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!
7 Signs of 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
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!
3. You keep Post-It in business. Sticky note flags, mini notepads, large notepads… even better, the giant Post-It charts!
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
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.
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?
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.
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! These 7 ways to manage teacher stress may just help you out this year!
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Alex
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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! 🙂
Yes! I loved when they had those! I always feel a little guilty walking up there with like half their stock….. but we need them! 😉
Check online with the dollar store for those notebooks. Good luck!
I relate to all these points, Alex. Especially the hoarding! Kinder teachers can repurpose almost anything imaginable!
That is so true Elizabeth! We can find purpose in tons of things people are ready to throw out! 🙂
You are right. I am a terrible hoarder
Love this! All are so true I'm guilty of the markers on my hand ha! Thanks for sharing!
Jill
haha! Sometimes when you don't have an eraser nearby…. 🙂
So guilty of taking the bags home, bringing them in the house, putting them down, and leaving them until the next day—-when the whole process begins again! LOL
Nicki
Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten
Exactly!! I do the same thing!
Just perfect! I have already had a dream I was buying folders for back to school and we still have 2 months left.
I am cracking up about that! We even have dreams about it! 🙂
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
Haha oh you are totally normal my friend! I keep hoarding everything with letters too – I need an intervention!
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.
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!
Ahhh, Mrs. Frizzle! I love it! This is wonderful, and we can SOOO relate!
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
Ha! Love this! I can relate to all of them – especially #6. I will bring home writing and show my husband and he is amazed that I can read it. Working with little kiddos rocks!
Suzanne
Kindergarten Planet
Those are hilarious! I can relate to all of them, especially #7. I'm ALWAYS singing the different songs we sing during the day, sometimes in a crowd full of people. I have gotten a few strange looks! 🙂
Warmest Wishes,
Erin
Kindergarten Dragons
Bingo! You hit the nail on the head. Guilty of all of the above.
Always clay, tempera, crayon or markers are in my fingernails
haha yes! So true! It’s always something 🙂
K-K-K- Katie…. MAKE A LINE DOWN AND… THEN GO IN AND THEN GO OU….. oops… sorry. I was just doing the dishes.
Oh my goodness! Too funny! 🙂
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!
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!! 😉
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!
Haha yes! Timers are our friend! 🙂
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”
Haha that is too funny! I too am always singing random songs – I can’t help it! 🙂
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”.
Oh my, and I thought my wife was crazy! Apparently y’all are crazy! My garage is proof of #2 & #5. Sheesh!
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.
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.
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. 🙂
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.
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? 🙂
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…
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 😊
Hi Melody!
Yes, never a dull moment indeed! I feel like I could write a really hilarious book about teaching kindergarten! 😉
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.
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!
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 😉