Ideas and Inspiration for Early Childhood

7 (funny) Signs You Are a Kindergarten Teacher

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Teaching Kindergarten is an adventure. We know the truth about teaching kindergarten – it isn’t easy! Teaching any grade is an adventure!

What always makes me laugh is that no matter how we try to blend in with the humans among us, there are certain things that are just a dead giveaway that we are teachers!

Here are 7 (I think funny) signs that you are a Kindergarten teacher. I think these are fitting for many other grades as well!

Here are 7 (funny) signs that you are a Kindergarten teacher. They likely won't surprise you, but will make you smile!

7 Signs You Are a Kindergarten Teacher

1.  You buy 150 plastic folders (or composition books, or binders, or…. fill in the blank) while they are on super sale because your kids will “need” them. Even better….finding the notebooks with the primary lines! #Heaven

You buy 150 plastic folders. or composition books, or binders while they are on super sale.

2. You will not let anything go to waste that could be used in the classroom. Throwing away a scrabble game? Any game with letters? No you’re not – we are using those tiles for spelling!

Kindergarten teachers use any game pieces with letters for spelling practice.

3. You keep Post-It in business. Sticky note flags, mini notepads, large notepads… even better, the giant Post-It charts!

You keep Post-It in business with all of your sticky note flags, mini notepads, and large notepads.

4. You have marker stains on your hands because you tell the kids not to use their hands to dry erase the whiteboard yet you use your hands. #Guilty

You have dry erase marker stains on your hands because you constantly use them to erase the white board in your classroom.

5. You take giant bags home from school to work on. They often sit at your home and then travel back to school with you, sometimes untouched.

You take giant bags home from school to work on even though they sometimes go untouched.

6. You can decode writing that is practically hieroglyphics. No that isn’t the number 2, it says “My mom and I went to a museum and had dinner.” Can’t you tell?

You can decode writing that is practically hieroglyphics.

7. You can turn anything into a song. Whether you can sing or not. Time to come to the carpet? There’s a song for that. Have to line up? Wash your hands? Clean up? Yeah, there are songs for those too. You sometimes even sing them at home while doing the dishes because they won’t leave your mind.

RELATED RESOURCE: Clean Up Songs for Pre-K/Kindergarten

Kindergarten teachers can turn anything into a song and often find themselves singing them at home.

So there you have it – 7 funny ways you can tell that someone just may teach Kindergarten (or preschool.. or primary grades!) What grade do you teach? Would you add anything? We know teaching can be super fun, yet sometimes super stressful! Check out these 7 ways to manage teacher stress! They may just help you out this year!

Then, be sure you request your invitation to let us help you plan all year long inside the Print and Play Club!

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Request your invitation below for more info!

JOIN hundreds of teachers inside the Print & Play Club. A Club created by a teacher, for teachers! With BRAND NEW monthly centers planned and ready to print and play, with exclusive access to hundreds of themed and evergreen printables!
Alex
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Comments

  1. Heather L

    These are great!! And I am seriously on the lookout for the primary lined composition books from the Dollar Store!! I bought some last year, but not a class set so I'm hoping they will put them out this year! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

    Reply

  6. Carolyn Kisloski

    These are PERFECT! Oh my gosh – ever one of them. I keep telling myself I am going to just "use up" letters that I have this coming year- because I have so many that I HAD to save!
    Thanks for making me feel more "normal!"
    Carolyn

    Reply

  7. Carie Ramirez

    Haha! This made me laugh because it is so true!! I sing EVERYTHING…why, because I love to sing but more importantly, the kiddos stop what they are doing and listen intently! 🙂 And I ALWAYS take a full school bag home that rarely gets touched! Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

    • Christine Barton

      Horder? Horder? Yep that’s me. I am a substitute and did not get hired on full time last year. I don’t just collect things for K but for K-5. I have filing cabinets for each grade. I have games for each grade and centers and BOOKS don’t even get me started with the furniture: tables, chairs, kids kitchen…. Oh did I mention that I am a science teacher at heart and I have equipment and experiments for each grade. My husband built a 40×80 foot garage and I have filled a third of it with “teaching stuff”. There is a reason students call me Mrs. Frizzle!

