Merry Christmas!

Today was the last school day before Christmas break, and I like to show my love and appreciation for my students by giving each of them a small gift. Usually I secretly keep the gifts hidden away until I’m ready to surprise the students in the last few minutes of school. But I got to thinking that the anticipation of opening a gift is almost as good as the gift itself, so I tried something new this year. I set all 28 presents on a pile in the front of the classroom. I was not disappointed by the anticipatory looks and comments from kids who were pretty sure the presents were for them, but not 100% sure. With wide eyes full of glee, they exclaimed and inquired:
“Presents!”
“What are those?” (while pointing at the pile).
“Why are there so many presents?”
“When are we opening presents? First thing, or in the middle, or at the end?”

Earlier this week I asked students to write about Christmas. These were some of their responses: 

“One of my grandma’s rooms is fool fool of presents.” 

“I know some people who have fake Christmas trees. What’s the point?”

“My favorite part of Christmas is opening gifts and eating candy and sledding.”

“The best gift to my mom was a loving hug.”

“My favorite thing about Christmas is opening gifts. I will relax and wake up late and open gifts.”

“The best thing I ever got was a Leapfrog it’s like a tablet but teaches you stuff (almost).”

“My favorite part of the Christmas season is that it snows.”

“The best gift I ever got was Jesus Christ the Lord.” 

“The best gift I ever gave to someone is my love.”

“The best gift I ever gave was a book I gave to my sister that I wanted to keep for myself.”

Well I don't know about you, but I also will be relaxing, waking up late, opening gifts, giving loving hugs, and eating candy. (No sledding, though.) Merry Christmas! 

Honorable service

The year is flying by, and the students are learning and growing so much! 

In science, they learned the difference between "instinct" and "learned behavior." Examples of learned behavior:

“A dog doing a handstand”
“A frog doing tricks”

Two weeks after our Oregon Dairy field trip we took a service trip to the Global Aid Network warehouse. (One student asked me, "Are we going to have a field trip every two weeks?") The students did a nice job writing about the experience in their journals:

What we did today was we packed boxes of notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, crayons, sharpeners, and toothbrushes. And we prayed over the boxes so that the people who would get them it would be a blessing to them. And the gifts we gave were for school. I liked doing it because I felt like I was doing something that God wanted me to do. And I thought I would bless the kids who got them.  

Gain was not heated but since everyone helped it got a little hot. It felt very good helping people in different countries though I got pretty tired! 

We worked hard all day serving God. We prayed over the boxes so the people would get to know about God. I felt so happy and helpful because we were helping people all over the world! 

It felt awesome to help others! It’s a wonder why I wasn’t tired afterward? 

It felt honorable to help kids my age. When I got upset and tired I thought about what their faces would look like when they got to hold their packages. 

Lots of activity

There was lots of activity this week with the third grade pack of 28.

1. Students used vocabulary words in sentences.

Example: "A carpenter is a person who carps wood."

2. We had picture day.

One girl's flip-flop broke. (I'm ready to buy extra pairs of flip-flops for the whole school!) When it happened in class, I told her it wasn't a good time to deal with it, and then I promptly forgot about it. After I led the class outside, through the parking lot and nature center and grass to get our class picture taken, I saw her standing on the riser with one flip-flop. Oops.

About 10 minutes after we were back inside, one sweet boy raised his hand, and when I went to him, he calmly told me he got stung by a bee on the back while we were out there. Sure enough, there was a big, red bump!

3. One morning a centipede ran over my hand, which, in my opinion, is one of the worst things ever. But thankfully a few students had just arrived, and one brave girl cheerfully volunteered to kill it and remove it from my vicinity.

4. They took a Social Studies test on Ancient Greece. The most interesting answer for "Tell how Ancient Greece and modern life are different:"

“Greeks used horses for war and we use jeeps for war.” 

5. Lastly, and most importantly, we took a field trip to Oregon Dairy yesterday.

In previous years we’ve left behind sweatshirts and jackets on field trips, but yesterday was a first for almost leaving behind socks.

Students wrote what they learned in their journals after we returned to school:
“They put a diaper on the bottom of the meat.” 
“That they make the best chocolate milk.”
“Cows have tots.” 
“I learned what the otter is. I learned that the teess are the things that hang from the otter.” 

Lots of students learned that they use the cow's manure to make electricity. But "electricity" has not been a spelling word in their three years and two months of school so far, so they used some creative spelling: (And in all fairness, I did tell them to just spell words the best they could.)
Elextrisity 
Elekvik 
Elextrisode 
Eletrisudy 
Elkticeity
Lectricity 

We also had the opportunity to complete the corn maze in small groups; I asked them to share with me if it was easy or hard, if they would like to do it again, and how they worked together as a team to figure out where to go.

