← Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Koala Moon: Kids Bedtime Stories & Sleep Stories for Kids Podcast
Isla and the World's Best Teacher 👩🏫👧🏾 Back to School Kids Bedtime Stories | Rewind
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- [00:11]
A
Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original children's bedtime stories and meditations designed to make bedtime a dream. We're celebrating World Teachers Day here at Sleep hq. Many of our friends, family and listeners are teachers and this time of year is especially busy for them. So we all decided we wanted to pay tribute to them and their wonderful work with a special story. We've all got fond memories of our most favourite teacher. As you lie there, close your eyes and bring yours to mind. When I was six years old, I had to leave my school and start another one. And the person I knew I'd miss most was Mrs. Miller. She had grey hair and wore a brown checked skirt. And she was the most friendly, most patient, kind and funny person. A little bit like the teacher in tonight's story, Ms. Fudge, who meets nervous little Isla on her first day at a new school. Before we begin, a quick message for the grown ups. If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad free listening, unlock four bonus stories per month and much, much more. You can join Koko Club. Subscribe in just two taps via the link in the show notes. But now here's a quick word from our sponsors, grown Ups.
- [01:44]
B
If you're looking for a fun new way to bring a little Bluey magic into your children's playtime, here's something I think you'll love. It's the Bluey Supermarket Playset. Made for kids who love imagining and playing. Just like Bluey. Just like in the show, this three level supermarket is full of imaginative fun with a real working escalator, rooftop cafe and shelves to explore. It includes exclusive figures, Supermarket Bluey and Bingo with her lollipop. Plus 15 plus play pieces and 24 sound effects. Even including a working supermarket intercom, little ones can decorate the store, ride the escalator and make their own Bluey inspired adventures. And the best part, it works with all their other Bluey figures too. Bluey Supermarket Playset is available at all major retailers.
- [02:46]
A
So with a big sleepy smile and quiet thank you to all the teachers, Koko and I would like you now to snuggle down as I read Isla and the World's Best Teacher by Elisha Ainslie. It was the first day of September and a new school year was about to begin. The sun was shining, the sky was cloudless and clear, and all over town children were preparing to return to school after a long summer of rest. For 7 year old Isla, it was an especially big day. Today was Isla's first day at a new School. During the summer holidays, Isla and her family moved to a new house in a new town, which meant that Isla had to move schools. All summer long, Isla had been excited about starting at her new school. She couldn't wait to meet her new teacher and make lots of new friends. But now that the day to start was upon her, Isla felt a little bit nervous. She woke up with butterflies fluttering around her stomach and doubts running through her head. Isla hadn't seen her new school yet. What if it was really big and she got lost in the halls? Or what if it was so teeny tiny that there was no space for her to sit at a desk and she had to sit on the floor all day? What if playtime was only 10 minutes long? Or what if they only served mushy peas and smelly fish at lunchtime? What if she didn't make any new friends? What if she didn't like her new teacher? Those were the biggest worries dashing through Isla's brain as she woke up for her first day at her new school. Isla's mummy had laid out her school uniform on her bed, ready for her to put on after breakfast. Isla hadn't seen her uniform until now. She gazed at it in awe. It was a very smart uniform. A navy blue jumper and a checkered pale blue dress were laid out for her at the foot of the bed. A pair of shiny black Velcro shoes had been placed on the floor along with a pair of white frilly ankle socks. Isla's mummy had also offered to style her hair in braids for the occasion. Isla would look very smart in her new uniform for her first day at school. Isla hoped that she would make a good impression on the other children. Isla's mummy made the whole family a yummy breakfast of pancakes and fruit to start their special day together. Mummy and Daddy were starting their new jobs today while Isla went to her new school and her little brother Freddy started at his new nursery. It was a big day for everyone. Isla ate her breakfast slowly, pushing the chopped strawberries around her plate as she daydreamed. Her daddy noticed that she wasn't quite herself and asked, what's troubling you, Isla? You look like you've got a lot on your mind. Isla sighed heavily and explained that she was nervous about starting at her new school. What if I don't make any friends? She sniffed. Isla's mummy and daddy assured her that she would make plenty of friends with time. Once she'd gotten to know everyone in her class better, Isla's mummy added cheerfully I've heard that you have the best teacher in school. She's called Ms. Fudge and apparently she's very kind. Everyone seems to love her. Isla perked up a little thanks to her parents encouragement and gobbled up the rest of her fruit before heading upstairs to get ready. She dressed in her white and blue checkered dress and the navy blue jumper. She pulled on her socks and folded them over at the ankle to perfectly bunch out the frilly lace around the hem and finally she slipped her feet into