At a few minutes after five, the pre-school children quickly took their seats as their educator unfolded a transparent tablecloth. The radio was the only sound in the daycare.
The educator gave each child a popsicle stick then opened the white playdough container. The smell of cherry bubblegum quickly made its way across the room. The educator gave each child a piece about the size of a tennis ball.
Catherine set her piece on the table and began clapping at it, trying unsuccessfully to flatten out the playdough. The educator looked at Catherine and Kelly who were sitting together.
"When playdough has not been used in a little while it becomes cold and somewhat hard to manipulate," she explained. "Knead your playdough. Push, pull, tear, and smash it together. Work with it so you can warm it up and soften it too," she then demonstrated how. She looked at Emilien,
"We shouldn't be eating the playdough, now should we?" she asked in a firm tone.
"NO," answered the drilled children.
Kelly stood up and pushed at her playdough with all her might, she was groaning with every effort.
Emilien's dark eyes were fixed on the educator. Slowly, when by he saw the educator interacting with another child, he would plop a pea-sized piece of playdough into his mouth. He would quietly chew the pea, and every time the educator wasn't looking he plopped another piece into his mouth.
The educator didn't react when she saw his playdough was diminishing from a tennis-ball size to a golf ball. Celina was busy tearing her playdough into many coin size pieces and putting them all on the popsicle stick. The stick was almost all hidden.
"Smells gooooooood," she said to the educator.
The educator nodded yes and gave her a smile. She quickly turned to Emilien who now had a piece the size of a ping-pong ball.
"Emilien! Where's your playdough?" she demanded.
He looked at the other children and underneath the table. He didn't reply.
Gabriel yelled in Portuguese to his playdough. He held his playdough in his right hand and flickered his index finger, yelling , "POW POW! " as if he were a bad guy shooting guns.
"No guns allowed at the daycare Gabriel," the educator said.
Emilien plopped even more peas into his mouth. He smiled at the educator, revealing red playdough-covered teeth. In a swift move the educator turned around and laughed hysterically, hiding her mouth behind her hands.
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