just seem to wander about aimlessly chasing each other (or chasing the girls). Sometimes they throw the football around… but they haven’t figured out that someone needs to be on the other side to catch the ball… they just throw it and run after it. They’ve invented their own form of “rock, paper, scissors” by adding the element of fire. Apparently, fire beats all… but they haven’t figured out to throw fire every time to win. Sometimes they play kickball… but there are usually 4 in line to kick and 4 in line to pitch… nobody at the bases on in the field. The ONLY time they’re organized is when the girls grab them by the hand and drag them into whatever they are doing.

(And to clarify… I’m not making generalizations about boys and girls… this is merely how THIS class plays. Every group different.)

Needless to say, I spend our 20 minutes of recess together cracking up! The best time of my whole work day. =)