“He’s not real” said the little blond sitting on the floor.  “He’s just a puppet”.  I have my puppet make as close to an “I can’t believe you said that pose” as I can get, which is not very good since the puppet can’t change facial expressions, and some of the kids giggle, but this child keeps insisting he’s not real.  Finally I look at him and say, let’s just have some fun and PRETEND he’s real.  Still not completely sold, he shrugs his shoulders and says ok.

I get it.  It’s not a real duck and he’s just a manipulative to use with the lesson I’m teaching, but for crying out loud, the child is five.  He’s only been walking and talking for maybe four years and he’s supposed to be playing and pretending things. And in the place of what should be this innocent, wide eyed child who would believe anything, was a slightly cynical, “why are you boring me with this puppet when I’m more mature than that” little human.  It was a little sad actually.  Especially since I know that everything else in his little academic world is going to be pretty concrete.

They’re not all like that of course.  There are the kids who want to pet the duck on the way out the door and then give him all kinds of hugs and kisses along the way.  I need to find a way to disinfect the duck after each class I suppose.  The duck is all a part of the lesson; a song sung about the duck, and instrument played when the duck “claps”, a game of movement involving funny duck walks AND, the infamous Duck, Duck, Goose.  The kids recognize the game of course, but the actual logistics of the game sometimes escape them.  And this is where they become the little kid.

Each time a child gets his or her turn, they are all kinds of excited.  Big smile on their face, carefully tapping their friends as they go around the circle, debating who the “goose” is going to be.  Sometimes there is more than one time around the circle and they need to be reminded to make a choice.  Some kids are just very clinical about the whole thing, walking at a brisk pace saying, duck, duck, duck, duck GOOSE and taking off.  Some however, are much more deliberate; duuuuck, duuuuck, duuuuck…. (wait for it….). preparing to run…..GOOSE!! and the giggle and screams ensue.  It’s the best part of the day for sure as we’re all laughing together.

There are the kids who get so excited that they get up to chase and can’t decide which direction to go and for a couple of seconds are in danger of running into each other about halfway around the circle.  So then they do the little dance – ok, you go that way, no YOU go that way, until they finally get it figured out and go the same direction.  Then there are the kids who don’t bother to get up but just reach up and tag the kid who didn’t move fast enough, or the kid who doesn’t realize they’re the goose and sits while the kid who tagged him has already run halfway around the circle.

Then there are those kids who are always looking for the easy way to win.  Like the little guy who was chosen as the goose by his buddy, and instead of running around the circle after him to tag him, saw a hole in the circle, ran across the circle and tackled his friend on the other side.  When I told him that we don’t tackle each other in my room, he looked up at me and said “but I got him!”  Well, yes he did.  I forgot to mention the “no tackling” clause in my game directions.

And so in my little classroom of 20 children, we have the quick decision makers, the deliberate thinkers, the logical thinkers, the dreamers and those who think completely outside the box, their little personalities out there for all to see, and I ask myself, am I addressing all of these personalities in my teaching?  Am I expecting all of my kids to see the duck as “real” and to play the game according to the rules?  Or am I allowing my kids to use their strengths to explore their world in their own way and make decisions of how they want to move in the world?  Ah, the lessons we as teachers can learn from Duck, Duck, Goose.