“We went on a trail and saw where it took us.” (I’m pretty sure her mom would disagree, because I'm pretty sure her mom was actually reading the map.)
“I am never doing that again!” 
“I would not like to do it again because it was hard and muddy.”
“The corn maze was hard because none of us knowed how to read maps.”
“We worked together by working together.”
“The corn maze was hard because we could not find our way out.” 
“We worked together to figure out the maps but well, we took the wrong paths sometimes.” (I find it interesting that this was a member from my group, and he's the one who didn't want to bother with the map. "Let's just walk and see where it takes us.")
“I wanted to do it again and get more ice cream.” 

All in all, a good week, I'd say. :)

Happy birthday messages

This year my students and their families blessed me with a card shower for my birthday. I love my kids and I love cards, so it was the perfect birthday surprise!

"Mrs. Burkholder" is hard to spell.

But they got their messages across, and it makes my heart smile!

Pack of 28

We've been in school for almost a month now, and there are a few highlights from my new pack of 28 bright and bold, pre-sharpened students.

Recent third grade problems:

"My ear is dirty." (Because he hadn't cleaned it since he showered a week earlier.)
"Yogurt splashed into my eye."

From their "Favorite Things" worksheets:

     My favorite food: restaurant food
     My favorite holiday: my birthday

From their "Me in Numbers" worksheets:

     I have 24 pets at home.
     I have 26 pets at home.
     I wake up at 6:04.
     I wake up at 6:54.

From their Bible journals: 

I think having faith means…
     To be confident in everything. 
     The heroes fighted for God.
     Knowing that God is on your side. 

You know it's May when...

During the past 24 days, I have found myself frequently remarking, "It must be May." If you have kids or know kids or are in any way connected to the education field, you know that May is a crazy month. And the sheer volume of activities/field trips/games/parties/programs/recitals/graduations/[insert other activities I am forgetting] may very well make you feel like you are going to lose your mind. Thank you to my friends who added to my list of reasons for how we know it's May... even if we are generally uncertain about what day of the week it is.

You know it must be May when...

• Armloads of paper are being thrown away.
• Your to-do list is longer than your daily lesson plans.
• Students say things like, "You're not going to grade this anyway," and "We don't have any more recesses or lunches this year," implying "Why should I bother trying?" and "I can act however I want." 
• You suddenly become like an absent-minded professor, calling kids the wrong names, regularly losing your train of thought and forgetting what you were going to say, and repeatedly getting confused about what day it is. 
• You have random strips and patches of red skin, thanks to wearing a t-shirt and sneakers on field day (which finally took place the last week of school, despite being rescheduled twice due to rain). 
• You find yourself saying things like, "A screwdriver is not a good toy for the bus," and, "You know you do not climb on top of each other!"
• You allow yourself to have pointless arguments with students about whether you should try to sell items new at a yard sale to get more money or make new items look used because people are looking for cheap deals. 
• You stop making the healthy breakfast smoothies you made for 170 days of the school year because, among other things, you're tired of washing the blender. So instead you grab an over-ripe banana or a stick of cheese on your way out the door. (Not to mention the sparse lunch you packed, because who has motivation for packing decent lunches in May?)
• You contemplate going to bed at 6:30, but you have way too many things to do. And when you do finally fall into bed exhausted, you can’t fall asleep, because there are too many tabs open in the browser that is your brain, and like Windows, your mind refuses to shut down until all programs are properly closed. So you lie awake past midnight thinking about all there is to do in the last few days of school.
• You feel an odd combination of angst and sappiness. While you are ready for summer vacation, you aren't quite ready to say good-bye to the precious ones with whom you've spent 180 days. 

Somehow the last day of school always sneaks up on me. All of a sudden, here we are, and tomorrow will be the last day my third graders enter my room as third graders. June is coming - a mere week away! But in the meantime, let's do our best to be present in each and every moment that is a gift from God.

Louder and faster

On Thursday one student asked me, "Is it me or is everyone faster and louder today?"
My response was not a star teacher moment. I said, "YOU are faster and louder."
However, he was on to something... it is evident that it is the end of May and all of us are beyond ready for summer and sunshine (especially after the past week of rain).

Another conversation this week:
Me, to multiple students: "Please don't slam your math books closed. Close them nicely."
Student: "But that's my favorite part of math class. Closing my math book."

A comment I overheard from one boy to another boy who was crumpling up his crossword puzzle: "That's right, Billy! When it gets too hard, just quit."

