Silent Appreciation

Rock Party

2010-05-04T12:33:00.000-07:00

Five-year-old C. announced that her family is going to a Rock Party this weekend.

"My dad's going to be a rocker, my brother's going to play guitar, my mom's going to sing and my girlfriend's going to be Lady Gaga. And I'll be all the single ladies."

Ha!

Happy MLK Day!

2010-01-18T19:11:00.000-08:00

Talking about Martin Luther King, L.'s sister asked, "Was he a king?"

L. responded, "Remember when before you were alive? You were judged by the color of your skin. If you were brown, you couldn't do anything. If you were white, you could do almost everything. Martin Luther King and a couple of people then made peace."

♥

A Very Convoluted Conversation

2010-01-02T10:35:00.000-08:00

Our school's director just had a baby with her wife. After telling this to my class, the following conversation took place:

S: A girl can't marry a girl.

Everyone: Yes they can!!!!!

J: Well in some countries they can’t but they’re trying to get the law changed.

L: I’m going to marry a boy. My brother!

Everyone: You can’t marry a relative!!!

K: Yes you can, but you have to get an operation.

Wonka Vites

2009-11-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

In Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Charlie's grandparents are eager to take Wonka Vites. Each of these pills promises to take 20 years off their age. However, 78-year-old Grandma Georgina takes 4 Wonka-Vites, making her -2 years old.

Reading this book aloud to my class presented a lovely and confusing opportunity to explain negative numbers. On the white board, I drew a number line and began drawing a model of Grandma Georgina's rapidly shrinking age. "What do you think will happen to Grandma Georgina?" I said, as we subtracted more and more years from her age, getting closer and closer to the 0 on the number line.

"She'll be a baby!" some students cried.

"She'll be less than zero!" one student said.

"What happens when you're less than zero?" I asked, wondering what the kids would say.

"I know!!!!" N. yelled excitedly. We all looked at him. No response.

"I think you're not alive," said another student.

"No! I know what it is!" N. said yet again. He appeared to be thinking very hard but couldn't come up with the words for whatever he wanted to say.

We went back to the number line, trying to grasp the concept of numbers less than 0. Then suddenly N. interrupted our conversation.

"I know!!!" he yelled, as the whole class turned to face him.

"I know what you are if you're less than 0!!!" He was up on his knees, hands raised above his head in triumph.

"SPERM!"

That Would be Some Spooky Math

2008-03-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

My kindergartners go to the other K/1 teacher for math time, so I'm often in the dark about what they do when they're gone.

"What did you learn about in math?" I asked L. the other day.
"Cemetaries."
"What?!"
"Oh, he means symmetry," G. explained, thank goodness.

Why We Cover Our Mouths

2008-01-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

The other day N. coughed and Mr. B reminded him to cover his mouth.

"Why?" N. asked.

"Because it spreads germs," Mr. B. responded.

"Germans?!" G. (who had been listening to this conversation intently) asked, completely shocked and amazed.

Snippets

2007-04-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

Ah, the funny things my kids say. Here are some of my recent favorites:

* G. went up to a fellow teacher the other day and asked her "Where do you put Mother Earth?" She was at a loss for words and asked, "What?" G. opened up his hand to reveal a pill bug and again asked, "Where do you put Mother Earth?"

* Unfortunately, do to the recent Pussycat Dolls t.v. show, many of my kids have been walking around singing "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me." Disturbing. It's particularly wrong when you catch a six-year-old boy singing it under his breath during math time.

* Before snack time I give the kids each a squirt of hand sanitizer. But they have a little trouble pronouncing "hand sanitizer" and have recently taken to calling it "hamitizer." As in, "You forgot to give me some hamitizer!" It sounds so funny, like some pork sanitation product.