      Reply

  8. Kidpeople Classroom

    I could not tell which of the seven was more real for me!! Every single thing was true. I don't even learn songs that others have written to help in the classroom any more… I simply start singing and say what I need to say… some of our best songs have come about that way 🙂 And on those very rare occasions when I leave school without a 50 pound book bag, I fret all the way home that I've forgotten something 😛 Great post, Alex. Needed the chuckle. Kathleen Kidpeople Classroom

    Reply

  14. Myrna

    I can’t believe all of this is still true 22 years after my last kindergarten teaching “gig”.!I loved it so much. But it was SO, SO exhausting, giving all of yourself every day. The gathering and hoarding, yes! the finding materials and buying with one’s own money and saving until they were needed. It took years to clear out all my kindergarten stuff from my house – I’ve moved and I think I still have stuff in the new house!

    Reply

    • Alex

      It still remains true! ha! Today I literally was saving the ribbon off of someone’s birthday bags….. I was almost making myself throw it out but it was such great ribbon! The things we could make with it!! 😉

      Reply

  15. Dorothy

    Guilty of all…. I also set the timer for tasks at school and at home! To remind me to stop one activity and start another. Even if it’s at 7:45 pm so I eat a snack before 8:00 pm deadline on my nutrition goal!

    Reply

  16. Ilinca

    All true, especially number 7. Today I was singing instructions to the kids. I found myself singing “Take your diaper off and put it in the bin, put it in the bin, put it in the bin! X2, Tra la la la la”

    Reply

  17. Bellyssa

    I am a teacher of a young learners for 18 years and I became a mother of a baby girl 10 months ago. Now I keep singing and singing all day long through the house.. and my husband is “infected”.

    Reply

  19. A.cummins87

    I have to add the whole obsession with markers. Every Kinder teacher I know has to have several different varieties. I for one have all of the Mr. Sketch smelly markers (I mean literally all of the ones they make), flipchart markers, traditional crayola, many random varieties of crayola (bold, neon, poster, etc), papermate (for all of those things I can’t use smelly markers on), etc. And then there are the pens. Oh how I love pens, especially gelly roll, neon, metallic beauties. To me, I can always spot a teacher, especially primary grades, in the marker aisl when they are practically salivating over some new marker style. If I keep anything in business, it is papermate and Mr. Sketch.

    Reply

  20. Mary

    I teach preschool. I had to laugh just reading the 7. But the best one for me is songs getting stuck in my head especially in the middle of the night. There have been a few I stop singing with the kiddos. But one trick that helps me when this happens….I sing the ABC’s. Sometime it take a lot of focus and singing the abc song several times non stop, lol. Second on the list is hoarding. Oh my goodness, I can save the weirdest things, and guess what, most of the time I actually use them. It may be awhile, but when I do I just smile.

    Reply

    • Alex

      Oh my goodness I can totally relate to middle of the night songs in my head! The hoarding I can relate too as well! I know a lot of people who can sing the ABCs backwards, and some rather quickly – but I am not so great at it haha – I have to really concentrate! Maybe I should try that trick as well. 🙂

      Reply

  21. Julie

    My husband is even getting a new saw for his birthday so he can build things for my classroom. Kindergarten has a way of taking over your life.

    Reply

    • Alex

      Ha! I love that it is even in your hubby’s presents – too funny! What a nice husband to make you things. Kindergarten certainly does have a way of becoming your life, doesn’t it? 🙂

      Reply

  22. Kat

    I cannot count the number strange looks I’ve gotten as I walk home singing classics like “Jack and Jill” and “A is for apple” without even realizing it…

    Reply

  23. Melody aka Mrs. B-K

    All so true!! Thanks for the chuckles, especially the hieroglyphics. My husband can never believe what I can decipher. Kdg. teachers are a special breed. I’ve been teaching Kdg. for 27 of my 31 years of teaching and still going. It’s never dull and still full of surprises for 😊

    Reply

  24. Nina Johnson

    I was reading this article to my husband and we are both laughing because he himself find it 100% true. He wants to add on the list what happened to us last year during our vacation. I brought all my unfinished work/lesson plan evaluation to our vacation and it took most of our baggage allowance. Those pile of papers were left untouched until our last day in Manila. He was so pissed and we ended up throwing most of it because we are over the baggage limit when we get back to Singapore.

    Reply

    • Alex

      Ha! I am so guilty of bringing bags home and not touching them – but taking them on travels and being over the baggage limit takes the cake I think! ; ) Too funny!

      Reply

  25. Angela

    Number 7 is definitely a skill of kinder teachers 🙂 I would add, “you can walk backwards”. You’ve possibly even tried walking backwards down the stairs 😉

    Reply

  26. Elena

    I’m a children’s librarian and these are pretty applicable to us as well. I’d love to be a kindergarten teacher but it’s the only grade I would want! None of that fifth grade nonsense …

    Reply

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