Fragment

It's official. I love my class this year. I know I said this last year, but this year it is also true. There is this one girl who seems to make me laugh often (I know; usually it's the boys that make me laugh). Anyway, one of my pet peeves is that the kids come into fifth grade thinking that dependent clauses are sentences just because it has a capital letter and a period at the end. I quickly burst that bubble and drown them in practicing the difference between dependent and independent clauses. They can now say in their sleep that a dependent clause is considered a fragment (I'm so proud!).
During reading time today, we were focusing on character traits. I used this story about a girl who is a copy cat type character. The discussion went to the idea that this character is not an independent person. This little girl said, "Yeah, I agree. She's just a fragment."

I loved it!

Not my grandparents!

One of the fifth grade science lessons is about the 6 life processes that all living things do. They are: 1) gets energy 2) uses energy 3) gets rid of waste 4) grows 5) reacts to change 6) reproduce. As a way to practice looking for all six processes, kids pick picture cards out of a basket. They get to talk in a small group to go through the 6 life processes and decide if something is really alive. A little girl in my class got “grandparents.” I happen to know her grandma, which makes this even more funny. When she got her card, she sat and thought about it. Then, she came up to me and said:

Girl: Ms. F, I know that my grandparents are alive but they don’t do all of the life processes.

Me: Really?! They are people aren’t they? Which ones don’t they do?

Girl: Well, they don’t reproduce!

Me: Of course, they did. How do you think they became grandparents?

Girl: Ms. F, there is just no way. Not my grandparents!

Me: Why not? They had your parents.

Girl: They’re just so old.

Me: They weren’t always that old.

Girl: Can I just pick another card?

By the end of the day..

Every once and awhile I have a day that reminds me why I love teaching. It isn’t for the funny things that kids say (although I love that). We were starting to use our writing journals today, and I have this basket with writing ideas laminated on index cards. I get them from a variety of sources: my head, my heart, teaching magazines, books on teaching writing, etc. Anyway, I reached into the writing basket and this card came out: “If your teacher won a million dollars, what do you think s/he’d would do with it?” Just as I finished reading the question and a boy in my class said: “she’d choose a different career.” If you knew this boy’s personality, you’d know (like I did) that he didn’t mean it to be disrespectful. So, after quieting the reaction of the rest of the class, I said, “what makes you say that?” He said, “as a teacher, you probably don’t make a lot of money. You see, you’re one of the smartest people I know and I think you should make more money.” It was coming from a really sweet place! I realized there is a lot to what he said. Not surprisingly, he knew that teachers don’t make that much money. I started wondering if he could even conceive of another reason why I am a teacher. So, I asked, and he couldn’t. Wanting to move on with my lesson, I said: “think about it, and give me an answer at the end of the day.” He agreed, and we finished the lesson.

There was no mention of this until I was standing in the lunch room. The same little boy came over to me and said, “Hey, Ms. F, I have a riddle for you.” Humoring him, I said, “let me hear.” He said, “a man is laying dead on the floor of his office. The only thing in the room is an apple and a spilled glass of water. How did he die.” I made two suggestions: “He had a heart attack?” and “he choked on the apple.” With a huge smile, the boy said, “nope, both wrong.” Wanting this conversation to end, I said, “I give up!” He took a deep breath and said, “okay, think about it and give me an answer by the end of the day.” I had know choice but to give the kid a high five.

Getting more Handsome

I can’t believe it’s been this long since I’ve posted. It was a really crazy week last week. I found myself so tired by the end of the week that I felt like I was just this body walking around, and my mind had gone to sleep a long time ago. The class is a really sweet one, and it is not them in and of themselves that tired me out so much. I was more drained from all of the other tasks I’ve taken on. I really like doing them, but it would not be an exaggeration to say I slept/laid around for most of the weekend. Anyway, here are a highlight of last week:


I was walking past the boys bathroom (which is not too far from my classroom by the way), and I heard a little voice from behind the door say, “Hey, Ms. F, is that you?” I stopped and said, “yes, are you alright?” The voice said, “Yup! I knew it was you because I heard your voice. Will you wait a second? I want to give you a hug.” At this point, I’m still not sure who is chatting with me through a bathroom door AND why he so badly wants to give me a hug. So, of course I say, “make sure you wash your hands. I’ll be right out here ” Out walks a little boy that I’ve known since he’s in kindergarten, and actually, I ended up helping one year with kindergarten soccer, and he was in it. The thing is that he was so much taller and older looking. He’d lost that kindergarten/1st grade baby face. As if this couldn’t get more ridiculous, we had this conversation:

Me: Hey, Bobby, you surprised me! I didn’t know who was coming out of the bathroom.
Boy: Yup, it was me. I saw you yesterday but you were talking to someone else. I don’t think you saw me.
Me: I don’t think I did.
Boy: You could of also not recognized me because I got more handsome this summer. That’s what my grandma told me. So, maybe you didn’t know it was me.
Me: I think that was it! You did get very handsome this summer.
Boy: (big smile) I knew that was it! See you later, Ms. F.

So cute! He “got so handsome” he thought I didn’t recognize him. Also, he was totally okay talking to me through the bathroom door. Haha..