Bye. Bye.

Every day starts out with, "Hello, class!" or "Good morning, class!" followed by the respective response from each student, "Hello/Good morning, Kate Teacher." Throughout the day there are many times that call for a "bye-bye" from the students, followed by hysterical laughter. When we review flash cards, "bye-bye, ocean"; when we finish Phonics, "bye-bye, ponics" (note: h left out on purpose, though they're gradually getting better with their f sounds); when someone asks to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, "bye-bye, so and so"; when we are cleaning up play time, "bye-bye, Koala Baby." And there are instances of "bye-bye" making absolutely no sense, like when we're in the middle of a story or talking about the weather, and everyone in the class gets a "bye-bye." There are also cases of the "no bye-bye," especially at the end of the day; I leave the kids at the elevator at the end of the day, waving from outside the box, and I say, "bye-bye, class! See you tomorrow." and one student might respond, "bye-bye!" but then someone (usually Alex or Roy) will throw out the "no bye-bye" and I'll hear a chorus of "no bye-bye! no bye-bye!" to which I pretend to cry, then race down to the fourth floor so when the doors open there I pop out from the side, smiling and waving, saying, "Hello! Hello!" They love that.

There's no real point to this post, it's just something cute and strange that my students do that I don't really understand. Roy is getting better about actually telling me something when he giggles and says, "Kate Teacher." I learned today that he has two mouse at home, and used the opportunity to teach him the plural: mice. Then, I asked him what color his mice were and he said red. I still don't think we're on the same page, but at least we're getting closer.