Whisper Day

What's a teacher to do when she has laryngitis? Well, today I declared it "Whisper Day" in my classroom. Talk about being cute! A roomful of kindergarteners trying to whisper when they can't even use an "inside voice" under normal circumstances. They were, actually very good today; maybe they really do care about their old, grouchy teacher. :)

They all inquired or stared at me curiously when I croaked out or whispered my good morning greeting that I do everyday. Many of them looked like they were scared I had been abducted by an alien or something. Then, as the other children arrived, all the "old" kids who already knew about my voice kept going over to the "new" arrivals and whispering that it was "Whisper Day" and that Mrs. Thomas had lost her voice.

During morning meeting time, they kept questioning me about what happened to my voice and what did it mean "I lost my voice." So I tried to explain what that phrase meant. Many of them wondered where my voice went. So for our writing time we created a book (O said "It's going to be fiction 'cuz it's not real.") about where my voice might have gone. They had me looking in some interesting places- Harris Teeter (the local grocery store), my mother's house in Illinois (this author even looked at my mom's picture by my desk to find out what she looked like and drew her with her red hair), an airplane, the playground, and apparently my voice visited several students' homes overnight because they were searching in their homes in many stories. It was too funny! They really enjoyed creating these stories!

When recess arrived, they (and I) realized that all the children had managed to stay on green this morning- a major accomplishment! We celebrated and cheered!!!! At days' end, they were still there on the green light, and I rewarded them with their choice of stickers for their sticker charts or pennies for their banks. Whisper Day was actually really good. I was dreading it as I was going to be alone today while my assistant was proctoring tests in the older grades, but it turned out to be a good day!