Marshmallows Do What?

Yesterday I was meeting with my small reading groups. I was looking forward to meeting with the group sitting down because they were very creative and enthusiastic. I was ready to dig in and get things started because, while bright, they were also a bit...divergent. The following conversation ensued during the first five minutes of the twenty minutes we meet.

"Okay everyone. Turn to page 84."

As the pages are turning...Ethan: "What is this a picture of?"

Me: "Is that on page 84?"

Ethan: "No."

"Let's just get to 84 then."

Everybody is on page 84 now.
Liz: "Ethan? Did you take a bite out of your eraser?"

(To be fair, it did look like there was a bite out of it.)
Ethan: "NO. Why would I eat an eraser?"

Samantha: "Well it DOES look like you took bite out of it."

Ethan: "Nooooo. I just pick at it like this." Proceeds to show just exactly how to pick at an eraser.

"OK. Enough with the eraser. Everyone's on page 84. Does anyone remember what character traits are?"

Samantha: "You can get cancer if you eat erasers!"

"Nobody's eating erasers. Let's foc...."

Liz: "Did you know if you eat too many burnt marshmallows, you can get cancer?"

This was followed with a smattering of comments like "oohhh I love marshmallows," "I know someone who has cancer," and "No way. No way marshmallows can do that."

"OK (a little louder this time). We need to focus. Take a look at pa..."

Liz:"Yeah it's true. I'm pretty sure it's breast cancer."

At least we made it to page 84.

Boom Goes the Dynamite!

Early last week the class was going through some vocabulary words in reading. The theme for that week was "Astronauts." Some of the vocabulary words included: universe, endless, realistic, and sensible. To help the students learn the words, I have them try to figure out the meaning of the words based on how they are used in a sentence. Usually the sentence gives a pretty good clue of what the word might mean and through class discussion, we come up with a good definition. We had already gone through several of the words without incident when I put the following sentence on the board:


If you are biking, wearing a helmet is sensible.


I then allowed the students about a minute to think about the sentence after I read it to them.


"Alright, does anyone know what sensible means? Or can anybody figure out what it means because of how it's used in the sentence?"


Most of the class had their hands up in the air before I finished the question. Most of the hands in the air were the 'ohh, ohh' flailing at the wrist kind, so I was confident most of the students knew what 'sensible' meant. 


"John, what do you think?"


John: "Well, I'm pretty sure that it means when you touch something (makes a poking motion)... and then it blows up. It's like this big explosion."


The entire class' eyes went from John to me, back to John, and then back to me. Several faces had smiles. Including mine. I don't usually stumble over my words and am able to come up with a kind, deflecting, "that's close, but I'm looking for something else." Not this time. I was struggling with what to tell John when Eleanor leaned over and whispered something in his ear. A huge grin crawled over his face and I knew it was safe to tell him.


"John, I hate to tell you...that's about as far off as you could be."


We went over the actual meaning of sensible, and the class had a pretty good laugh, especially John. 


Later that day as we were walking to music, I overheard a few of the boys laughing. I turned around to see the boys, including John, poking each other and saying, "I'm gonna sensible you!"

You Can Tough it Out

Sometimes you need to look really close at quiz answers to make sure your reading it correctly.

Is it farts or facts?

Other times, you know what it says. It's just hard to believe they thought that was the answer.

It's a 'T' Not a 'D'

After four weeks of correcting the same kinds of mistakes every day, the kids are finally starting to get the hang of correcting our sentences on the Smartboard. It was taking us about 20-25 minutes to get through two sentences when we started. Now we can cruise through the two sentences in about 10-15 minutes. Needless to say some of the kids believe they've seen it all and haven't exactly been all ears while we are correcting. So today while we were correcting I gently reminded them in a louder than normal tone that they needed to pay attention to each person's correction when they came to the board. I also reminded them that if someone makes a mistake, it's ok. We definitely shouldn't laugh at them.

Then John came up to make a correction in the following sentence:

be sure to right 247 Grand avenue, fort dodge ks 67843 on the envelope

John put three lines under the 'f' in fort. Wonderful I'm thinking! The correct way to show a letter should be capitalized! The whole class had their eyes fixated on John, and you could hear the fans it was so quiet after our little 'talk.' I'm just waiting, expecting even, to hear the words come out of John just like I've taught them: 'I capitalized fort because it's part of the name of the city and a proper noun.'

John: "I capitalized fort because it's the name of a car."

After realizing his mistake, we all had a good laugh. Right after I just told them not to...

Middle Name?

We have started standardized tests this week. Not fun for the kids or me. We have eleven tests to take in the next two weeks. Total 'estimated' time to complete: 6 hours 20 minutes. Right...

The first thing we need to do is fill out the answer booklet with all of the students' information: name, age, grade, school, birthday, etc. You'd think ten minutes to fill out the form right? Nope. Forty-five minutes. It's amazing how hard it is for a 4th grader to not only write the letters of their name, but also fill in the bubble underneath that correspond with the same letters. Conversations like the following also lead to a wounded turtle pace:

Luke: "What does 'middle initial mean?"

"It means the first letter of your middle name."

Luke: "Middle name?"

"Yes your middle name. What's your middle name."

Luke: "Ummm. I don't know. I can't remember."

"Some people might not have a middle name. If you don't you can just leave it blank."

Luke: "Wait, I think it's Ronald. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's Ronald."

"Ok. Then you should put 'R' for your middle initial."

Luke: "But Ronald doesn't fit! There's only one space!"

"Luke..." (stop, breathe) "No just the first letter. All you need is the 'R'."

Luke: "Actually, I'm not sure if it's Ronald. I don't think I have a middle name."

At this point, I really had to bite my tongue. So many things I want to say right now... "Ok. I'll look it up and see if you have a middle name." I look it up. No middle name listed. "Nothing's listed for your middle name Luke. Just leave it blank."

Luke: "No, I'm pretty sure it's Ronald. I'll put the 'R'."

Through tightly clenched teeth: "Ok. 'R' it is. Let's move on to our date of birth..."

In His Own Words

Last week I had my students write me letters so I could get a sense of what we needed to work on during writing. Here is part of John's letter to me (exactly as he wrote it):

You are the most niceties teacher ever and you and me like the Brewer fan. Did I Mention that I like the Brewers? They are my 2 favorite my first favorite is the  Oreals. it is kind of weird that i like watching Baseball, but i do not like to play Baseball. my favorite sport is soccer what is yours? I  think I know its Golfing with your friends. my dad is 20 years older than you! that is weird whats your dogs name I think Matt  or is it a girl? I think your favorite food is a apple or a sandwich? My favorite is a Orange float and a root beer float or a good apple that is the right flavour is the kind that I like.

We've got plenty to work on this year in writing!