Kids Say The Darndest Things

I hand out a phonics sheet for the students to complete. It's a rhyming sheet and they need to cut and paste the pictures that rhyme. One of the pictures is "dice" and the picture that needs to be pasted beside it is a picture of "mice". I guess some of these pictures are a bit confusing for some as some of them aren't sure what goes with what.

"I don't know what goes with mouse." My student shows me the picture of the 2 mice as she tells me this.

"That's not mouse. What's it called when there are two of them?"

Ever so softly she says, "Rat."

So cute ... I chuckled a bit and told her it was mice.

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There's this little boy in my school who looks exactly like Webster ... that tv character?

(this guy)

"You know, you look just like a person who's name is Webster!"

"Yeah ... a lot of people have told me that. I haven't seen a picture of him so I don't know what he looks like ... but I have his dictionary."

Fuckin classic.

What's the probability of a student not getting "Probability"?

Teaching probability can be fun. Especially the informal interviews that you should conduct nearing the end of a unit.

My students need to learn about the key words "sometimes, always, never" when talking about probability.

Example:

1. In the summer I sometimes go swimming.
2. In the summer I never wear my snowsuit.
3. In the summer I always have an ice cold beer on my patio every night.*

So the interview consisted of giving phrases and the students having to say sometimes, never or always. It also had me asking questions to them regarding things that they would sometimes, always and never do in some seasons.

A few snippets if you will:

"Ok, I'm going to read some sentences to you and for each one you need to tell me always, sometimes, or never."

"Always!"

"I haven't read any of them yet."

"Oh."

----------------------------------------------------

"What is something that you never do in the winter?"

"Never."

"No ... what's something that you NEVER do in the winter?"

"Always?"

"Ok .... what is an ACTIVITY that you would NEVER do in the winter?"

"Never."

"No ... an ACTIVITY! What's an ACTIVITY ... something that you DO .... what is an ACTIVITY that you would NEVER do in the WINTER?"

"Sometimes."

Oh ... dear God. Gotta love the 6 year olds. Seriously .... GOTTA love them.

I think I need that beer now as it is not something that I reserve only for the summers.

*Ok, I didn't use this one with them.