We made wind socks in class today, Only I called them tornado warners.
The news had me so freaked out this morning.
"65 mile an hour winds...torrential rain...tornado warning!"
Waitaminute...
Tornado?......TORmutherfuckinNADO?
I was immediately freaked out, and felt that it was MY job to warn everyone that I saw. I sounded like chicken little, warning everyone about the damn sky falling....
Ya know...except it was tornao-y and Im wicked fat.
On my break the wind blew and I spread my arms out and screamed at Dinga "Here it comes Dinga!!! OHMYGOD!!!! "......then the wind stopped and I muttered "oh."
Dinga laughed at me, then i did too.
I was sorta dissapointed by lunchtime, that there was no tornado yet.
Not that I want one, but...Im pretty sure we would have been sent home early.
I spent 15 minutes or so stomping on the floor..CONVINCED that our Kindercare was SO old, that there simply MUST be an old army shelter beneath its newly waxed floors.
To my dissapointment, My foot tapping hearalded nothing. (except 12 children following behind me laughing.)
"Miss Beanie is SO crazy."
"What is Beanie doing NOW!"
"I dunno.." another child answered "But we should do it too....just incase."
"SHUSH children!" I exclaimed "Beanie is trying to save your lives. It is a hard job, but somebody has to do it!"
"Wow! Miss. Beanie is saving our lives!"
"I love Beanie!"
They whispered behind me..... (And that is how you do THAT.)
I drilled the children on black out procautions...JUST INCASE the lights went off. They picked it up quick.
I asked Lou Lou..."What do we do if there IS a tornado?! Get under a desk?"
She laughed.."I don't think so!!! I think that's an earthquake!"
"Do we stand in a doorway?"
"No THAT'S an earthquake too!"
Oh lord. We're screwed.
Plus I had already told my children to hide under a desk....crap.
I made "tornado watchers" (which are basically windsocks)
The children were fascinated at my amazing technological skills. "Beanie..How does this help us know when a tornado is coming?
"well...You hang it outside your window right?"
"Uh huh!" They chorused
"Usually it will show you the visual aspects of the wind, which means if its not windy, it wont move...if it is very windy, then it will swing back and forth. So.... this here Tornado watcher....basically... if it disappears...hide in a closet!"
They all nodded very seriously at me.
Later in the afternoon, I moved over to my school age class, where I continued making tornado watchers.
As it got later the rain got LOUDER....and louder...Until the roof shook.
My head went up...and it was all a blur.
"CHILDREN! It's here! Stop drop and roll...STOP DROP AND ROLL!"
Half of the class ran to the window, a parent walking in laughed at me, Rob said over the din of noise "Beanie! That's for a fire!"
Dammit, I thought....
A little girl ran, and knee slid under a table.
Dawn came in, saw all the chaos, laughed and turned back around.
Me?
I yelled "I'm coming Elizabeth!" clutched my chest and opened the door...
And found hail.
"Oh." I said and sighed.
The children oohed and ahhed and I let them catch it in buckets, and bins and pencil cases.
They made teeny snowballs and had contests on who could keep their hands submerged the longest in the icy water.
I had to stop that though, by telling the children that if they wanted to freeze off their hands, then they would do it at home, and not in my class, as I would surely be excused from my place of employment.
The groaned, but stopped trying to self induce frost bite.
In the end, no tornado came, and surely...a child is terrified because of me.
And also very very confused.
