Friday, August 31, 2007

Pie and Vegetarians

I have two stories to share today...both happened this morning.

This morning was our first spelling test and I reminded the kids to take a last look at the Word Wall words before we started the test. One kid yells across the room,

"THIS IS PIE."


So I'm of course thinking, What in the world...???


He explains,

"You know, this stuff is pie. Like it's easy."


Ah, you mean "easy as pie."

Gotcha.
______________________________________________



I have to admit that often I ask selfish questions during my morning community circle time just to see what they'll say. Okay, selfish is harsh...I just want to know more about my kids as individuals.

Today's question open to all: What do you want to be when you grow up?

"A teacher."

"A cop."

"A handyman."


There were more, but I'll skip to the winner:

"A vegetarian because I really like to help sick animals."


The kids didn't blink, either because they'd tuned out by this point or they were thinking, "Oh yeah, I take my dog to the vegetarian a lot!"

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Picture Day

So it's picture day.

One of my boys came in this morning and said,

"Mrs. Overman, I need to have two pictures taken of me today because my grandma wants me to smile like this [cheesy smile], but I want to smile like this [way-cool smile]."

My reply:

"No."

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Writing Workshop

Today was my first "real" Writing Workshop lesson.

I taught it and then...

I asked two of my students to share their work.



Can you hear the wheels spinning out of control yet?


One little girl shared this wonderful story about watching the sunset at the beach with her mom. Very nice.



Then came D's story:

"This is my cousin sitting on the toilet that is next to the dryer. She didn't notice anything while she was using the potty. Then my mom came in and used the potty and saw something weird and saw our cat was in the dryer. OUR CAT WAS DEAD! And his ears were melted in there."


Not kidding, this is the quietest and most attentive my kids have been in the ten days we've been in school.


Monday, August 27, 2007

Hard Board

This is not my favorite story, but it's worth posting...somebody might get a kick out of it.


Kick...ahh, the -ck words...


Anyway, I have a little girl in my class this year who is very verbal but her vocabulary isn't very large so she tends to either be very wordy or make up words. Today she came back from the office and told me this:

"There is an ambulance up there to take a kid to the hospital. He's going to the hospital because he hurt his back and every time he stands up it really hurts. They are going to get him some x-rays and right now they are putting him on the hard board."


She meant stretcher.



I love when kids just blow by words they don't know, make them up, and never look back.


(Hmmm...another -ck word)

Can you tell what I'm reviewing tomorrow?

Friday, August 24, 2007

A Dare

One of my kids had a strap off of his backpack out at recess today and was playing with it like it was a fishing pole.

"You know why I have this?" he asked.

"No, why?"

"Someone dared me to chew it off one time. But I actually wanted to."

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Austin, Texas

One of my first graders was busy working on a floor puzzle of the United States this afternoon. At first he came up to me holding the state of Indiana and initially I was pretty impressed that he recognized our state. Then he said,

"My grandma lives here."

To which I reply,

"That's wonderful! You live here in Indiana too!"


*Blank stare.*


Then...

"I live here too?"

I say, "Yes, we all live here. Our school is here too."


*Another blank stare.*


Then he says, "You live here too?"



Okay, I give up on this one. There's no explaining and it's just too early in the year to be doing something as abstract as maps when you're six.


A few minutes later this same kid comes up to me holding the state of Texas, which in this particular puzzle has its capital, Austin, marked with a star. He says,

"I SEE! THIS STAR IS WHERE AUSTIN LIVES! You know, our friend Austin!"


So apparently I need to teach map skills sooner than I planned.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Confidence

Some good friends of ours have a preschooler who started school for the first time this week. I'll quote his mom:

"Scott and I were talking to him about what to expect, and he just looked up and said, "I believe in myself.""

Too cute!

Let's all start thinking like that, shall we? ;o)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Bugs, Mulch, and Kids in the World

To make up for the last couple of days with no posts, I will give you three stories.

