Sunday, March 16, 2008

Sister White and the Seven Sunbeams

Once upon a time, in a ward far far away, lived a Primary teacher, Sister White.
Each Sunday, Sister White, along with Sister Snow would teach a darling little group of three year old Sunbeams.
These were the cutest, most darling little children that anyone could ever imagine! Their names were..............
Happy
Smiley
Beautiful
Sparkly
Twirly
Bashful
and Giggly.

These sweet little children were brought to Primary each week by their loving parents, eager for them to receive lessons in all that is good and pure.
Each of the parents brought their little Sunbeams to Primary, leaving them in the loving care of their teachers, Sister Snow and Sister White. As their parents left, the children each became rather distressed and they all began singing their favorite song in unison. It is called "I WANT MY MOMMY!!!"
These sweet little children made a transformation, changing their names to..........
Wiggly
Whiny
Screamy
Fearful
Anxiety
and The Imitator
(Happy kept his name, as he was still quite happy to be there, causing great delight among the teachers.)

As Primary began, the cries of the little Sunbeams could be heard throughout the church.
Anxious parents waited outside the Primary room, ready to come in at any given time, and rescue the teachers from their children.
As the singing time began, The children calmed down (a bit.) Wiggly then took off his shoes.
Then the imitator took of his shoes. Next, Fearful removed her shoes. Soon, all of the Sunbeams were barefoot, and they began to smell each others feet.
Apparently, the smells were not pleasant, because Fearful yelled PU, and then put her shoes back on and began running from her seat to the piano to her seat, to the piano, to her seat.............

Well, you get the picture.

The Imitator immediately began following Fearful, so now there were two running back and forth. Sister Snow and Sister White were beside themselves. They each grabbed one of the "runners" and sat them on their laps.
Suddenly, Anxiety burst into tears again, saying that she really needed her Mommy. Sister White tried to reassure her, however, her sorrow was so great that her tears and her nose began to run and drip down her face in such a way, that Sister White took her to her mother.
When Whiny saw that Anxiety went to her mother by sobbing, she began to sob, and no amount of comfort given by any of the teachers would mend her broken heart, so she was taken to her mother also.
(Okay, we're now down to 5 Sunbeams)
At that very moment, Wiggly and Fearful began to sing a new song called..... "ba...ba...Ba...Ba...BA...BA...BA!...BA!..."
The imitator, of course, joined in, and the others, and they sang
louder,
and Louder
and LOUDER!
Sister Snow and Sister White were overwhelmed. Several of the other teachers in the Primary left their classes, to come and help with crowd control of the Sunbeams.
The Primary chorister then brought out her magic bag to reveal chocolate eggs, to be given to those children who sat in their chairs and sang (the songs that they were supposed to sing.)

The Chorister was greatly respected for her quick thinking, and Sister White made a mental note to bring her a batch of homemade fudge later on in the week.

The children sang with all their might. They sang about popcorn popping, and of Snowmen. Then they sang of being children of God, then Wiggly removed his socks and waved his feet around to show everyone his brightly painted pink toenails.
Then Fearful went up to the Chorister to see if she could score an extra chocolate egg, and of course, The Imitator followed, and since two of the Sunbeams were up by the chorister, then two more felt the need to join them, and they danced around the Chorister, then over to the piano, back to the Chorister............ect.
Then they began the "BA....BA.... BA.... " song again.

Happy was.....well, just happy to be there, occasionally looking at the other Sunbeams as if they were nuts.
Happy gave hope to the hearts of Sister Snow, and Sister White.
Perhaps, someday, the others might follow his example and be happy too.

When it came time to go to class, Sister Snow and Sister White led 5 temporarily happy little children to their classroom. When they got to the classroom, they counted only 4 Sunbeams.

One of them, apparently, had escaped.

Sister White went back into the hallway to search for the missing child. She found Screamy playing in the drinking fountain, completely soaking the entire front of his shirt. She led him to the classroom.

Sister Snow taught the children a wonderful lesson, all about how grateful we are for God's creations such as trees and flowers.
She gave them pictures of flowers to color, but some of them did not like to color, and preferred to jump off of their chairs.
The Imitator soon followed.
Sister Snow and Sister White stacked the chairs in the corner, leaving the Sunbeams nothing to jump off of, so they removed their shoes and began smelling each others feet again.
Then someone dumped the crayons all over the floor, and they began walking on them in their bare feet.
Then they began peeling the wrappers off of the crayons, and throwing the tiny bits of paper at each other.

Sister White was sure she could feel a migraine starting.

A shriek was heard as Screamy discovered that someone else had scribbled on his paper, then he tore it up only to discover that it wasn't really his paper, he had torn the paper of Fearful, who was now crying loudly because Screamy had torn her paper.
Oh my!
Someone then broke out the "BA... BA... BA...."song again.
The Imitator joined in. (you didn't see that one coming did you?)
The Sunbeams then discovered that they could pound on the wall along with the "BA.. BA...BA" song, and apparently, it was great fun.

Let me point out that it might seem like Sister Snow and Sister White were just sitting by watching the festivities, however, they were, in fact, trying desperately to maintain some sort of order in the classroom.
It wasn't working.

After what seemed like hours, it was finally time for the parents to come and get their Sunbeams.
The crayons were cleaned up.
Papers were taped back together.
Shoes were put back on.
Except for a minor issue of Wiggly not being able to find one of his socks, clean up went fairly smoothly.
The parents came and took their children home. They were so excited to see the beautiful pictures colored by their children, and thanked Sister Snow and Sister White for teaching their children.
Sister Snow went home and took a Motrin.
Sister White went home and took a nap.
And they all lived happily ever after...........................

Let me also point out that Sister Snow and Sister White, dearly love the little children in their class. They are just tired.

Disclaimer;
The stories in this post may or may not be true.
Any characters similar to any people in real life are not intentional.
(That's my story and I'm sticking to it! If questioned, I will deny everything!)

For those of you totally lost,
Ward=Congregation
Primary=Children's classes at church
Sunbeams=Three year old Primary kids.

7 comments:

Marilyn said...

oh man-all I can say is at least there are two teachers-last year we had 13 sunbeams and 5 of them didn't speak english-the teacher REFUSED to have an assistant....go figure..i guess she likes torture (i'm in the primary presidency) can't wait until next Sunday when everyone is "likkered" up on Easter candy!

Jo said...

I think I taught sunbeams for like 5 years! Sounds like great times for everyone involved. I might be older, but it looks like Sunbeams haven't changed a bit since I was teaching.
I especially remember one sunbeam who always lifted up her dress. She even did it during the Ward Christmas play, when she was dressed like an angel, much to her mother's horror and the congregation's delight!

TheOneTrueSue said...

Hee hee hee! When we taught sunbeams that was how I felt every week - exhausted. I just wanted to come home and sleep.

Kimber said...

Sister Snow and Sister White are awesome! True heroes in this fairy tale!

Love the story!!

Unknown said...

My sumbean apparently is not i nyour class because she would be manipulator. She has her teachers convinced she needs to sit on their laps and be their "helper" the enitre 2 hours or she will cry until they bring her to me (I am trying to convince them to find Dad but so far no luck). I keep telling them she will be okay if they do not hold her but what can I say thye only have a little baby. They have not learned yet!!

Christina

Heather H said...

Bless those sweet people who can teach our little ones! A few ward spilts ago my husband and I were teaching a class of 15 CTR 5's with our own nursing 6 month old, it was enough to make us want to go inactive!

Damama T said...

Sister Snow and Sister White deserve a gold medal for being willing to walk back in that room week after week!