Friday, April 23, 2010

Wedgie.

One of my little guys got 100% of his timed math facts correct for the first time in like 160 days this morning.  As he got up from his chair, he said,

"Wow, I have a huge wedgie!  Hmm.  I guess wedgies must make me work hard!"

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Guinea Pigs.

My kids are so much more mature this year than in years past, but every once in awhile--thank goodness--they forget about being cool and are just their vulnerable selves.

Yesterday I had some paper pattern blocks I wanted the kids to punch out for a math lesson.  This was the first time I'd done the lesson this way, so I said, "Okay guys, I'm not sure if this will work or not, but you can be my guinea pigs and try it." 

"Okay!"  They all said.

We tried it...the blocks were the wrong size and didn't work, so I said, "You guys can just play with them or take them home or whatever when your math is finished."

So a few minutes later, a little girl, L, came up to the table for me to check her math work.  She looked at the paper pattern blocks beside me and said,  "So when I'm done I can do this guinea pig thing?"

Me:  "No, there is no guinea pig.  That's just a saying.  If you're a guinea pig for someone, it means you test things out for them to see if things work."

L:  "Oh.  Hmmm...so we'll just do the guinea pig thing tomorrow, then?"

Me: "No, dear.  There is no guinea pig thing.  You can play with these blocks if you want and test them out like a guinea pig."

L:  "Hmm.  So I guess we're just not going to do the guinea pig activity at all today?  Okay.  You'll just bring the guinea pig tomorrow, right?"

Me: *sigh*  "Sure."

Guess what? It's tomorrow and the guinea pig has successfully been forgotten.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Easter.

I'll try to remember this the best that I can.

We were having a discussion about Easter and why we celebrate it.  Okay, we weren't because I teach in a public school; my kids were having a discussion about Easter.

These are their takes on Easter:

"Well, basically, the pilot (Pilate) wanted Jesus to die so he killed him."

"God and Mary got married and then they had Baby Jesus."

"Jesus could have escaped all the beatings if he wanted to but he was just too tired because they were bad."

Ah, Writing Workshop.

When you let kids have free choice during Writing Workshop, sometimes you have no where to go but down.

But you have to go down laughing.

This is what one of my kids wrote for his Slice of Life story yesterday:

"I was at home.  My dog puked on the couch.  Then my mom and dad came home.  It smelled like crap.  We cleaned it up.  Then my dog went into my room and puked on my bed.  It smelled like crap."


At least he's using repetitive phrases.

Sweating my leg.

It was hot yesterday.
It was Spring Picture Day yesterday.
Our pictures were at the end of the day.

You do the math.

Anyway, one of my little guys was wearing dress pants, a long-sleeved button-down shirt, and a clip-on necktie.

And it was 80 degrees.

So he put the necktie in his pocket during recess.  I saw him running around without it and said, "Hey M, where's your tie?"

M yelled, "Oh, it's in my pocket, but it's sweating my leg now so I'm just gonna leave it right here on the bench."

Carp. Yeah, like the fish.

One of my little guys is wearing my favorite shirt of his today.  It's from some kind of restaurant in Florida or something with lots of seafood and the back says

"What a bunch of carp."