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Splash Dance

We were on our way back to the classroom at the end of the day. I had just picked my students up from P.E. and the final dismissal bell was about to ring. Once they got in the classroom the kids were more interested in the air conditioning, the drinking fountain and cooling off then they were in trudging back out into the 97F day to go home.

“Ms. A., Cindy won’t quit touching my water bottle!”Deb wailed.

“What?!” I frowned, this seemed like a personal problem to me and I don’t usually handle those, but just in case I asked, “Why?”

Deb responded, “She says it’s cold and it feels good on her wrist.”

“Huh,” I said. “Let’s see it.” I took the bottle, a squirt top sports model designed to be frozen, and sure enough it was still icy cold. I put it to my wrist and said, “Whaddya know, she’s right!” Then I turned to Pansy, “Here, try it!” And Cyndi, Nessa, Jasmine, Rosie . . . .

“Hey!” Deb wailed.

I turned to her, “What?” She snatched her bottle from my hand, then turned it toward me and squeezed.

My left hand shot out and with two fingers I changed the angle of the bottle. She squirted herself in the face, but her friends didn’t quite see it that way, so a water fight ensued. Luckily I keep a spray bottle full of plain water handy for cleaning the whiteboard, and I was readily able to defend myself from all attacks. In the three minutes it took the bell to ring we were all thoroughly soaked. It was fun. We might try this again, but next time I hope we have the sense to take it outside!

Quilly is the pseudonym of Charlene L. Amsden, who lives on The Big Island in Hawaii. When she is not hanging out with Amoeba, she is likely teaching or sewing. Or she could be cooking, taking photographs, or even writing. But if she's not doing any of that, she's probably on Facebook or tinkering with her blog.

22 Comments

  1. Water-soluble ink. Runnin’ all ’round my pockets. With that essential, and now irretrievable, message. Sigh. And water fights sound like so much fun.

  2. OC — Your pocket, my desk . . . besides, who would bring essential, irretrievable messages to a water fight? (And I didn’t really want to grade those essays anyway.)

  3. Wow! I wish you were my teacher 🙂
    May be i’ll send my kids to you 😉

    Back on the big W again, and hope to stay this time.
    Your blog feels like home. No matter how long am I away, its always there like a book I can reach out to anytime. Humorous, endearing…

    Take care.

  4. What a cool teacher you are. We never had water fights with our teachers! Love the header of the Siamese cats; I have a Siamese cat myself, who is the baby of our family.

  5. Venus — I’m glad I could be here to welcopme you back to the blogosphere.

    Theresa — the kids think I’m cool, too. I am not sure what the other teachers think. I am also not certain it matters, since my students behave for me and their test scores are good. The header was made for me by my niece, Brooke. I asked for Siamese cats because my two are Siamese mixes.

  6. That sound snice. Sounds liek something i owuld have taken part in in a heartbeat.
    Actually when you are really hot and sweaty, the best advice is to just run some ice-cold water over your wrist, the entire body cools quickly down.
    I just thought, this might be soemthign interesting to say out loud 🙂

  7. Penguin, what the hell do you know about being hot and sweaty? Don’t you just take off one of your coats when you get too warm in Iceland?

  9. This sounds like fun, though who had the job of cleaning up the classroom when the fun was over?

    I betcha you’d have a blast with a water hose. When we were kids we’d have fun with our neighbour when he’d be watering his lawn or flowers in the Summer. He’d show us some kindness and hose us down.

    A wonderful day is wished for you

  10. Hehehehehe…. Amanda and I have ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS since time began had water fights IN THE HOUSE! LOL! My philosophy was always that it’s *just water* and couldn’t hurt anything! The only rule was – the one who STARTS it has to clean up the mess! So if you wanna start it ya better be willing to finish it — and I freely admit that I have started it at least as many times as she has! My younger kids just don’t “get it” though…. hm.

  11. Quilly…What a great way to end the day. I can’t imagine what you’re planning for your last week with those kids! Although, it’s usually those unplanned moments, like the water fun, that make such great memories………….Judy

  12. wow! soundslike great fun!
    water fights in class… something unimaginable in my time…

  13. Minka — Check out Diesel’s response o you. How does one get hot and sweaty while sitting on an iceberg?

    Diesel — nice of you to drop by — to visit with Minka.

    Doug — I’ll be the first person to tell you that the primary thing that makes me a successful teacher of ten year olds is that I still know how it feels to be one!

    Bill — I am a crack marksman, I never squirted anything but children. , and the children really didn’t toss water about inside. Their mommies trained them better then that.

    Melli — I knew you’d approve!

    Judy — at the end of the year the entire 5th grade has a bar-b-que and a water fight.

    Polona — in my classroom the unimaginable occurs on a fairly routine basis.

  15. The only solution is to outlaw those damned water bottles. Maybe even outlaw water. You can never be too safe.

  16. School was never like that when I went. The teachers even took away our squirt guns. A teacher in a water fight was just not heard of.

  17. Silverneurotic — it was a lot of fun. It’s already too hot here.

    Dan — come live in the desert for awhile. You may change your waterless outlook.

    Dr. John — they don’t make many teachers like me — which I am certain the school district appreciates.

  18. This sounds like so much fun. Unfortunately, because of our severe drought (we are down to around 30% capacity of water storage), all water fights at all school are banned as are such joys as running under a sprinkler and playing with a hose in your back yard. In fact, sprinklers and hoses are banned! The only way you can water your garden is with grey water.

    I feel very sad that Elijah will probably never know the joy that is a water fight.

  20. Wow, we would never have been allowed to do this in any school I went to or taught at. And we sure could have used the fun.

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