Boys vs Girls

2006-10-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

My new class is obsessed with "girls being icky" and "boys being gross" in a way that I have only ever seen in movies. I have spent the last month reading aloud Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to my students. The other day, as we were nearing the final pages of the book, J. raises his hand and asks, "Is Charlie a boy or a girl?" When I replied "a boy" the 12 boys in my class erupted into thunderous applause. Looking around the room, the girls were hanging their heads in mourning that Charlie was not on their (gender-divided) side. I wanted to say something comforting, like, "But it really doesn't matter does it?" or "But he likes girls too" but I wouldn't have been heard over the hoards of boys yelling, "Woooooo Charlie's a boy!!! Boys rule!!!!"

Atleast there's some hope: as the kids were clamoring to make girls and boys lines (which they know I object to) on the way to lunch yesterday P. suddenly announced, "There's no such thing as a boys and girls line!"

Summer was a Vacuum

2006-09-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

My dad always quoted someone (dad, if you're reading tell me who this is!) as saying the only way to get things done is to take on more things. to do. Well my summer was the inverse of this: I had nothing to do and therefore I did nothing. Including updating this blog.

But now I'm back in school with a new-school-year-resolution to write for my blogs often. I started school last Monday with 22 little tiny first graders. They are so unbelievable cute and YOUNG. I forgot how much the kids change over the course of first grade. I see my old first graders (now second graders) in the hall and they look gargantuan. It's unfortunate because whenever I see my old kids I turn into a little old grandma, overwhelming them with comments such as, "My my, you're so big now."

I have 22 kids right now despite the limit on K-3 classes being 20. That means that soon I will lose two of my kids to another class :-(. It will be nice to have some extra room in the classroom but it will be traumatizing for all parties involved to have to say goodbye to two of my kids... We shall see...

Poetry

2006-06-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

First grade poetry is the best! We have been writing poems for the past couple weeks and I am so excited about what the kids have come up with. Even my kids who have struggled the most with writing this year have been producing the best poems. My student who has had the most difficulty with writing this year, B., has been impressing me with his series of poems about a fictional man. Here is the first one he wrote (dictated to me, his writing still is just squiggles and lines):

There was a man
He was on an island
He met a girl
They went on a date
It was wonderful
They had dinner
She liked him
We don't know why
They went to a boat
And they got off
And they went to San Francisco
And they got married
They lived happily ever after.

The next one, seemingly about the same man:

Sad man
He lost something
Something that was in his heart
It was sad sad sad
It was his wife.

I love these poems! They are so mysterious. I especially love them because B., who for so many hours in the past has twiddled his pencil in the air instead of writing, writes them. B. surprised me recently when he was asked what he would wish for if he got three wishes. He said (1) money (2) video games (3) to have books everywhere. I was shocked and thrilled by the third response.

I think the thing I'm most proud of this year is that nearly all my kids have started to love books. I catch them randomly going up to people and saying "I love books." If the person they approach is another member of my class they'll go "Me too!" and possibly embrace. If the person is not a member of our class, they'll usually look confused by this random utterance. I'm so glad that my students are the ones who take books out to recess and who constantly declare their love for books

Godzilla Playing a Flute

2006-06-08T18:03:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I had my students make thank you cards for our volunteer music teacher. As N. was making his card, I looked over his shoulder and saw him carefully sketching a picture. "What are you drawing?" I asked him. He looked at me and replied, "Godzilla playing a flute." The best thing ever!

During this same card making session, I read a message A. was writing to the music teacher. "Dear Butterfly," it started. "When will you land on my flower? When will you suck my nectar?" What the hell?! I kept coming back and looking at A.'s writing, wondering why this sweet 6-year-old was writing this stoner-like message to our music teacher. I finally asked her what she was writing, to which she simply replied, "A poem."

Over the past few days whenever I've felt sad I've just had to say one thing to myself in order to cheer up: Godzilla playing a flute.