And on Friday I almost had a heart attack when I glanced down the hallway and saw my student hanging off the railing above a flight of stairs on his way to art class. After I immediately demanded he get down and come to me, I asked him "Why wasn't that a good idea?"
"I don't know."
It still sends tingles through my fingers.

The students wrote about what makes the best pet:
"It is very e-z to potty train a cat."
"Instead of a loin, a dog or a cat is better."

We have one more week of school, and I'm sure it will be plenty fast and loud.

I love third graders

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it: I love teaching third graders. They have a unique blend of honesty and a desire to please their teachers. I've had - and overheard - quite a few interesting conversations this year.

Usually math class is not their favorite, but after having a math class with various multiplication activities: 
"Can we do this every day for math?"
"This is the only time we hope math class isn't soon over."

Two boys entering the classroom one morning:
"I want to be an astronaut so I can go to Mars."
...and then commenced the debate about whether or not there is life on Mars. 

Me to a student who had for no reason taken his shoes off: "Why are your shoes off?"
Student: "It's much better."

One student talking about an invention he hoped to make one day: 
"You put the baby in the machine and it comes out crystal clean."

One boy found a key outside his house and thought he'd put up a poster for the missing key:
"People do it for dogs, why not keys?"

Student, to me, at the beginning of math class: "When are we going to start division?"
Me: "Today!"
*Loud gasps* 

Me to the class: "Does anyone know anything about Shelly?" [who was absent]
Student: "I know she's alive... she has hair."

One boy, after being in the last row called to choose a birthday treat: “Oh well… We probably won’t get what we want, but life is life and sometimes it’s not fun.”

Student: “I think it would be appropriate to take this [donut] to art class.”
Me: “No, I do not think it would be.”
Student: “Oh… Well, everyone has an opinion.”

Same student, another time: “Eating is joyful. I like eating. It gives me joy.”

Billy, while we were waiting for him to finish putting things away and pray for lunch: “Faster, Billy, faster.”

One day I called on a boy to give an answer during class and noticed that he had thick, black streaks under both eyes (think baseball player). They were not there when he arrived at school, but with difficulty I ignored it, kept a straight face, and continued the lesson as he looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. Later I talked to him (the why is still a mystery) and asked him to clean it off. The rest of the day he walked around looking quite sickly.

Excerpts from students' writing about their grandparents: 
"Grandmas are for giving gifts and for letting us do almost whatever we want."
"My grandma is the best and one whole clump of love."
"Grandpas are for playing. They act like kids when you’re playing."

Classroom magic

I'm currently reading a book about a thru-hiker trekking the Appalachian Trail. Hikers have this phenomenon they call "trail magic," when they unexpectedly receive some kind of food or drink. I've decided that teachers should have "classroom magic." Last week I was blessed with two wonderful, surprise gifts. I think any teacher will agree that a surprise cup of coffee and a free homemade meal feels magical!

And then there are also the beloved Valentine's Day gifts. This is one of my favorite gifts ever. The love is practically oozing out of every possible nook and cranny.

I am quite amused by the students' most recent writing piece.  We read a story about some characters who had a rule that stated everyone must work together and do their part. The students were asked to write about whether this rule would work in their home or classroom. I’m sure their parents would not be as entertained by their responses as I am, but I'm just tickled that they were honest and didn't just write what they thought I wanted to hear!

“Yes at school we do and at home it’s a no because we never do for some reason.”  

“I don’t do chores because I’m lazy because I don’t like chores.”  

“It wouldn’t work at home because people would get bored from working and they may not want to.”  

“In our home it would not work because we always fight and argue.”  

“It wouldn’t work in our home because we don’t ask we just get.”  

“It would not work in my home because my brother and sister are not good at following rules.” 

However, there were a few blessed souls that thought it would (or possibly would) work.

“It would work because then everybody would have a chance to share and do everything that they want and work would go faster.”  

“In our classroom it might work. Our classmates and teacher can help each other out! At home maybe. But! First get rid of fighting.” 

Regardless of what these dear kiddos say, I'm sure their parents do a fine job of teaching them to work together and do their part!

Full/super/blue moon

The beginning of February means the end of winter, according to one student. (I wish.)

Perhaps it had something to do with the full/super/blue moon, but there were some interesting conversations taking place in our classroom during the last week of January.

