Angelic Grievance!

So as December approaches I am noticing all the Christmassiness starting to ooze into all manner of everything. Today we got started on making decorations at school. I'm sitting here flaked in silver spray paint and dotted with glitter from the toils of the morning. And yes, before you ask, I have washed, but as anyone who has ever used glitter before understands, mere soap and water is no match for it. It's sneaky! I imagine I'll be glittery for a few days.

We were making angels. I took groups of four at a time because … well … glue and glitter; need I say more? In this particular group I had my old friend Expecto who wasn't very enthusiastic about making "stupid angels." Before we got started on the serious messy stuff I gave all the children a maker pen with instructions to draw a face at the centre of the cardboard template.

"All you need to do is draw eyes, a nose and a mouth and then we can decorate the rest of the angel. OK?"

"Angels are girls aren't they Mrs V?"

Now there was no part of me that wanted to get into a philosophical conversation with a four-year-old about the gender neutrality of angels so I simply said,

"No - not at all. There are lots of boy angels too Expecto. There's Michael and Raphael and Uriel and this one is Gabriel. He announced the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds. He said 'Behold I bring you great news. In Bethleham today a Saviour is born,' and that's how they knew to go visit him."

"But they wear dresses."

"It's not a dress Expecto. It's just the type of clothes that everyone wore when Jesus was born. They didn't invent trousers for hundreds and hundreds of years after that."

He frowned deeply but set to work drawing on the angel's face and just as I was about to hand the glue pot over to Expecto I saw him grinning very mischievously.

"My angel's crying," he said beaming.

"Why? He shouldn't be crying. He's bringing 'great news' remember - not bad news. He should be smiling. Maybe we could change the frown into a smile?"

Before any 'happy' alterations could be made he just scribbled over the whole thing obliterating any chance I had of converting the tears into freckles and turning the grimace into a cheesy grin. I gave him another template and to draw another face - this time a happy one because he's telling happy news. Begrudgingly he took it and drew a half-hearted smile on his angel.

"Thank you Expecto. I'm sure The Angel Gabriel would love that smile." I could tell he wasn't convinced about the revisions made and anyway I was curious to know, so I asked, "Why did you draw him crying?"

"He was really sad because God put him in a stupid dress."

I know I shouldn't have favourites but that little dude just cracks me up!