Random acts of kids...

Two funny stories from Teacherland...

Yesterday, I was teaching my first grade class like normal. We were doing this little poem called "But The Critter Got Away". (I don't know, folks. I don't make this stuff up. I just teach it.) So I told the kids the name of the poem and they all dissolved into giggles. I couldn't figure out what they were laughing at. And they wouldn't stop laughing. I finally said, "What is so funny?" By this time, I was laughing too, because they were all so cute giggling. One of them said, "Why is his name Butt?" And then I lost it. And I couldn't stop laughing. Bless their hearts. They thought I said the name of the poem was "Butt, The Critter, Got Away". Punctuation is a funny thing.

Today, I was teaching my third graders. We were doing a song called "Throw It Out the Window". If you're not familiar with the kid song repertoire, basically, the song takes common nursery rhymes and changes them. For example:

Mary had a little lamb,
It's fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
She threw him out the window.
The window, the second story window,
And everywhere that Mary went,
She threw him out the window.

Go ahead...try it with another nursery rhyme. You know you want to.

Anyway, we learned the song as it was written in the book and then, to fulfill the standard about creating, the plan was to have the students think of other nursery rhymes to use in the song. They had to think of a nursery rhyme and then see if it would fit into the song. Some of them do, some of them don't. So I asked them to think of all the nursery rhymes they could think of and try to decide if they would fit into the song. I ended my directions with the words, "No talking. Put on your thinking caps." And, honest to Pete, this one child said, "But mine don't got no batteries."

I can't make this stuff up people. I thought I was going to have to leave the room. Sometimes my job is hilarious.