From the Mouths of Firsties...

Anyone who has spent any time with small children (or has seen the show with the same title), knows that Kids Say the Darnedest Things!

Ever since I've been teaching I've thought I should be writing down some of the crazy, confusing, comical, and profound stuff that comes out of those little toothless wonders.

Well, now I have the perfect place to keep a record of the best darned things I hear.  So, be looking for "From the Mouths" posts to be a staple around here.

The first quotable moment was just cute...

Kids were working on their entry task.  Normally I meander through the room giving stamps and praise for effort/neatness/accuracy/etc. while also handing out pointers for things that need fixed.  "Can you make that a lowercase b?"  "Right number! Wrong direction. Can you turn around your 5?" "What goes at the end of a sentence?"  "Check this equation."  You know...stuff like that.

Well, today, because I was feeling a little lazy had a sudden stroke of genius, I thought, "Why not have the kids check each others' work.  That way they are the ones spotting the errors...and therefore, learning more." 

They ate it up too.  They love being the teacher and putting a start on someone else's paper and coaching each other.  I still kept an eye out, but they spotted almost everything that needed fixing.  It was awesome.

So now, the cute quote you've been waiting for...as they were looking over one another's papers I heard one little guy say, "That needs to be a downercase D."

His neighbor, with a befuddled look on his face responds, "There is no such thing as a downercase."

Another student pipes in, "I think he means lowercase."

They all giggle.

Uppercase/downercase makes a little more sense, don't you think?  Or highercase/ lowercase even?  But really, uppercase/lowercase?  I guess it works too...but first grade logic is sometimes dead on.

Oh, and on a side note.  Yes there is such a thing as a "Downer Case."  

 

Okay, so the "downercase" things was cute.  The second quotable moment could be described as "comical" or "me, failing at my job."  (Wah wah...yeah, I know).  I am going to call it funny and look past the fact that it illustrates how much I bombed this lesson.

Anyway, with MLK day coming up, the kids spent a lot of time this week learning about MLK...where he came from, who he was, what he stood for.  In addition, they did several activities and heard stories about fairness and other civil rights icons, like Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks.

I wasn't around for the better part of the week, but I know what they did with the guest teachers...and I know what they heard/did when I was back at school.  I thought by the end of the week they would have a pretty good grasp on civil rights, segregation, and equality.

So Friday, we did this little egg thingy as a culminating activity.  I got the idea from my teaching partner who must have got it from TPT or a blog.  Well, it's a perfect primary analogy.

You get a brown egg and a white egg.  You look at the outside.  You discuss the similarities and differences.  The kids say funny things like, "They must have come from different chickens!"  and "Maybe from a brown chicken and a white chicken."  You have kids predict what we will find inside when we crack the eggs open.  Kids say funny things like, "I hope it's a baby chick and we can keep him."  Many students think the eggs will be different on the inside too.  You crack the eggs. HOLD THE PHONE!  They are the SAME inside!?!  What?!?!  Oh, the shock.  Oh, the awe.  

You get it...a perfect visual for how we may be different on the outside, but we are the same on the inside.  Eggs are eggs.  People are people.  We are all people and deserve to be treated as such.

"How could you bomb such a simple activity?" you ask.

Well, you see, we are supposed to discuss and post the learning target (goal, objective, whatever you want to call it) before, during, and after each lesson we teach so that students know what they are learning...and hopefully why too.

Generally speaking, I do.  Sometimes I forget.  Sometimes I don't really have one.  Sometimes the target is "We can stay busy so our teacher can catch her breath."  Just kidding, but seriously.  Sometimes, ON PURPOSE, I don't say the target right away because I want the kids to try to figure out why we are doing something and how it connects to other things we've learned.

That's what I decided to do with the egg thing.  I was sure that this little group of geniuses would get it after all they had done with MLK this week.

Ummm. wrong.  I asked, "Why do you think we did this activity with the eggs?  We haven't been learning about eggs...try to think of other things we have been focusing on this week and how the eggs remind you of something else we've learned."

I had the kids share with their neighbors first...most said, "I don't know why we looked at the eggs." But after a few minutes of discussion I had a couple really eager hands waving frantically in the air; these were kids I could count on to provide a quality response...the kids I would probably call on if the principal was in the room.  Just kidding, but seriously.

So, I call on one student and he says, "I know!  We did it because when we go to high school in science we will cut frogs open."

Ummm...okay...I'm getting them ready for high school science by looking inside of stuff.  Gotta appreciate the creativity of that response, but no.

I can't remember what the little girl said, but it was equally off-base.

So, I decided to give them a hint.  I said it really didn't have much to do with the eggs, but was connected to why we wouldn't be coming to school on Monday.  I then pointed to our calendar and a picture of MLK.  Surely they'd put the pieces together now.

Some of the responses I got were:

"The brown eggs are for the brown people and the white eggs are for the white people." <Cringe>  No!

"You wanted us to know that Martin Luther King loved eggs!"
OMG!  Really?  Ever seen the AT&T commercials with the guy asking kids "What's better?" questions?

But, we kept at it...I wasn't going to just tell them...I wanted them to get there.  I said, "Hmmm, they were so different on the outside!  That was amazing how they were just the same on the inside!"

I can't recall all the crazy things I heard before we finally got to a student who said, "It's like how we should treat each other equally because of what's on the inside and not how we look on the outside."

Finally!  We had a good conversation after that about how the egg activity represented what MLK stood for and I could see little light bulbs going off, but goodness sake!  Next year, I think I'll state the target first...or at least give them a hint beforehand. 

Anyway, that was a long post to say a couple little things.  But, happy MLK Jr. day.  Have some eggs for breakfast to celebrate, because don't you know?  That was MLK's favorite!