Ponderings

Today I had the students review some of the spellings of long vowel words while hanging up paper clothes. Quite fun watching them figure out how to use clothes pins. But the best part was a conversation between two boys. The word was phone. Yep, you know what's coming.

"Grab a p"
"No, it's an f. phhhhhone...."
"No, it starts with a p."
And now you can tell that he's thinking..."It doesn't say pone. It's an f."

I was able to show them a few more words then that have a ph in the word to create the f sound. I just had to laugh at their disagreement over letters.

***

This morning I ended up (kind of) scrunching my hair with mousse and letting the rain create a not-so-straight hair-do. One of my lovely girls said, "What did you do to your hair?"

"What do you mean?"
"It looks like you didn't brush it."
Another girl chimes in..."Teacher, you really need to bring a brush to school so you can brush your hair here."

I love their honesty!

***

I lied to my students. I told them that Edward Tulane was coming to see them yesterday at 11:15. They grabbed their books they made for Edward (just blank pages to keep track of thinking and mental images) and headed to the Hive. As they waited for him to open the door, they were super excited when someone walked by the room. And then the cheers turned to groans when they realized it was a girl going by.

At 11:15, I pulled out The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. It took the students quite a while to figure out that Edward wasn't real and even after reading another chapter, they were still wondering when Edward was coming. They were quite disappointed that he really wasn't coming.

I am hoping that this class will fall in love with Edward the way my students from last year did. They still speak of him with joy and love in their hearts.