Skip to main content

Don't Step On My Red Sparkle Shoes

From the attic:

Lyndsey sat on the reading rug all curled up on the big letter C.
Her fists were jammed into her eyes and she was rocking a fierce "bucket lip."
She was on time out. Her infraction? Kicking down a block castle.
Not safe. Not kind. Not allowed.
Not noted for her subtlety, Lyndsey was doing a fairly good job of letting all within viewing distance know that she was not happy with this decision.
Every so often, she would stop and scan her audience for a micro-second between eye jams.


"Whatsamatta Lynds?", I ask sitting next to her.
"Nothing!"
I could go through a detailed history of all the "nothings" ever uttered that ended up being big somethings at this point, but they would all pale in comparison to this "nothing".
"Really Lynds?"
"No"
And not a sweet little, poor pitiful me no, but rather a head spinning, pea soup shooting no.
Lyndsey was hellbent on being miserable and would have dearly loved some company.
"Well, Lynds, you kicked over a block castle so you must be pretty upset about something."
"No, No, No!!!"
"When you are ready to talk, I'll listen."  I say to her calmly.
And with that, she lets out the biggest, most gawdawful soap opera tears...ever
"C'mere, Lynds", I say motioning for my desk.
"NOOOO!"





This is the part of my job that I like the least, mainly because there is not enough time to really get to the heart of the matter with Lyndsey. I would love to, but I just don't have the time to talk it out with her when there are 23 other students in need of my supervision. It's hard, but she has to make the decision to talk to me, as I am not a mind reader.
And that is a blessing 
I could not even imagine forming a sentence above the din of  The Transformers, Hannah Montana and High School Musical.
But eventually Lyndsey does come to me.
It seemed the thing that inspired such a daytime Emmy worthy performance was actually an oversight.
A class wide oversight.
No one had noticed her red sparkle shoes.
Maybe they are just too commonplace nowadays.
There are red sparkle shoes at every Target and at every Payless in every mall.
Red sparkle shoes don't inspire the same ooh's and ahhh's that they once did.
That's a shame too.
What could be more magical than the same ruby slippers that Dorothy wore?



So I asked Lyndsey if she ever saw The Wizard of Oz.
Her eyes lit up.
"Oh yes, I saw that movie, and I have the shoes from it!"
She excitedly pointed a chubby finger down to the objects of our oversight.
"Yes, those do look like Dorothy's shoes!" I exclaimed loud enough to provoke a pricking up of ears near the Lego's.
And with that a small knot of kids looped around the reading  rug.
"Hey, Lyndsey has the shoes like the Wizard Of Oz!"
"Do you have that movie Lyndsey?"
"I like the tin man, I like the scarecrow."
"Oh, man I liked the lion!"
"Did the witch scare you, she didn't scare me, no way, she wasn't real!"
"I didn't like the flying monkeys so much, one admitted and the apple throwing trees freaked me out."
"The munchkins had funny voices that sounded like this..lollipop..lollipop."
Now 23 kids are walking around robot-like and in falsetto unison..lollipop..lollipop!





The laughter of little people erupts and just like that, the tears are all gone.

Somewhere over the reading rug there's a rainbow and, as if by magic, Lyndsey's shoes are a lot more sparkly.

There's no place like Kindergarten.

Hug a teacher:
Jeff
Pseudonymous High School Teacher
Only A Movie
VodkaMom
Looking Forward and Back

If you're a teacher and you want to be added to the list give me a shout, I'll add you!
Peace - Rene

Comments

  1. I bought Kylie (granddaughter, now 5) a pair of those a couple of years ago. She'd put them on, then take me by one hand, and her grandfather by the other, and make us troop around the dining room table, singing "We're Off to See the Wizard."

    Good job, Teach!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great story & great job. I don't know how I'd deal with that many kids doing munchkins, tho!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like a great first day, Rene ;) and I can tell Lynds will certainly become a favorite...what an actress! Of course you handled the situation like a pro.

    And hope the end of school bell came alot sooner than you anticipated...lol!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Five starts kindergarten

    TOMORROW.

    Wish you and Vodka were double-teaming.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oddly enough, some of my 11th graders react the same way when nobody notices their new shoes.

    Thanks for the link, and a great post as usual.

    J

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're so good!

    T loves the rainbow rug in his kindergarten, and we've been discussing "classics" so there has been much discussion about The Wizard of Oz in our house.

    The shoes might be everywhere, but the magic never dies.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awww!Poor kid just wanted to be noticed! Poor you for you will undoubtedly get more of this in the future! Now you must watch out for shoes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. You've got an attic full of treasures, Rene. I loved reading this story (the pictures made me smile/laugh, too). If only all teachers and parents had your understanding of children. You rock!

    ~ Ginny

    ReplyDelete
  9. ....and then hug a girl in India? Yeah? Yeah :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Haha! There's no place like kindergarten. And I think it's sad that so many kids have red sparkly shoes available to them now that the whole thing has lost its luster. I would have loved to have red sparkly shoes when I was a kid...but not if everyone else had them!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Beautiful, Mizz Rene!

    I'm not a teacher in a traditional sense...I'm a home-schooling mum. Whew.

    When I was younger, I played Dorothy in my school's production of Oz...and I had to make my own red sparkle shoes with glue, glitter, and a pair of flats. My grandmother was pissed! The shoes were awesome, though...

    Shade and Sweetwater,
    K

    ReplyDelete
  12. Its amazing how the child one min is in a good mood and the next they are upset, and then the next they are happy agian. I liked this story not only because my son acts like that all the time, but i love the Wizard of Oz. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wait until she grows up and gets Christian Louboutin shoes. She;ll have to lift her foot in the air for anyone to notice and they're over $500 dolllars! She is going to be VERY upset then.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very smart, Rene. :-)

    Plenty of times I could use someone like you!

    Pearl

    ReplyDelete
  15. Awww, thanks for the shout out, Rene. I love this story. I love figuring out why a kid is soooo upset. And I love that it was just sparkle shoes. :-)
    Also, I love the babyfood jar rainbow. I'm stealing it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I always knew you was magic, teacher Lady...

    ReplyDelete
  17. I hug teachers all the time! The high-school gym teacher is starting to really like it: )

    Seriously, that story is a great example of how the little kindnesses make the world a sweeter place. Nice work Ms Rene.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'd love to be added to your teacher list! I teach 9th and 12th grade English. I love it, but I spend 9 months out of every year feeling completely behind in grading papers--part of the job, I suppose: )

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please drop a penny in a poet's hat :

Popular posts from this blog

natasha

There was a haunting beauty behind her eyes, beyond her sorrow, a beauty that found its way into one’s heart and led them home.