Can't Wear Flip Flops to School

There's a rule at my school that students aren't allowed to wear flip flops - or any shoe without a back. Carlie came to school one day wearing flip flops. I probably wouldn't have noticed but some of the other kids made a big deal out of it. Anyway, she had to call home to get a new pair of shoes or sandals with a back. When her step-mom came she ended up checking her out of school. She came back an hour later wearing entirely different clothes.

Carlie: Sorry to be so long but my step-mom couldn't find my other pair of shoes so we had to go buy some. But theses ones (showing me her new shoes) didn't match my other outfit so we had to buy a new shirt and skirt that matched.

Election Time

I have taught first grade now for two presidential elections. Throughout both of those years, we had some great conversations about the presidential election. I love hearing what bits and pieces of politics they have overheard from their parents. These are some of the things I heard:

"I wouldn't vote for any of them because neither of them believe in God."

"My dad said he's not going to vote for him because he doesn't keep his promises."

"Does that mean that President Monson won't be president anymore?" - with a worried look on his face.

"I heard that they're going to change the flag now and put the new president's face on it!"

Another worried face: "My sister said that since he got elected we're going to have to go to school for more days now."

In response to the question 'who knows who is running for president?' - "George Washington!" or "Abraham Lincoln!" or "President Hinckley!"

During lunch our school had mock election booths set up where the students could vote for president. At the end of the day they announced which candidate won according to the votes at our school. The next morning they announced who really did win. My students' response: "Yes! We were right!"

Gotta love a six year old's perspective on politics.

The First Person to See the Dinosaurs

At the end of every year we spend a week doing various theme days. One such day is dinosaur day. The kids love this day; everything we do has something to do with dinosaurs.

On this particular day we had just finished reading a book about dinosaurs and several of the students had questions that had come up as a result of reading the book. On child asked, "Who was the first person to see dinosaurs?"

Gage (who is the type of student who never stops talking - to himself or to anyone who will listen) immediately responded: "God, of course!"

Quote of the Day

I love when my students walk up to me and say some random comment, like this one:

"Do you know what makes sense?


The government."


No idea where that one came from.

A Letter of Apology

There's a girl, Brenda, in my class who has been prone to steal things from me and other students as well as lie to me. There are several stories I could write about, and will some day, illustrating her thieving tendencies.

Here's one example. I have these reading card sets that the students use to practice their fluency.

Brenda took one of these home one day. Having several of them, I didn't notice it was even missing. After school several days later, Brenda and her mom came in. It looked like Brenda had been crying. After much coaxing from her mom, Brenda finally apologized for taking one of the sets of cards and returned it to me.

Several weeks later (and after I had found a few other things in her backpack that she was trying to take home), she wrote me this letter in class:



For any who are not used to first grade spelling and the letter s written backwards it says,

I will try my best to be kind to you and try my best to not take your stuff.



We'll see how long that lasts!

Red Air Quality Alert

This morning on the school-wide morning announcements the principal announced that today was a red air quality day outside and so we would be having inside recess.

On our way to lunch we walk through a hallway that is part glass, ceiling to floor. Today as we walked down that hall Brenda looked outside and then turned to me and said, "The air doesn't look red to me. Does that mean we can go outside now?"



I guess I need to explain what red air quality means.

Syllables

A few months ago we were learning about syllables and clapping out various words to see how many syllables were in each word. First we did all of our names - most kids had two syllables, some had one and a few a three. Then I asked them to think of words and we would clap them to count the syllables. Most words came from items around the classroom: chair, table, desk, pencil, book, etc. Sometime during the lesson we had this conversation:

Nate: It seems like most words have one, two or three syllables in them.

Me: I think all of the words we have done so far haven't had any more than three syllable, have they?

Katie: What about the word 'hypoallergenic' though? It has more.



True. That one does. I guess I wouldn't have thought of that word for a first grade lesson.

Santa

Before our winter break I read the book, How Santa Got His Job, to my class. It's a cute story about the various jobs Santa had that led him to his current job delivering presents on Christmas Eve. My kids got quite into the story, making connections as to how the different jobs helped him learn something that he does in his job now. After the story, Chase raised his hand (which doesn't happen too often - usually he just shouts out his thoughts) and said, "I know, so this book is a non-fiction book!"

I guess I'll leave that one up to Mom and Dad to teach.

The Problem with an Earthquake

We have been writing haunted house stories for Halloween this week. The students had to write a 'sloppy copy' first to make sure they spelled everything correctly and had included everything from the assignment. Then they got their final copy, which was a book made up of an orange construction paper cover with a picture of a haunted house and lined paper inside with a spot to draw the pictures. On all the other books I had just stuck the lined paper inside the cover and told them that I would staple it after they finished writing. When I got to Chase, he said, "I need to staple my book because if there is a really strong earthquake in the mountain it might take the page out."



Right . . . I guess that could happen.

Disease

One day Maddie randomly came up to me and said: My grandpa has that disease that makes you die.



Oh, that disease . . .

Skin Color

Today one of my students was sharing with the class some of the culture and traditions of her native country. Chase seemed quite intrigued during the short presentation. As soon as she was done he pipped up: I've seen someone with your color of skin but it wasn't you our your family.

That's funny. I thought she and her family were the only ones with that color of skin . . .

Our Nation's Economy

Here is a first grader's view on our nation's current economic situation.

Maddie: Something is going bad around here.

Me (unsure at this point what she was referencing): Yeah? Like what?

Maddie: You know, 'cause there is going to be no money and no bank and stuff like that.

Oh.

I Sound Just Like the Mouse

I just finished reading a chapter book to my class. At the end we were discussing some of our favorite parts. Brady mentioned that his favorite part was when the mouse talked because he always got words mixed up. I said "Yeah. Like when he said, 'I must sell tomebody. I mean I must tell somebody.' [said in the high, squeaky voice I used for the mouse in the book]. Belinda started laughing and said, "Teacher, you sound just like the mouse did in the book!"

A Beaver???

After explaining what to do on the paper I was going to give my students, I handed it out to one student at a time and then they were to go back to their desk and get started. I handed one to Chase and he walked back to his desk. I watched him as he pulled his chair out and put his paper on his desk. He didn't sit down, however. Instead, he knelt down and started gnawing on his desk!?!

I asked him to come back over to me and he immediately got up and walked back to me. I asked him what he was doing. After putting his head down and looking to the ground in his characteristic 'ashamed' look, he said, "I was being like a beaver."

What do you say to that?

Nope, I Didn't Cry

During the first week of school, the first grade teachers eat lunch in the lunchroom with the kids so they know what to and so they don't get up on the tables and jump from one to another and stuff like that. (Yes, that did happen one year.) Anyway, this year, I was eating at one table with a group of kids from my class. Having to stay in the lunchroom the entire lunch time (because some of the children take that long to eat their lunch), I was leisurely eating. As kids finished eating they went outside. After a while it was just me and Maddie at the table.

As Maddie was finishing the last of her chocolate milk, she looked at me and said, "I'm almost done. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?"

Me: "Yeah. I will be."

Maddie: "Have you ever done it before?"

Me: "Yeah . . ."

Maddie, in a softer voice: "Did you cry?"

Me: "Um, nope, I didn't cry!"

Thanks for being so concerned about me Maddie!