#fourthgradegirls

After a productive and inspiring meeting with our librarian I stride towards my classroom, looking forward to another great session of read aloud. I am surprised to find two girls in the class already. In a split of a second it's obvious that Edward Tulane has to wait. Hands crossed on their chests, heads lowered, and lips pursed
"Hashtag, I will never go to PE again," says one
"Hashtag, PE is the worst lesson ever," says another
"Hashtag, I am going to call my mom to take me home," says the first one.
I breathe in as slowly as I can.
The third girls storms in almost in tears, throws her PE bag under a table and sits down with such a thump that I fear for the chair to sink into the floor.
I breathe one more time, "What happened?"
"A and M had a fight," explains the fourth girl calmly as she enters..
I am certain that "fight" is an exaggeration. As other students come in and I think how to proceed, knowing that read aloud is not an option, I see the PE teacher passing my classroom. I quickly step out.
"What happened?" I ask.
"What do you mean?" she asks.
"What happened in PE?" I clarify my question.
"PE was great. We played different games," she replies and looks puzzled as to why I asked.
I step back to the classroom, "Take your books and read. A and M, please come out. N (one of the hashtag girls), were you involved?"
She shakes her head. Not involved, just taking sides.
When A and M are sitting on the couch on our outside classroom, the PE teacher squats down and asks the girls to explain what happened. 
And we hear a classic fourth grade girl story: They played. One team won. One girl was happy for winning. The other got offended. The first one bumped into the second one on their way to a changing room. The second one thought it was intentional and yelled at the first one. The first one shouted something back and thoughtless comments ping-ponged between the two. As the girls speak the phrase "she always" comes up more than once. And they both summarize that the PE lesson was awful. it doesn't matter that the incident happened in the changing room when the lesson was over.
It doesn't matter that just two days ago the same girls had actively contributed to the list of what to do when you are upset, one of the advice being to sing a silly song. It doesn't matter that they both could have made different choices. When fourth grade girls are upset, everything is in black colors.
I take a piece of paper.
"If I colored most of the paper yellow and one stripe black, what color is the paper?" I ask the girls.
"Yellow," they answer in unison.
From this agreement we start to untangle the situation. Step by step, slowly, the girls melt until one of them is ready to apologize.
Soon we have hugs and laughter as if the "most awful PE" was my imagination only.
Until next time.
#fourthgradegirls
#learningtohandleemotions