Mmmmm Peanut Butter!

Every morning we have 'snack time' in 4th grade because our class doesn't go to lunch until 1:00. Most of the time the students bring in Cheez-Its, pretzels, or fruit. Today Mark was eating celery that was generously slathered with peanut butter. I was impressed with the unique snack so I commented, "Wow Mark, that looks awesome! What a great snack to bring. I love peanut butter!"

Mark is fairly reserved, so he just smiled and made an awkward comment that was somewhat of a 'thank-you' and 'I like peanut butter too.'

Samantha is not reserved. She immediately jumped at the chance to get involved in a conversation and said to me, "My dad loves peanut butter. He puts it on everything!"

Being a fan myself I responded, "I like to put it on a lot of things too. I don't know about everything though... My favorite is dipping Oreos in peanut butter."

Samantha replied, "I've had Peanut Butter Oreos before, but I never dipped them in peanut butter."

"I didn't know they made Peanut Butter Oreos!"

Samantha's straightforward answer, "Yep they do. They have peanut butter in the middle instead of milk."

"Milk?" I replied.

"Yeah, that's what's in the middle of regular oreos."

"Umm, Samantha, that's not milk in the middle."

"Yes it is. What else would it be? It's white."

I explained, "That doesn't make it milk. Lots of things are white. That's just the creme filling."

"Well creme is like milk. It's kind of the same thing." Samantha was still dead serious at this point.

"No not really, milk is a liquid. This is like a frosting."

Samantha, who didn't seem to be convinced, ended the conversation with, "Well. Whatever..."

You Forgot What?

This morning, before school started, I was walking back to my classroom from the office. Jeffrey, a 4th grader from another homeroom, was walking towards me with a 'where am I' look in his eyes. He looked as if he had just rolled out of bed. Disheveled hair, shoes untied, wrinkled clothes, and a face with bits of breakfast still sticking. I noticed that he had his school uniform pants, but was wearing a very wrinkled brown t-shirt instead of the school uniform red polo.

As we neared each other, I could tell he wanted to say something so I said "What's up Jeffrey?"

Receptive, but far from understanding Jeffrey replied, "Um. Mr. Pajak? Do you know if they have extra...shirts. Here?"

I replied "Where is your shirt?"

"Uh. I dunno. Well, uh. I kinda forgot it." This was followed by a shame-filled downward glance.

Luckily we have a a collection of shirts in the nurse's office. Although, most are for the little kids who spill on themselves at lunch. I informed Jeffrey that there were plenty of extras and we could go take a look.

As we walked into the nurse's office, I asked him, "How did you forget to wear your shirt?"

A more focused Jeffrey replied, "I was in kind of a run this morning I guess."

It took a bit, but we did find a shirt that fit. It was a little tight though.

Vocabulary Words, Take Two

This week we are reading some stories about ancient China. To help the students understand the stories we reviewed some vocabulary words before reading. The vocabulary words were:
temples
dynasties
heritage
preserve
overjoyed

We talked about the definitions of each word and also read some sentences that included each of the words. Then it was their turn to show me how well they understood the words. I had the students write five sentences using each word in one of the sentences. Here are some of the sentences that were handed in (all from different students!):

I wish I could be a dynasties.


I preserve shark teeth.


I got a little overjoyed on my birthday so I had to sit in my room.


My bed is preserved for me.


I preserved my bed.


My dynasties are to blow peoples minds.


Tomorrow we will be working on vocabulary words again.