her shiny new shoes. As promised, Isla's mummy braided her tight curly hair in two braids at the back of her head and used two bright yellow hair ties to fasten them in place. Isla looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She looked very grown up in her new uniform. She quite liked it. She already felt a bit more confident about starting at her new school. Today Isla's mummy drove her to school while her daddy took baby Freddy to the nursery. As they pulled up outside the school gates, Isla's tummy began to tickle again as the butterflies returned. She clutched her lunchbox and her reading pack firmly in her hands and held them close to her body. Her mummy could see that she was tense and offered to hold her hand as they walked into school. Isla held her mummy's warm, supportive hand as they walked through the gate and into the playground full of people. There were parents waiting and chatting with each other while lots of children chased each other around the playground or sat on the grass talking and playing quietly. Everyone was happily settled into their morning routines while they waited for the school bell to ring and allow them inside. Isla hoped that someday soon she would be joining the children, playing and not having to hold her mummy's hand for comfort. Isla's mummy walked her over to the far side of the playground and they stopped outside the school building in front of a red door. The red door had two big windows in it so she could see directly inside to the cloakroom and to its side was a huge classroom window. The window was decorated beautifully with colourful paper decorations, children's paintings and cut out letters of the Alphabet. All of the letters of the Alphabet bordered the window and had been coloured in with an array of bright crayons. It was a very nice window display and Isla smiled as she took it all in. All of a sudden the red door opened up and a woman behind it waved to Isla's mummy and beckoned her over. Isla and her mummy walked up to the classroom door and were greeted with a huge friendly smile from the lady on the other side. Good morning, Isla, the woman greeted her, pushing her round spectacles further up onto the bridge of her Nose before continuing. Im your teacher, Ms. Fudge. It's lovely to meet you. Are you looking forward to your first day? Isla didn't know what to say. She suddenly felt shy and the words wouldn't come to her mouth. Her mummy gave her hand a squeeze and tried to urge her to speak to her new teacher, but all that Isla could do was stare at Ms. Fudge silently. Ms. Fudge had bright orange hair cut into a bob and she had big friendly eyes and an even bigger smile. She wore a long floaty purple dress and a long beaded necklace. She didn't look like a normal teacher. She looked like a fun one. Ms. Fudge knelt down to Isla's level and smiled reassuringly at her. She whispered, I know your first day at school can be a little overwhelming, but don't worry. I'm going to take good care of you and make sure that you have a really good day. You'll feel settled in no time. Isla's tummy butterflies seemed to calm down a little at Ms. Fudgey's encouraging words. She softened her grip on her mummy's hand and let out a little shy smile. Ms. Fudge gestured inside the classroom past the big red door and asked if Isla would like to take a look at her classroom before all the rest of the children came inside to start the day. Ms. Fudge could show her where to hang her coat and lunch bag and which tray was hers to keep her book bag safe in. Isla nodded her head gratefully and her mummy bent down to kiss her goodbye. She would pick up Isla at the end of the day and she couldn't wait to hear all about Isla's first day at school. Ms. Fudge held out her hand for Isla to take and Isla gently took it. She was very glad that Ms. Fudge was her teacher. She seemed very kind and Isla felt safe in her presence. As promised, Ms. Fudge showed Isla where everything was and helped her get set up for the day. Ms. Fudge had saved Isla a seat at one of the tables so that she knew where to sit and explained what order the lessons would run in by the time the school bell rang and the other children started to come inside from the playground. Isla felt settled and had a clearer understanding of what to expect from the day. All of Isla's classmates came inside without their parents and put their bags and coats away efficiently. It was the first day of term for everybody, so all the children were very excited to see each other again. They had all been apart for six weeks of the summer and they had lots of stories to tell each other. Ms. Fudge helped the children find their new work tables and sat the class down to take the register. There were eight children at Isla's table, including herself, and she was sat between a boy and a girl. All of the children were very intrigued to discover that they had a new student in their class and everyone wanted to get to know her. The children sitting on either side of Isla eagerly introduced themselves. The boy to her right was called Ezzy and the girl to her left was called Imani. Ezzy and Imani wanted to ask Ayla lots of questions. They were intrigued to learn where she had lived before. It turned out that Imani's auntie lived in Isla's old town. They asked what her favourite hobbies were, which were gymnastics and art. Funnily enough, these were Ezzy's favourite hobbies too. And they asked if Isla had any brothers and sisters, to which she replied she had a baby brother called Freddy, Imani had two older sisters and Ezzy was an only child. By the time Ms. Fudge took the register to begin the day, Isla already