There's nothing to it, the teacher said in teacher's training. Anyone, with a little effort , can teach threes.''Repeat,'' she said. ''Let the children participate, and of course, be prepared.''
In my classroom we follow these rules exactly. Repeat? (Sometimes we even repeat the right things.) Participate? (Yes, but doesn't the teacher ever get a turn?) Prepared? ( Particularly for the unexpected)
The children come in, (Including Andy who has been promoted twice, but won't come unless he can attend Threes.) There is a new girl, plus the seven regulars. (and the eighteen month old who screams when she isn't allowed to go with her big sister.)
''Good morning, Mrs. Fay.'' (They say it so sweetly.) I notice that David has two big snowballs, one in each front pocket. (I do not take them since they would melt just as fast in my pockets.)
They sit quietly around the little table. We sing first. (Because if we hurry and sing ''Jesus loves me,'' Beth will stay.) Then we sing the welcome chorus for the new girl.(It doesn't matter that Larry is glaring at her; she is having a good time glaring back at him.)
We'd better tell her who we are,'' Andy says, ''I'm Andy.'' And on around the table until we come to Mary who says, ''I'm Jane Mehitabel Marie and Archie.'' They all know she is Mary, so they ask,'' Who is Jane?'' ''Who is Mehitable?'' ''Marie?'' ''Archie?''
"Mehitable is a cat, and Archie is a cockroach, so you can only be Jane and Marie,'' Marisa remarks. (Mention an animal or a bug and every three in the room will participate, all at once.)
''I saw a cockroach in the church basement,'' Larry says.
''No, it was a cricket,''Andy adds.
''Oh, Teacher,'' David says suddenly, ''I bringed you something,''( The snowballs go plopl! plop! One on my Bible and the other on the pictures we were going to color.)
'' Thank you, David,'' I say, (patiently, believe it or not.) ''Now is the time...''
''Did you make them yourself?'' the new girl interrupts to ask.(See how they participate?)
''You were going to say it is time to say our prayers,''Larry says. ''I want to thank God for all the crickets in the church basement.''
''Me, too,'' Marvie adds,''I want to tell Him thank you for all the fun I had when I stomped on them as fast as I could.''
''In a minute,''I say,''first let's talk about all the other things we have to be thankful for.''
''I saw the nicest snowman on the way to church,'' Carrie says. ''It had donuts for his eyes and donuts for his mouth.'' (Donuts? I doubt it very much, but I don't say so.)
''I saw that one too,'' Beth says to Carrie. She looks at me,''in your yard.''
''In my yard?'' We all look at Marisa (my daughter). A crack in the floor has her undivided attention. (So we do have a snowman in the yard with donuts for his eyes and donuts for his mouth.)
When we say our prayers, David begins his ''Dear God and Daddy.'' Marvie repeats parts of the Lord's prayer, saying ''Our Father, who art in heaven, Harold be thy name,'' and then adds a line about crickets: the new girl is thankful for donuts.
The lesson is about Joseph and his dreams, and of course his pretty coat.( If we get past the word ''dream'' before anyone remembers to tell his latest dream, we shall have time for the lesson.) One year when we talked about Joseph's dreams, Jerita remarked, ''One night I dreamed I was the teacher and you were just a big crayon.'')
Just as I think we shall make it, Carrie asks,''What is a dream?''
''Well,'' I begin, but the children know the answer.
'' Like when you shut your eyes and open them and it is dark and your shirt is turned into an octopus and it is climbing over your chair,'' Larry explains.''That's a dream.''
Before anybody can say, ''What is an octopus?'' I say,''I will tell you about certain dream a boy named Joseph had.''( We make it, after all.)
In a few minutes we go on to learn the memory verse. We repeat it. They learn it quickly. We repeat it.'' Let's say it once more,'' I suggest.
''Don't you know it yet, Mrs. Fay?'' Beth asks.
"Teacher,'' the new girl says, ''I know a nice church song we could sing.'' (Now there's a line that the teacher of the training course should have warned us about.)
''What is the song, Sherry?'' (Never ask if they'd like to sing it, they always would.)
But Sherry is singing anyway. She is singing, ''Go tell Aunt Rhoda.''
''Rhoda?'' Marisa says. ''It should be Abbie. Aunt Abbie.'' She is singing ''Go tell Aunt Abbie''; David is singing Aunt Ida: Tony is singing Aunt Shirley.''I don't have any Aunt Rhoda,'' he explains. ''And my Aunt Shirley never had any goose.'' They stop singing to feel sorry for poor Aunt Shirley who never had any goose.
They listen to me explain why that song is not a church song, and we look at the pictures and make the handwork.
''Mrs. Fay,'' Mary says, ''Marvie has the red crayons in his mouth.''
He gives them to me. ''I wasn't eating them,'' he explains. '' I was taking them home.''
''I remember last week's memory verse,'' David says,''it was 'feed carrots to birds'.''
''It was He careth for you,'' I correct him. ''We talked about how God cares for all the animals and the birds.''
''Feed carrots to birds,'' David repeats.
''That's a new memory verse,'' Carrie says and she repeats it. They all repeat it, loudly and together. (We spend several minutes unlearning that.)
The first bell rings. ''Marvie has the red crayons in his mouth again.''Tony says. To Marvie he adds, ''Why do you want to take home those chewed red ones?'' (Marvie comprehends quickly. He puts down the red ones, slowly begins to pick up the yellow ones.)
They pick up their papers and get ready to leave the classroom. As the second bell rings, Marisa raises her hand to ask a question.
''Yes, Marisa?''
''What kind of birds eat carrots?''

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