Who knew dictionaries were so interesting?

At the end of the day one of my students commented to me, "You look tired." I said, "I am tired!" They couldn't understand. "Why? It's Friday! We're never tired on Fridays!"

Today started with one student telling me his family got fish last night. I was thinking he meant fish to eat, so I stared, waiting for an explanation. When he started saying what kinds they were, I realized he meant pet fish. So I said, "Oh, that's exciting!" and called on someone else who wanted to share something. Well I guess this student was really excited about his pet fish and wasn't done talking about them, because as others were talking, I heard him still making comments. "They like to swim at the top... They're pretty small..."

What kind of teacher doesn't let her students look at dictionaries? Well... me. One of the local schools donated dictionaries for each of my students. I mentioned this in passing one day, but I had left them in my car. They were so excited about getting these dictionaries; they kept asking about them and reminding me to bring them in. So I finally handed them out this morning. Never have I seen children so fascinated with a reference book! Every spare minute they were absorbed in the dictionaries. All day long I had to threaten to take away their dictionaries if they didn't stop looking at them during class! You should know, though, that they weren't just reading definitions... there was a lot of information in the back of these dictionaries, like maps and charts and such. But still... Many of them wanted to take them home for the weekend. Hey, as long as it's not during Math or Spelling or any of my classes, enjoy your dictionaries, kids!