Stinky Paper

Today the students were working on some long division problems. I often have the students complete a few problems then check their work with me before they continue their practice. Today was no different and Natalie had just finished her problems and was at my desk to check her answers.

I love joking around with the kids, so when Natalie handed me her paper I said, "Ohhh. Man, this paper really smells!" I of course was completely joking.

Natalie's face showed a slight hint of redness, but a little smile crawled across her face, "Yeah, um, my hands are really sweaty."

Nobody else was at my desk, but I was worried that I had embarrassed her as Natalie is a girl who can be a bit self-conscious.

She took it in stride though continuing with, "It's kinda gross sometimes. I'll be working with my hand on the desk and then there will be this big wet spot."

I was finally able to tell her I was kidding, and that I didn't actually smell anything. She followed this with a slightly flustered sigh, but ended up going to her desk with a big smile on her face.

I will definitely not be smelling any of her papers she hands in.

State of Confusion

The culmination of our year in social studies is the State Project. Each student picks a different state and spends over a month researching, writing, and creating a presentation for that state. The excitement begins right before our spring break when states are chosen.

Each class can only have one student per state so they bring in a "top 10" list of the states they would like to research. I choose names out of a hat, and whoever is picked gets their top choice that hasn't been taken. Every year some students leave early for spring break (because school isn't quite as important as it used to be apparently) so they give their list to another student to keep track for them. Carly gave her list to to Brittany because she was going to be in Florida.

After the first couple of states had been chosen to lots of sighs, groans, and incoherent mumbling, Brittany walked up to me with the classic 'I need some help' look on her face. She whispered, "Mr. Pajak?" I waited for the rest. It took longer than I expected, but finally she said, "Um, is Chicago a state?" I told her that it was a city in Illinois. "Well, Carly has that as one of her choices what should I do?" Aware that the class was ridiculously antsy to get going, I had her just write down Illinois in that spot.

After the next state was chosen, Brittany was back up to talk to me. To keep things moving, I just had her give me Carly's list. I found out why she was confused:

Carly's Top 10 List
1. Texes
2. Alaska
3. Arizono
4. Hatti
5. Florida
6. Woconsin
7. Chicogo
8. N. Dakota
9. Mexico
10. New yourk

Home Sweet Home

Social studies tests are often a challenge for the 4th graders because this is the first year where they actually need to 'study' for tests. This year has proven to be no different. Thankfully scores have been steadily improving as the year has gone on and the students have learned to study and take notes.

We recently finished studying the midwest region of the United States. The test scores for this chapter were the highest they've been all year. I expected this, not only are the little Einsteins getting better at studying, but we live in the midwest. While the test scores were very good overall, there were a few answers that surprised me. After all, we live here.

Which of these four questions would be the hardest for you?
I'm guessing your answer is not #7. Did I mention this is where we live?

Wow. I'm pretty sure he meant it has good soil. Still, wow.

Run on Sentences in 4th Grade? Yep!

We are reading a novel called The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo in reading over the next few weeks. The students need to write a response log after every five chapters. I encourage them to tell me their reaction to what they've read, not give me a summary. Here's how different writing abilities can be in 4th grade:


One Sentence (out of 8) from Megan's Response Log:
I thought when Pellegrina told the story, that was a very important part because she sort of hinted to Edward that she knew that he was a very cold-hearted bunny..


Colby's ENTIRE Response Log:
I liked the part where Pellegrina told Abilene the story about the princess liked that part because Abilene kept on asking Pellegrina if there would be a story that night and Pellegrina said there will be a story tonight and there was a story that night and then why wouldn’t the boys give the rabbit back.

Some Randoms

It's that time of year right now. January and February can seem to drag on f o r e v e r. Good thing I have 4th graders to help lighten my day when there isn't much light outside. I've been jotting down some comments, questions, and remarks over the last couple of weeks that have helped make my day a little bit brighter.

In religion we've been studying the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. We had just finished reading about the resurrection as a class when Megan volunteered to read the next paragraph about the ascension. She began reading, "The assassination of Jesus occurred ...."

Another religion topic we recently covered is baptism. While discussing baptism I noticed several students looked confused when I mentioned that our baptism cleanses us from original sin. So I asked "Who knows what original sin is?" Alexander held up his hand confidently, "I'm pretty sure that means abortion."

The students were working nice and quietly one day when I overheard John say to nobody in particular, "I wonder what language cursive came from?"

We are studying the midwest region of the United States in social studies. One of our 'tour stops' was Iowa and its vast cornfields. We talked about all of the products that are made with corn. The one that Billy couldn't believe: "I NEVER knew popcorn came from corn. I guess it makes sense though!"

My students often come up to me while they're working and ask me questions that have nothing to do with what they should be doing. Today's question from Crystal: "Mr. Pajak, what's your favorite subject to teach?" A good question, albeit a tad random. I replied, "Well, I guess it depends on the day." Crystal, still very interested asked, "How 'bout on Mondays?"

Not Just for Smoking

The other day we were talking about Jamestown, Virginia in social studies. We are studying the southeast region of the United States, and one of our tour stops was the first permanent English settlement in the United States. The discussion started with the difficulty the settlers had surviving. The students were amazed that people kept going to live in Jamestown even though so many people died. I then explained that growing tobacco changed the outlook of Jamestown.

As soon as I mentioned tobacco, 20 out of 23 hands were up. the first question was, "Isn't tobacco that stuff people smoke?"

I replied, "Yes, people smoke tobacco. It's in cigarettes, cigars, and some people use pipes to smoke it. Back in those days they used to grind up tobacco leaves and shove it up their noses."

I got the expected reaction on that one. Lots of "eeeeew, grooooosssssss, and really?"

Then someone asked, "Why do people do that anyway?"

Before I had a chance to respond someone else blurted out, "Oh I heard it's kinda like drinking or something."

At this point I tried to reel the kids back in to our discussion, but then I made the mistake of calling on Alexander. "Well can't you, like, chew, it or something."

I said, "Yes you can chew it too. The settlers were able to sell the tobacco to the people in England because they enjoyed doing all these things."

Another hand up. "Well, did they sprinkle it on their food and stuff too?"

"No. They didn't sprinkle it on their food. Let's get back to what happened later in Jamestown."

Joel's hand shot up and I, against my better judgement, impatiently said, "Yes Joel?"

"Isn't there something called.. tobacco sauce?"

I couldn't hold in a little chuckle, "No, you're thinking of Tabasco Sauce. That's just a spicy pepper sauce. It has nothing to do with tobacco. Aaaaand with that, we are officially done talking about tobacco."

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..."