COVID lunch time is much different than B.C. (before COVID) time. First of all, there are only eleven students that stay in the classroom with me to eat - the other half are sent to another room to ensure social distancing while eating. On first glance, the thought of having only eleven students to monitor while eating sounds like it would be a dream come true. But just remember to take into account that they are eight and nine year olds and having their mask off, eating their lunch, and finally having some social time during the day brings out the loud in them. And the silly.
Most days I just listen in as they talk back and forth and create new little games to play together. Occasionally I have to jump in and put a stop if they go off the rails.
I'm typically sitting at my desk, checking email and eating my own lunch while I also supervise the little lunchers. Conversations run the gamut every day so for your reading enjoyment I thought I'd share the most amusing.
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As one little darling ate her sandwich, she asked the class, "What is your pet peeve?" Since that term isn't known by many third graders, immediately one boy announced, "Dog!" followed up by "Duck.... but I've never seen one pee!" Cue the riotous laughter at someone saying, "pee" and we were off!
"What is a pet peeve anyway?", a curious boy eating carrots asked.
"Well a pet peeve is something that really bugs you and bothers you. Like, my pet peeve is people who are late," explained the little girl. Then she rolled her eyes for effect. A girl after my own heart, this one.
Once the term was explained, the room exploded with little voices sharing their pet peeve, which only made me think of how one of my pet peeves is students shouting out and talking over each other.
Finally, as always happens, one of the cuties noticed me and called over the others, "Mrs. Jeppson, what is your pet peeve?"
And before I could even reply, a voice came out of nowhere and exclaimed, "US!"
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Another day, another lunch and on this particular day, the little ones began saying, "Everybody look at (student name)."* At which point ten students looked at the named student. All students played along, even eating their lunch very demonstratively or making a silly face when being looked at. I have no explanation for this game and in over twenty years of teaching, this is a new one that doesn't really seem to have much fun value, but that didn't seem to stop them. And as usual, after several minutes, they included me in their game. "Everybody look at Mrs. Jeppson." Eleven little heads turned my way and they looked at me.
"What's so unusual about this?" I asked them. "You look at me all day! I would think you'd surely want to look at someone else."
*Note: no students were harmed in this game. It wasn't mean-spirited in any way
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One lunch was a back and forth about what would you do if [insert any item] didn't exist in the world. They began with What would you do if ice cream didn't exist? It was fun to listen to their creativity and hear the items they were choosing. Naturally I had to throw in my two cents by asking them What would you do if coffee didn't exist?
"Bleck!" I heard from several students. "Coffee - yuck!"
"The items are supposed to be something good," clarified one little for me.
My favorite reply was from one little Einstein when the question What would you do if pizza didn't exist? was posed.
"I'd invent it!"
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Last Friday's conversation made me really laugh. As they were all eating, one little boy suddenly stood up and announced, "Hello, 911. I have an emergency...... there isn't any mustard on my sandwich!"
Not to be outdone, suddenly five other students had an emergency and began announcing in turn, "Hello, 911. I have an emergency." And then they would input their own personal lunch emergency. Soon it was a full blown game with one student after another mimicking a 911 operator.
The funniest part was later that afternoon, a boy emerged from the bathroom and announced loudly to the entire class, "911 emergency! We are out of paper towels in the boys bathroom!"
911 indeed.
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Sometimes even the little kiddies get tired of inventing, explaining, talking and playing games during lunch so inevitably at least once during the lunch time, a student will simply yell out, "Quiet Game!" and we all know what that means. Then they make a game of trying to be quiet for a few minutes.
No easy feat.
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