Ms. Bell is the Dragon

2006-05-29T17:29:00.000-07:00

When M. raises her hand, more often than not her comment is, "Once I went to Oakley to visit my aunt." It could be math time, during a read aloud, or on our way to lunch. Whenever, wherever, M.'s mind is on her trip to Oakley (which, in fact, happened nearly a year ago). In writing workshop too, M. writes constantly about Oakley, no matter which genre we are studying. She's written personal narratives about Oakley, informational reports on Oakley, responses to literature about Oakley (that was a stretch). All Oakley, all the time.

Needless to say, M. is a bit of a space cadet. The other day I was talking to M. about a story she was writing about going to an amusement park (amazingly enough, not located in Oakley). I asked her to read the story aloud: "Once we went to the amusement park," she started, "We stood in line for an hour. I ate a hot dog. I meowed like a cat. It was hot." She put the page down. "What?! You meowed like a cat?" I asked M. "Meow meow meow," she responded repeatedly. Our conference was over. I spent the rest of writing workshop time trying to reduce M.'s meows to a whisper.

I love her, but M. does seem to live in her own world. Just last week I was looking through the appreciations the class had written for our volunteer, Ms. Bell. "Ms. Bell is nice," wrote one student. "Ms. Bell helps us when we need help," wrote another. As for M.?

"Ms. Bell is the Dragon."

Not "Ms. Bell looks like a dragon" or even "Ms. Bell is a dragon" but "Ms. Bell is THE dragon." I don't think I'm going to tell Ms. Bell that apparently she is, in fact, the dragon.

Furballs

2006-05-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

All day long J. (one of my most irresistible 1st graders) kept making a hacking noise. During reading group, hacking. During circle time on the rug, again, the hack appeared. After each loud hack the class would turn to J. and he would reply to our questioning faces by nonchalantly saying, "I've got a furball." What? I didn't know I had a cat as a student! Once J. even explained further by saying, "I must have eaten too much fur." The weird thing was that no one seemed to find this odd but me.

In other strange mouth-related news, one of my drama-filled girls has started moving her lips uncontrollably. Without talking! Whenever I talk to her about something serious (i.e. reminding her to do her work), she will move her lips while listening to me. But she won't be saying anything. It's as if she's chanting or saying Hail Mary's to herself. It's starting to creep me out.

You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours

2006-05-23T19:24:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I had my weekly tutoring session with W. During our 40 minutes together after school, W. obsessively used the phrase "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" as if it was the new "yes."

Me: Can you take out your reading book?
W: You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. (W. erupts in laughter).
Me: Um, okay. But where is your book?
W: Right here. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. (Again, laughter eruption).
Me: Do you really want me to scratch your back?
W: You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

It's simultaneously irritating and amusing how 1st graders latch onto these lame phrases. Where do they even learn them from? I'm certain that I've never used the phrase "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" around my students (that would be a bit rude, eh?).

Regardless, W. finally got off the back-scratching kick today and we had a productive tutoring session. W. was a boy who at the beginning of the year had no clue about the alphabet and, when asked to write, would repeatedly write "CATMOMCATMOMCATMOM" all over his paper. Back in September, when I would ask W. to read what he wrote, he would read me these cat-mom strings. W. would point to the words ("cat" and "mom") and read, "Once I went to the store with my parents. We got ice cream and went home to play cards." All while pointing to CATMOMCATMOMCATMOM.

Today W. stretched out words as he wrote about his trip to Los Angeles. (And no, the words weren't just "cat" and "mom"). There was a time when I was afraid W. would never learn his alphabet and the corresponding sounds. But I kept at him, working with him during and after school and hoping that someday it would click.

I kept scratching his back and now (finally) he's scratching mine.

A horrible hidden smell....

2006-05-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

I walked into my classroom this morning to find the most rancid smell. It smells like tomato sauce and I can't find the source anywhere. I believe it will drive me insane by the day's end! I have Febrezed repeatedly yet the smell seems like it is becoming more pungent by the minute. The worst part is, it seems to be coming from my desk so I can't even blame my kids...