felt welcomed into the class by Ezzy and Imani. To celebrate returning to school after the summer, they were going to start with an art class. Ms. Fudge had a very fun special task for them all. She instructed the students to draw a picture depicting their favourite memory from the summer. The students could draw a picture of being on holiday with their parents or a trip to the fun fair. Or perhaps their favourite memory was a simple trip to Grandma's house that was very special to them. The students could draw whatever they wanted, so they set to work. Isla decided to draw a picture of her old house back in her old town and then an image of their new house. She drew all of her family standing on the lawn of her old house waving goodbye to their home before drawing them in front of their new house smiling. Ms. Fudge was very impressed with Isla's drawing and gave her a gold star sticker for her effort. When everyone had finished their artwork, Ms. Fudge asked a few students to show their drawings to the class and describe to everyone what they drew. A boy named Daniel stood up and showed his picture of the trip his family had made to a theme park. He animatedly described to everyone what it was like riding a roller coaster for the first time and the whole class was captivated. Then Imani stood up to show her picture. She had drawn a colourful image of of her and her family relaxing and playing at the beach. Imani's family had been on holiday to Mallorca, and it sounded like it had been a very nice time. Ms. Fudge asked Isla if she would like to stand up and present her artwork to the class. Ilo was hesitant, but she took a deep breath and stood up. She spoke as loudly and clearly as she could, remembering what she had learnt at her Saturday drama class. Ayla showed the class her picture of the two houses and explained that she and her family had moved to a new town during the summer holidays. The students in her class were enthralled and had lots of questions that they wanted to ask her, but Ms. Fudge limited the questions to just three. Everyone could ask Isla as many questions as they wanted at break time. As Isla sat down after her little presentation, she felt relieved. Maybe she wouldn't struggle to make new friends after all. Everybody seemed to be very excited about having a new girl in the class. When break time came along, the children all raced outside into the playground, ready to burn off some energy. After sitting so obediently in the classroom for a couple of hours. Everyone was so eager to get outside into the sun that they all forgot about asking the new girl if she wanted to join them. Isla stood at the edge of the playground and looked on as all of the children in the school pranced, ran and twirled around in the playground, blissfully unaware of her watching from the sidelines. Isla sighed and sat down on one of the benches to eat her packet of grapes. She had worried that this might happen. She missed her friends from her old school. Everyone here already had their friends that they had known for years, so Isla felt left out. All of a sudden. Someone sat down on the bench next to isla. It was Ms. Fudge. Ms. Fudge smiled at her kindly and asked Isla if she was ok. Isla explained that she had nobody to play with and popped a grape into her mouth defeatedly. Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, Ms. Fudge said, gazing around the playground. There are so many people you could play with. Let's go introduce you to some. Ms. Fudge led Isla through the playground and over toward one of the flower beds. As they approached the plants, Isla noticed a girl and a boy knelt down in front of the soil. They seemed to be enthralled by a wooden box filled with shelves of different textured elements. Each shelf was crammed full of different things you could find out in nature. There was a shelf packed full of sticks, one stuffed with Crispy green leaves from the trees, a shelf of pebbles, and one of pinecones. Isla thought she could even see some straw and shreds of cardboard in there. What is that? Isla asked Ms. Fudge, staring at the odd box. Ms. Fudge urged her to ask the children instead. They would know much more about it than her. Isla took a deep breath and stepped closer. She peered over the shoulders of the boy and girl and asked, excuse me, what is it that you're looking at? The young boy and girl turned around and Isla recognised them immediately as two of the other students in her class. They smiled and ushered her closer, declaring that the strange box, crammed full of different textures, was a bug hotel. Isla had never heard of a bug hotel before. All these shelves are little hidey holes for the bugs, the boy explained. The girl added, we made it for the bugs to live in. Different bugs like different homes, so we made lots of little rooms for them to choose from. Isla liked the idea of this bug hotel and knelt down with two children from her class. They showed her all of the bugs that were currently living there. There was a ladybird nestled in the leaves and a couple of woodlice living among the wooden twigs. Plus they had a caterpillar and a couple of snails taking shelter in there too. The bug hotel was a great way to observe and protect the wildlife, and the two classmates admitted it was fun to make. Isla enjoyed discussing the bug hotel with her classmates so much that break time went by quickly. Before she hardly knew it, the bell had rung for them to return to their classroom. Isla and her two new friends, Kendall and Harley, returned to their classroom, chatting.
- [24:29]
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Or all the way.
