Velcro

Little J...my little darling...never a dull moment with this kiddo.

This kid is nothing short of OBSESSED with velcro. He doesn't care where it is, what it looks like--he LOVES the stuff.

He spends lots of time strapping and unstrapping his velcro shoes and even sometimes chewing on the straps--because he LOVES velcro.

Let me tell you, in my room, I use velcro for lots of stuff. I have a couple of charts and a calendar that have velcro on them that the kids use every day.

The other day I was kinda irritated that my sweet Little J wouldn't stop strapping and unstrapping his velcro shoes--until I caught him LICKING the velcro on the calendar and the charts.

Sick.

So I thought, okay, I don't want to make him feel badly...I got in my supply closet, cut a couple of strips for him, and stuck them on his nametag on his own desk.

You would've thought I gave this kid a brand new stuffed toy: the velcro went EVERYWHERE with Little J. One of the paraprofessionals that work in my room said she had to make him put it down because he wouldn't work on his math!

Within the next day or so, Little J's personal velcro went missing.

The world stopped and held its breath--then--the velcro reappeared under his shirt.

Thank goodness.

Then I heard him say, "Boy, Mrs. Overman, I think I'm in love with velcro."


I wish you all could meet this kid.

I love it.

What Smart Kids Do.

Today was the 100th day of school, which in elementary school translates to a big, exciting day for celebration. You know, 100= wondrous one, zero the hero, and zero junior.

So we did lots of fun stuff...but I'll get to the meat here.

We made a list of 100 things smart kids know. Here are some of the things on our list (best list ever, BTW):

-Eat your veggies.
-Don't jump off of high places.
-Don't swat at bumblebees.
-Your first guess is probably right.
-Don't jump in if you can't swim.
-Be careful with your roasted marshmallow if it's on fire.

Then one of my little sweeties says, "Mrs. Overman, I have a REALLY good one: Smart kids don't go out in the public naked."

We had to have a talk about why we couldn't write that one down, no matter how true it was or how much people really need to know it.

But thanks anyway, darling.

Our Day Off

I have a little friend in my room that's exceptionally bright and has really great parents. They don't often let him watch TV or play electronic games--he usually reads or plays board games with his family. His dad works two jobs so his mom can stay at home with them, and sometimes his parents are both home when we're not at school because Dad is sleeping and Mom is, as usual, at home with the kids.

During sharing time Friday, I said, "Please share with us what you did on your day off yesterday."

N says,

"Well, my mom and dad said I could play on the computer for a little while today. Actually, I got to play for a long time!"

Me: "Well, that's unusual for you! What were they doing while you got to play?"

N: "They were in their bedroom. They shut the door, and I think they were playing a game or something because they were in there a long time. Probably Scrabble."


Probably not.

Today.

For some reason my students were really off today. In honor of their craziness, I'll post sporadically...mostly because there were lots of little silly things that happened...not just one big one.

1. One of my kids coughed so hard he fell over. Yep, fell right over.

2. Another little girl proceeded to tell me, "You know, Mrs. Overman, when I was a little girl, I used to take pictures of stupid stuff like puddles and grass. Now I take pictures of buildings and animals." Movin' up in the world, you are.

3. More than once today I was pretty sure there was an actual animal in my room what with all the noises I heard. Most common: "EEEEEEEEEEE!" in a mouse voice.

What a day.

Eating Grass

I teach next to this cool lady who is just hilarious. A couple of years ago my job was to pull one of her kids each morning for a reading program. We ended up having this discussion out of the blue:

D: "Mrs. Overman, Mrs. Hauser says we can eat a lot of grass and not get sick."

Me: "What? Why were you talking about that?"

D: "Well, because T eats A LOT of grass."

I can just picture how this classroom discussion went...

Chocolate Milk

Our question of the day at lunch:

N: "Mrs. Overman, how do they get chocolate milk?"

Me: "They just get regular white milk and put chocolate in it and then stir it."

B: "Oh. I thought chocolate milk came from the brown cows and this white milk comes from the white ones."


This makes me think of that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin (a first grader) says, "Dad, who thought of getting milk from cows? Did they just think they'd squeeze those things and drink whatever came out?"

Glad I didn't have to answer that one! It DOES make you wonder, doesn't it?

Eww.

Datin' Girls

I learned something new today.

One of my little girls said to me, "Hey Mrs. Overman! You know why that kid's parents named him 'Dayton'? 'Cause he likes lots of girls and when he grows up, he's gonna be datin' lots of 'em!"

Hmm. I wonder if that's what his mom and dad had in mind.