Compliments From the Heart

I was dismissing my students after school when a little girl came up to me and gave me a big hug. She looked up at me and said in her sweetest voice, "Miss King, you look just like my mum." I smiled back at her and thanked her for such a lovely compliment. Another little girl, standing next to us, came and gave me a big hug as well. Hoping to outdo her classmate, she looked up at me and said in her sweetest voice, "Miss King, you look just like my Grandma."

The Great Canadian Kookaburra

We were talking about the symbols on Canadian coins during math last week. The students did a good job identifying the maple leaf, the beaver, the sailboat, and even the caribou. But no one in my class was able to remember what animal was on the one dollar coin. Here are the responses I got:

• duck
• goose
  
• swan
• no, really a duck
• Canada goose (good guess at least)
• blue bird
• flamingo
  
• but I think it's a duck
• owl
• eagle
• crow
• It's a duck!
• magpie
  
• kookaburra

I refused to tell them what animal it is. They all had homework to find out. I'm sure they must wonder why it's called a Loonie.

If you don't want your fingers to stink...

After lunch one of my students was intently smelling his fingers. Each time he smelled them, he would wrinkle up his nose. He seemed confused and upset about his fingers.

Teacher: Why are you smelling your fingers?

Student: My fingers stink! [smells fingers]

Teacher: Why do your fingers stink?

Student: I don't know. [smells fingers again]

Teacher: Well, what were you doing outside?

Student: We were looking at deer poo. [continues to smell fingers]

Teacher: I don't think it was deer poo. It might have been dog poo. But your fingers shouldn't stink from just looking at it.

Student: Well, we played with it a little too. [smelling fingers again]

Teacher: Stop smelling your fingers and go wash your hands! Right now! With soap! And if you don't want your fingers to stink, then don't play with poo!

Alright, everyone sit down...

Last year I was teaching grade one. On the first day I was trying to find out who was going home for lunch and who was staying at school. I got the whole class to sit at the carpet. I asked the students who go home for lunch to stand up. A few kids stood up. The kids sitting next to them noticed their neighbour stand up and thought that maybe they were supposed to stand up too. One by one the whole class stood up.

Alright, everyone sit down...

You're looking hot today

After gym, a little boy came up to me and said, "Miss King, you're lookin' pretty hot today." I wasn't sure how to react to this comment. I wondered if maybe this is how they complimented each other at home, or maybe he didn't know what it meant or how inappropriate it would be to say that to your teacher. I stalled, trying to think of what to say. The little boy noticed I was confused so he added a little more to help clarify. "You're kinda sweaty, ya' know. Are ya hot?" To my great relief, I realized that my seven year old student wasn't hitting on me but simply stating the obvious. I guess I wasn't looking so "hot" after all.

Animal Sort

I gave my grade one class a page full of animal pictures to cut out and sort into two groups. They could chose whatever groups they wanted to sort the animals into but they had to be able to explain how they sorted it. I came to one boy's desk. His titles were Flying and Not Flying. I looked over his work and saw he had the snail, the hamster, the snake, and the cow under the heading of Not Flying. He had the bird, the ladybug, the butterfly, and the deer under the heading of Flying. "You put the deer in the wrong category," I explained. "It should be in under the Not Flying heading." The boy looked up at me and rolled his eyes. "Santa's deer fly," he patiently explained to me. I hastily wrote Reindeer next to the picture and moved on. Sometimes adults just don't get it!