Getting to Know the Students

Some tidbits on kindergarten students at Ben Franklin:

Ofir - Ofir loves books, but more than that she loves being silly. She likes to call books "booksies." I can tell she and her parents talk fun and funky at home. Everything she sees has a food reference or an analogy. For instance, class news: "This is my lil' stuffed doggy...He looks like a giant chocolate chip cookie." Or, "That was as spooky as when it rains really hard and thunders." Ofir says she'd like to be a book seller when she grows up, only she wants to call her title, "Book Doctor." I can see her being a writer someday. She loves giving details. She said her and her mother have been working on a book together. She also loves having tea parties.

Deon - Deon's a sporto. He said his father named him after one of his favorite athletes, and Deon befits his name. He loves talking sports. He plays basketball and four square on the playground. He always emphasizes his shoes being cross-trainers (which is really pretty funny to hear from a five-year-old). Deon's mother is Chinese, and he says he has a younger step brother there. Deon also loves math, science and comic books.

Duru - Duru is the butterfly of the class. With her little pigtails, she flits and flouts around the room as she hums and grins. Duru loves all things colorful and artsy. She draws and paints very well and has just begun taking art lessons in the afternoon. Duru also loves to sing. She belted her soprano voice when we sang Mary Wore Her Red Dress. Her parents are from Turkey and she travels there with them once a year.

Diana - Diana is a bit of a mystery, but a very fun and intriguing mystery at that. She is the kid in whose brain teachers would love to delve. Diana is aloof and very much in her own world. She would love to sit in the reading center the whole day. Skimming books is her thing. However, when she does mentally rejoin the group, she makes the most keen observations. "Hey Look! - That square (flat) has edges on one side, and that square (block) has edges on all sides." Diana likes to role play. She also loves fruit. Oddly, she told me that her family has a chicken named Easter that got out and ran to the neighbor's house. She is quirky -- can't wait to hear more from her in January.

Bryson - Bryson is a cool kid. He is so happy-go-lucky. He has an older sister, Sela, who, with all her friends, looks out for Bryson. Usually, younger siblings are a pain, but you can tell Sela's friends like Bryson. He's the one cool sibling of the peer group. Bryson has a close-knit family. They love going skiing with other family friends. Bryson has fruit in his lunch everyday and says that he goes home and eats more fruit. Plums and kiwis are the faves. Lastly, he has two pairs of tennis shoes -- ones that don't go in the dirt and ones that go everywhere.