Oh my! What a fun day it has been! Today was the day I decided to share the news with my fabulous first graders that Baby Kiss is on the way! What a hilarious experience it was! It is a day I NEVER want to forget! After the fact, I was seriously so bummed that I didn't think to video it for Jeff so he could see them in action! So, in place of the video I so sadly did not capture, I decided to post each picture I revealed and the hilarious comments they made, as they came to realize what news I was sharing with them, so that I can always remember what fun we had!
After many weeks of nerves, going back and forth on when to tell my first graders, how to tell them, do I tell the parents first, or in a letter....or just let the kids tell them. This was such a new experience for me. My team of first grade teachers and principal knew, but that was it....not even the other staff members! My principal and I decided we would tell the staff today at the staff meeting in a fun way, so I knew I had to tell my kids before the news spread like wild fire and they became the last ones to know! I would die if an older kiddo said something in the hallway and my kids were like, what is she talking about Mrs. Kiss?
I started out by telling them that I had a big secret to share with them, and they were the first ones in the school to find out. I put the announcement that we sent out to friends and family on the projector screen so it was huge, so they could all see it super close up! I covered each of the 9 images with a mini sticky note and told them we were going to be using our inferencing skills and picture clues to make a smart guess about the message that these pictures could be trying to tell us. One at a time I pulled off a sticky note, and we discussed the clues in the picture and what each of them could mean to us....I know I already uploaded these pictures on my previous post but I had to load them again, so that as you read the comments you know which picture it aligns with. I was laughing inside the entire time, I wish someone else...especially Jeff could have been there to experience it first hand!
Here are the comments from my fabulous little first graders...
Kids: "You and Mr. Kiss are on your honeymoon!"
Kids: "Oh...you are in the Old West!"
Mrs. Kiss: "What do you notice about these...what are these?"
Kids: "They are Mr. Kiss' boots!"
Mrs. Kiss: "Well you can't tell but they are too tiny to be just right for Mr. Kiss, he has his boots on!"
Mrs. Kiss: "Who's boots are these?"
Kids: "Mr. Kiss' boots" (they have seen them before becasue I brought them to school for a Good Fit Book Lesson...lol they loved seeing his BIG boots!)
Mrs. Kiss: "Who's boots are these?"
Kids: "Yours!"
Mrs. Kiss: "Well, then who are tiny things for?"
Kids: "Your kid, wait you don't have one."
"It's for a surprise"
"It's for your dogs!"
Mrs. Kiss: "Well, I have 2 puppies and they both have 4 feet, is that enough boots for my dogs' feet?"
Kids: "No" "Hmmm...."
"The boots are for you to give to someone special."
"You're on your honeymoon!"
Mrs. Kiss: "You're right, my hands are in the shape of a heart, it means I am showing love for something, what could that be?"
Kids: "Your love for Mr. Kiss"
"Your love on your honeymoon!"
"You're having a baby."
Mrs. Kiss: "What would give you the clue for that guess?"
Kids: "You're hands are in a heart to show love for your baby because they are over your tummy!"
Mrs. Kiss: "Now here is an addition sentence. It has an addition symbol between the 2 parts, Mr. and Mrs. Kiss and it says it equals 3, how could that be? If Mr. Kiss is 1 and the sentence has to equal 3, what would the other part have to be to equal 3?"
Kids: "2, 2 and 1 make 3 in all"
Kids: "The 2 could mean you and the baby in your belly."
Mrs. Kiss: "This one says Coming Soon...5, which means May, 7, which means the 7th day, and 13, which means 2013."
Kids: (Lightbulbs went on and smiles came out like crazy) "You are having a baby! Yay!"
As we continued through the other pictures, they just kept repeating, your having a baby, Mrs. Kiss is having a baby....it was like I just told them they were going to have a baby brother. They wanted to know, when he/she would be coming, would they get to meet Baby Kiss, would they have a substitute, if it was boy what would the name be, if it was a girl what would the name be, etc. They were absolutely elated. I showed them pictures with the first picture of Baby Kiss (our 8 week sonogram), and they thought that was the neatest thing, and thought it was hilarious that the little Baby Kiss didn't fit in those tiny boots quite yet!! One of my little friends was so proud that Baby Kiss might be born in May, just like him, and that was very special to him!
Upon the showing of the final image, the main one in the middle, they began hugging one another and were lost in their excitement. Then it was on our way out the door, and those little ones shared it anywhere they could and with anyone on their way out of school. I was later told one of my kiddos announced it as soon as she walked into the gym to all of the bus and daycare riders! So, yes, news travels fast...even in Elementary School! haha....they were bursting to share the news with everyone! Hours later I received a phone call from a parent who said her little boy could barely make it through the door before he belted out the news...and another email from a parent who said her sweet, little son was already making a list of things to buy for Baby Kiss (same child who wanted to know my high school colors so that he could buy me a Homecoming Mum lol), and had called his grandparents and dad at work to share the news, she said he felt so important and a part of it all! I also received a couple other emails already tonight, from parents so excited to hear the news! Like I said, news travels fast in these parts....haha! I am bracing myself for as the wrath is unleashed tomorrow at school once it starts to trickle to the previous kids and parents I have had in past years at our school!
It is such an amazing feeling to be able to finally share it with EVERYONE in my daily life, including my first graders who are such a huge and important part of my life! I am looking forward to sharing this experience with this group of kiddos, as I know how very special it will be for us all!
Following my surge of excitement from sharing it with my first graders, we later then shared it with the staff...my savvy, super Principal (who I absolutely love, and basically guessed that I was pregnant at 8 weeks lol) decided to incorporate it with introducing a new technological tool to integrate use of the IPAD in the classroom, because she is just full of FUN like that. She showed us an app that lets you or kids write things to go on the screen or a powerpoint or something projected. She went to various people in the room to try it out....she had one person write "Someone", another wrote "is", "having" (once the person wrote that people started looking around trying to figure out who it was because they knew), another wrote "a", and the last person was asked to right "baby" but she was hesitant, (kinda like it's not me having the baby). Then, my principal read it aloud and then the next slide was the front of our announcement that we sent out and that I shared with the kids. Everyone was super excited, and gave a round of applause! I think some of them suspected it was me, but many of them had no clue and were so surprised! Phew, I am so glad it's out in the open and all are in the know...
it's beginning to finally feel REAL! Yay for the 2nd Trimester!