Actually, they all happened today and they were all from the same kid.

Let me give you some background on this particular kid. If you teach, you all have a kid like him in your class: very bright, but not quite all there with the common sense.

To me, this combination is just the best. I love it. Mostly because kids like this are just too funny and have no idea.

So we'll call this little guy 'J'.

*************************************
Story 1: J's Philosophy on bare feet

We're outside at recess and I have my shoes off as I watch the kids so my feet are in the mulch. This kid's comment:

"I won't take my shoes off in mulch because it's just too pointy on my feet."

Okay, well said.

************************************
Story 2: J's theory on dead insects

"Did you know there are lots of bugs in heaven? Because we're all squishing them all the time."

Didn't know that.

************************************
Story 3: J's world

At the end of the day my kids are in a rather lengthy debate about how many boys and how many girls are in our class.

Now please bear in mind, this sweet child that we're calling J is one who's not always right where the rest of us are, both physically and mentally, although he is very bright. He's not been paying attention to the other kids and their petty arguing because frankly, he just doesn't care.

I finally halt the debate of the number of kids in our class and say,

"We actually have 10 girls and 11 boys in our class. Please stop."

J immediately yells,

"IN THE WHOLE WORLD THERE'S ONLY 10 GIRLS AND 11 BOYS?!?!!?!?!!?"

Holy cow, thank goodness it's the end of the day.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Shhhhhh!

I hammer procedures into my students' heads from day one each year. This year is no different...we're plugging along still and doing well, I might add!

Being in first grade, we work really hard to be quiet in lots of places. I coach the kids often:

"Remember, no voices. No talking. Whispering only. Quiet voices only."

Apparently this really bothers one of my kids, because each time we are all quiet and I say something aloud, he says, "SHHHHH!"

At first I thought, is he really shushing me?

I didn't say anything yesterday about it because I figured by today he'd get over it.


Nope.


Today in the hall everyone is quiet. We're really showing our knowledge of hallway procedures, working hard...you can hear a pin drop. Trying to be encouraging, I say, "Nice job being quiet. I really appreciate it."


This student who is so bothered by my talking is apparently pushed over the edge at this point and says,

"SHHH! YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO TALK!"


Alright already, I give in.


Geez. ;o)

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Babies

I try to dodge all conversations with children about where babies come from at all costs.

This conversation couldn't be stopped.

Actually, it wasn't really a conversation; more of a kid just talking with himself and I happened to be within earshot.

The child says in my general direction:

"Mrs. Overman, have you ever had a baby? Because I don't really know how they get in your stomach. My mom has a big cut or scar or something from having to get my sister out, but no one really remembers because we didn't really have any pictures of it. And you know what? I know I'll have to find a woman to get a baby. But I still don't really know how they get in there. But if I get a woman and I see ya someday, I'll tell ya how she got it in there."


I LITERALLY said nothing. I mean, seriously, what do you say to that?!?!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

No Sweat

Ah, it feels so great to be back in the blogging world.

Tonight was open house/back-to-school night at our school. It's always a great time; you get the little sweet first graders with all their brand-spanking-new crayons, tissues, paints...good times.

You all know by now that I digress.

There were a couple of highlights to my night. Several of my previous students came in and hugged me (one even said she wanted me to blog again soon...thanks, Alexis!); I got to meet some cutie kids in my class; I also finally got to speak to their parents, which is always great.

Now you know this is going somewhere.

My favorite highlight of the night came from one of my new students. I was talking to his mom and he had wandered over to the hundred chart and was pointing to each number as he counted (Woo hoo! That's always a good sign!). It was a fairly tedious activity and took him a little while. When he finished, he informed us of the following:

"I just counted to 100 by myself. No sweat!"

So I could probably make a list of 10 things I can already tell about this kid (good stuff, of course!)...just from this event.

More to come! I've got some really cool kids this year.