• One boy, after taking entirely too long in the bathroom, informed me it was because his favorite stall was taken, so he decided to wait until he could use it. 
• I overheard the whole class debating whether Miss Weaver is a chicken or a hen. (I don't know. I don't want to.)
• Some of the students were discussing what they might name their children some day. There were suggestions such as King Edward and Nero. One student - "Sam" - said, "If I ever have twins, I'll name one... Sam, and the other one... Sam!" 
• I often tell the students to make good use of their time if they're finished with all their work (read a book, practice multiplication facts, etc.). One day I noticed one boy had his head down on his desk, so I asked him to come help me with something. Later, he asked, "Is taking a nap making good use of your time?" (Absolutely, it is!) 
• We started a new unit in writing, one where they get to be a bit more creative. I am slightly uneasy about teaching it, because I like more structure, but after the first lesson, one boy exclaimed, "Now you're making us like writing!" 
• A couple sweet girls blessed me with some encouraging notes. I love how the one reminds me, above all, to love God! 

Halfway through

As you know, Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If you've been following my blog for the last several years, you also know that I usually have my students write about their dreams after listening to a portion of the famous "I Have a Dream" speech. So here are a few of my students' dreams this year:

“I want to teach art. I want to work at a grocery store. And finally I want to work as a doctor.”

“I have 3 dreams. You know how people drive cars and crash and sometimes die. Well people should just ride on eagles. My 2nd dream is that half of the world should live on Mars. My 3rd dream is that I want to live in a barn. Most of the house is going to be a home. The rest of the house is going to be a barn and there are going to be horses in the barn.”

One girl wrote about wanting to be a teacher and go to different places in the world like Paris, Florida,  Washington, and New York. “Teach and travel T.A.T. is for me! I would also get married and have children after I travel. I do not know how I will fit it all in! But I will somehow!”

We are officially halfway through the year now. This bright group of students continues to ask questions with the purpose of stumping me, I think. ("Where does the sun get its energy from?" "Did Elijah die when God took him up to heaven?" "Did Elijah go through space to get to heaven?")

It's that time of the year when students have become quite comfortable with me and reaaaallllly comfortable with each other! One boy has taken it upon himself to remind his friend (who is always eager to eat his lunch and one time declared, "There is nothing in my lunch!") to wash his hands at lunchtime. I won't complain - that's one less thing I have to worry about!

The girls like to play with each other's hair during read aloud. A couple of the boys thought it would be funny to play with each other's hair. On the inside, I was amused. But my teacher face and voice told them it was distracting and to stop it.

As the year progresses, it seems the class needs more reminders to be quiet during class. One time, in exasperation, I proclaimed, "I don't want to hear a peep!" to which one boy responded, "Peep," in a tiny voice. Again, slightly amused on the inside, but not at all on the outside.

One day I said to them (I have no recollection of what I was talking about), "Use your common sense." The response? "We don't have any!"

Recently a midterm report was returned weeks late with the explanation, "It got lost and dirty," as he held the crumpled paper out to me between his thumb and forefinger. Later he handed me his homework explaining, "It has a little breakfast on it."

Lastly, one boy has taken to saying "Same diff," if anyone corrects him. Like when he was talking about a wedding in a story and we told him it was an anniversary. "Same diff. They're the same thing."

Writing samples to brighten your day

I believe it's time to share some writing samples from my kiddos with you, because there's nothing like reading the sincere words of a child to brighten your day!

On a Social Studies test, they were asked to explain the following quote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

“It means people are killing people and the martyrs don’t make any excuses. The seed grows and the Christianity grows.”

“It means that even though Christians died for their faith it just helped more and more people to become Christians. So even though the emperors tried to stop Christianity, it just helped more and more people to believe so that made the church even bigger.”

“When Christians are willing to die for their faith, other people see that if they’re willing to die for their faith then God must be someone important. And they turn their hearts to God.”

“People die for their faith and nonbelievers see that, and think WOW! Their God is so great they’re dying for him. And so I believe that God made that happen for good. So other nonbelievers could become believers of him.”

"Write about your favorite place. Include where it is located, a description of it, and why it is so special to you."

"One of my favorite places is….. School. We get to learn a lot and play/talk with friends at recess. We have a lot of fun times learning! If I had to tell words to describe my class they would be fun, awesome, friendly and FF (friends forever)."

On a reading page, they wrote the story of Lazarus's resurrection from his point of view. (We had just studied David in Bible class.)

“I was in heaven and I sang songs with other people. I got a picture of David.” 

“I heard a voice calling to me. It was like a lion’s roar. It said: LAZARUS COME OUT!!! It was Jesus calling me. I stood and waddled out. Jesus told them to unwrap the grave cloth. I couldn’t believe it. I was alive again!” 

“...and then I was in heaven, and there was a race car I could drive it wherever I wanted. First I went to see God. And then David and he signed his name on my shirt. Then God said Lazarus you are going to come to earth again. Before I knew it I was alive. I stood up and hopped over to Jesus and said “hi” and then they unwrapped the cloths.”