Boys will be boys

If you want to be entertained, just spend some time with third graders. You will be.

I may have a future nurse in my class. The class was cleaning up and getting ready for lunch, when I looked over and saw a boy pretending his lead pencil was a syringe. He had the lead sticking up, and he was flicking it and everything. I couldn't even be serious when I told him to put it away. It was too cute.

The best entertainment times are definitely at lunch. (When they probably have no idea I'm listening.)

Yesterday I was quite entertained listening to a bunch of 8-year-old boys talk about slow dancing! You can imagine, I'm sure.

"Did you have to hold her hands?" 

Nods head.

"You DID??? Ewww!" 

My favorite part of that conversation was when the boy finished by saying, "I'm just glad I wasn't the groom!"

You know boys - they pretend to be all rough and tough even if they don't feel it. So they were talking about not feeling anything when they got hurt. One got hit in the eye today at recess with a soccer ball, and I overheard him say, "I can't believe I didn't even feel anything when the ball hit me right in the eye and I fell down!" But one of the girls piped up in a no-nonsense way, "Then why were you crying?"

Let me know if you want to have lunch with us someday. :)

Good self-esteem, humility, and laughs

My students provide me with many things: a good self-esteem, a good dose of humility, and always a good laugh.

One morning last week, one of my boys walked into the classroom, looked at me, and said, "Well, you look pretty today!" Awww :)

One day I heard something vibrating. After finding out that it was a student's phone, I very firmly told him it must be turned OFF during school and if it happens again I'll have to take it and turn it into the principal. Not five minutes later we all heard a vibrating sound again. The students all turned their heads and looked accusingly at this boy. The poor boy put his hands in the air and said, "It's not mine! I turned mine off!" This time, however, it was coming from my corner of the room. Should I have turned my phone into the principal?

One boy was writing an answer to a question of what he wants to be someday. He asked me how to spell "catter pratter." I asked him to repeat it several times before I finally understood when he said, "Someone who cracks your back."
"Ohhh, a chiropractor!"

I am so glad to know that my students are dedicated to their school work! One morning one of my girls came to me and told me that she woke up at 11:30 the night before and remembered she hadn't done her homework. So she closed her parents' bedroom door so they wouldn't hear her, sneaked downstairs, and did it! She didn't tell them the next morning either so she wouldn't get in trouble! I suggested if it happens again maybe she could just set her alarm clock a little early. After all, I don't want her getting in trouble with her parents because she did her homework!

Speaking of girls, my class size is slowly but surely growing! We now have 15 students, and much to the girls' delight, two more girls! The boys tried to complain, but they still outnumber the girls 2 to 1!

Boxes and beavers

I'm sure every teacher can relate to this scenario:
I just finished going over directions and explaining their language worksheet. "Are there any questions?"
A hand shoots up. "Yes?"
"Are you going to the parade tonight?"
"Are there any questions about the language paper?"

...and this one too.
The directions on the language page said "Write a sentence using the plural form of box." We even discussed it and I wrote the word boxes on the board. But apparently some of them were too busy thinking about the parade and such.

We pay taxes.

Some rivers are large.

Oh dear.

For science, the students were identifying mammals and holding up picture cards as I gave clues. When I said, "This is a gnawing mammal that I had in my house and tried very hard to get rid of," I was suddenly staring at 13 beavers. "No, I did not have a beaver in my house." :)

 

This & that

It's October already? I found myself writing the date as 9 10/1/13 today.

My birthday seems like a long time ago already, but I should let you know that all of the students' clues did not disappoint! It was a special day from the "Happy birthday!"s I got from students first thing in the morning to the fourth grade girls coming to the door and singing "Happy Birthday" to the "surprise" party with moms and cake and ice cream and balloons and cards! And when my students figured out that I turned 29, and I said, "I'm getting old!" it was nice to hear them say, "You're not old a bit! You're still only 20-something!" :) (I guess I better enjoy this year.) I even received a sweet belated birthday card today from one of my boys. I knew it was going to be good when I saw the "Be mine" sticker on the envelope. He wrote, "You are such a nice teach and that I really like being in third grade!" Made my day.

Despite all of the birthday celebrations, we have been learning some things, too. I hope. We just finished a unit on Ancient Greece in Social Studies. When I told them about Plato, they started laughing, and I had to explain his name was not "Play-doh", but P-l-a-t-o. A few days later, we were reviewing, and I asked who was Socrates' student. One boy said, "...Clay??" :)

Today was picture day. All of the boys looked extra nice with button-down shirts and combed hair. I overheard one of them telling another student, "I even had to wash my face this morning!"

I'm reading aloud Trumpet of the Swan. Imagine reading a book about falling in love (swans or otherwise) to a third grade class of mostly boys. Let's just say there was some uncomfortable giggling and nudges and glances. Maybe that's why I like to be extra dramatic when reading those gushy parts.

If anyone out there is missing a metal teaspoon, one showed up in our classroom. It doesn't belong to anyone. Yes, some of them had a spoon in their lunches, but of course all of them remembered to put it back in their lunchbox, and none of them have spoons like that at home! So apparently it just appeared out of thin air. I should ask the moms.