ATTACK OF THE ARTS

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Today I worked in Becca's kindergarten classroom helping out with an art project. They call the program Arts Attack. Very clever. The kids do art, the parents have an attack.

First of all, should you give a kindergartner a Sharpie? Ever? How about 26 kindergartners? Including Becca?

While one mom with the patience of Jobe (or, better drugs than I have, maybe) explained how to draw a caterpillar and what patterns are for 3 minutes, the following things occurred:

• 2 kids hopped to the potty
• 1 kid complained that someone else was sitting in his seat
• 1 girl turned her shirt around backwards by pulling her arms in and twisting the shirt backward
• 2 kids lay down

Then we put them in their seats. Here were some of the questions they had:

• Can my caterpillar be pooping?
• Can I make a dinosaur caterpillar that eats everyone else's caterpillar?
• Can I start over? (547 of those)

After awhile, my answer to everyone was... Yes! Of course!

Sharpie does not come off of desks without a fight.

After 45 minutes, I went back to work. Where I sat in a heap in a meeting and recovered.

Apparently that was the easy lesson. The lessons with paint are real trippy. Oh good.