Mr. Gobbles

This is the tale of Mr. Gobbles and the day he spent in first grade.

Mr. Gobbles is a hand turkey made of dry erase marker and imagination. He doesn't have a lot of personality, but he's a deep soul and likes to take long walks in the dry erase marker forest.

The main character in this story, however, is not Mr. Gobbles, but Ms. Love the substitute teacher.

Who happens to be me.

It started on a cold, rainy Tuesday morning. 

I was not one bit excited to be subbing first graders two days before Thanksgiving. You see, the last time I was in a first grade classroom my day culminated with a child knocking her crayon box on the floor and then screaming and stomping on the little wax nubs as they rolled across the floor.

That was not a good day.

But on this rainy Tuesday I decided to be festive, so I slapped my hand on the board and created Mr. Gobbles a few minutes before the children came in.

The deal was that Mr. Gobbles would gain or lose feathers dependent on how well the class followed directions and kept their hands to themselves. 

(This picture was taken after he earned a purple feather.)

A few minutes later, the first few children shuffled through the door, staring at me through deceivingly adorable eyes. 

The first two coherent sentences I heard were, 

"She's not married. She got a 'M S'."

and 

"Who's Mr. Gobbles?"

To my absolute surprise, the rest of the day went beautifully. 

We spent the morning making butter out of cream. 

And who doesn't love butter?

All four first grade classes rotated through my room for thirty minutes at a time, and after each group shook and tasted the butter and I couldn't think of ANYTHING else to do, we talked about things you can make out of milk, like

cheese

and ice cream

and chocolate milk

and cupcakes.

(It was an interesting discussion.)

During the afternoon my class did worksheets, watched Pocahontas II and Anastasia, and made turkeys with things they were thankful for written on the feathers. 

(because the teacher who left me plans knew it's hard to do anything really serious with a sub on a rainy day before Thanksgiving)

Of course, having too much fun can be wearing, as one child let me know:

 "We want to do work--we are tired of doing all this other stuff."

Mr. Gobbles presided over all behavior (earning four extra feathers throughout the day) and was a point of some serious discussion. 

"Mr. Gobbles is my BEST. FRIEND."

"Is Mr. Gobbles married? He's 'M R'."

"I made my turkey look like Mr. Gobbles."

"Mr. Gobbles is my husband."

And this note:

"I love you Ms. Love you are the swetist teachere I evr met. I like Mr. Gobbles to tel hem that frum me."

Sometimes all it takes to start a day off right is a marker and some imagination.