- [24:31]
A
As Isla sat back down in her seat at her classroom table, Ms. Fudge gave her a little nod and a comforting smile. Their next lesson was maths and Ms. Fudge decided to mix up the tables so that everyone got a chance to work with new classmates. Isla was seated next to a girl called Charlie, and they worked together to solve the maths problems that Ms. Fudge set out. The two girls were working really well together and whizzed through the first few questions, but then they came to a halt. They were stumped. They didn't know how to work the next question out. Isla was a bit embarrassed that she didn't know the answer to the question and didn't want to ask for help, but Charlie insisted that they ask Ms. Fudge for assistance. Isla whispered to Charlie, won't Ms. Fudge be disappointed that we weren't listening hard enough? Charlie shook her head and chuckled she replied, Ms. Fudge will understand we can't know everything straight away. Ms. Fudge always says that's why we come to school to learn. Charlie held up her hand and Miss Fudge came over to help the girls. Miss Fudge didn't belittle them for not knowing the answer. In fact, she praised them for having the courage to ask for help. Admitting you are lost or struggling is the hardest part, Ms. Fudge said. Once you ask for help, it's all easy. From there. Ms. Fudge patiently worked through the question with Isla and Charlie and within a few minutes they had worked out the correct answer. Isla and Charlie now felt confident to complete the rest of the questions on their own. Ms. Fudge was very impressed with their teamwork and gave them both a gold star sticker. Isla now had two stars on her jumper and beamed proudly at her achievements. She couldn't wait to show her mummy at the end of the day. As lunchtime came round, Isla worried that she would be alone again in the playground. But she needn't have worried. As the children all grabbed their lunch bags from the cloakroom, Charlie asked Isla if she would like to play with her this lunchtime. Isla was delighted and followed Charlie out into the playground where she spent the next hour getting to know Charlie and playing with her other friends, Jada and Cara. Isla had a wonderful time. When the end of the school day came, everyone packed up their things and put on their coats, ready to go home for the day. However, for Isla, she wouldn't be going straight home. She was booked into the after school club today because her mummy and daddy were still at work. Isla stayed seated at her table, wearing her coat and holding her bags while Ms. Fudge released the other students to their parents waiting outside. Once everyone was gone, Ms. Fudge came back inside and told Isla to follow her. Ms. Fudge would take Isla to the after school club. As they walked along the shiny wooden corridor, Ms. Fudge asked Isla, did you have a nice first day? Isla admitted that she had, although she had been nervous that she wouldn't make any friends. Ms. Fudge stopped outside a door and turned to Isla. She said sweetly, hugh will always make lots of friends, Isla. You've just got to give it time. Did you see how many people wanted to talk to you today? Isla nodded and Ms. Fudge continued, Exactly. Everyone wants to make new friends and now at the after school club, you'll have even more opportunities to meet other kids your age. I have no doubt that you'll have more friends than you can count by the end of this week. Ms. Fudge opened up the door and peered her head inside the room, greeting the teacher within. She introduced Isla to the after school club leader and beckoned her inside. The after school club room was so colourful and inviting. There were shelves and shelves of books with a little reading corner set up and each table was covered with activities to do. There were games like jigsaw puzzles and there was an arts and crafts table. There was a playdough table on which children were sculpting shapes and at the table where the leader sat, there was the children were singing a song. Ms. Fudge showed Isla where to leave her bags and coat and asked what she would like to do. Isla liked the sounds of the song the children were learning and went to pull up a chair at their table. Ms. Fudge stayed by Isla's side until she felt comfortable leaving her on her own in the after school club. Im going to go back to my classroom now Isla, Ms. Fudge said. Your mummy will pick you up from here so I'll see you tomorrow. Isla looked to Ms. Fudge gratefully. She had helped her settle in really well today. Isla was very happy that Ms. Fudge was her teacher. Even if Isla had a bad day or struggled to make friends, she knew that if she was ever stuck, she would always have Ms. Fudge to turn to. Ms. Fudge said goodbye and headed back to her classroom, leaving Isla in the capable hands of the after school club. Isla had a wonderful time learning the song along with the other children and afterwards she had a go at piecing together a jigsaw puzzle with one of the other students. One by one the kids in the club were picked up by their parents and Isla felt herself growing tired. It had been a busy first day at her new school and she retreated to the reading corner to relax. Isla grabbed a book that she recognised off one of the shelves and curled up in the comfy corner. Sitting down in a beanbag chair, she flicked through the pages of the book, reading the story and admiring the delightful images. As she did, she felt herself growing sleepier and sleepier until her eyes almost closed completely. Just as she was about to drift off in the reading corner, Isla heard the sound of her mummy's voice. She climbed up out of the chair and ran over to the door to give her mummy a big hug. They collected her coat and bags and walked out, hand in hand to their car. Isla's mummy made sure Isla was fastened into her seat and then climbed into the driver's seat. As she drove home, she asked Isla how her first day at school had been. Between sleepy yawns, Isla told her mummy all about the classmates she had met and the girls she had played with at lunchtime. She described the Bug Hotel and the little creatures she had spotted within it, and how Ms. Fudge had taught her how to solve a tough maths problem. She even sang the song that she had learnt in the after school club. Isla's mummy was amazed that Isla had done so much on her first day at her new school. She was very proud of Isla for being so brave. Isla relaxed into her car seat and rested her head against the cool car window. She gazed out into the new street that she now called home and allowed her eyes to rest. As Isla succumbed to her exhaustion, she yawned and drowsily told her, Mummy, Ms. Fudge helped me all day. I have the best tea teacher ever. Sa.