Geoboard shapes

We were making shapes on the pegboards with rubber bands (Geoboards and Geobands, respectively) and recording our creations on recording sheets - the point of the exercise was accurately representing the boards on the dot paper.

For the last part of the lesson, I had the students use seven geobands and try to make a picture. Here's what one of them made:

"Mr. Graham! Mr. Graham! It's a man who REALLY has to go to the bathroom!"

AMAZING.

"Down by the baaaaaay..."

I was singing "Down by the bay" with the kids at the end of the day, waiting for the bell to ring. It's tricky to rhyme some of my kids' names, but we were giving it our best. "Did you ever see Rosanna... eating a banana? Down by the bay?" seemed to work, but when it came to Leyna, that was a bit trickier. "Did you ever see Leyna... turning a key-na? ...being mean-a?" Then My, SO proud of herself, interrupts. "No! Mr. Graham! Mr. Graham! Did you ever see Leyna... eating a bean-a?" My then proceeds to laugh hysterically and almost tips over into the wall, she's laughing so hard. And in the back of my head, I'm thinking, "She can rhyme! YES!"

A Full Life

At lunch today, one of the students asked me if I owned a TV. "Well, no", I replied, thinking that the TV I actually watch is on a computer or other device, but not really wanting to explain that. An absolutely shocked look came over his face. "You don't?" he stammered. "But! But! Oh, Mr. Graham," a woeful look came over his face. "That means you don't have a full life."
"A full life?" I questioned.
"Yeah, a full life. You hafta get a house and a wife and a car and stuff like a TV. Oh, and tapes."
"Tapes?" I thought.
Shaking his head, Jerrod bestowed his final judgment on me. "Mr. Graham, you have, like, a half life."

Fortunately, my "half life" still included a turkey sandwich, so I ate that while trying not to chuckle.

"But, Mr. Graham!"

I was working at my table with a reading group today, listening with half of an ear to the kids on the rug, when I heard one student say to another (somewhat snidely, I thought), "Hey, Jaydeen, how's the dummy book?"
"Luke!" I said, turning away from the table. "Please make sure that you are using polite language and being a good friend!"
"But, Mr. Graham!" he replied. "It's the title of the book!"
"Yeah," said Jaydeen. "See? It's called Night of the Living Dummies."

Oh, well, hmm. There is that, I suppose.

Who says that chivalry is dead?

My mom and my for-all-intents-and-purposes-cousin Ellen came in to the classroom yesterday, because Ellen was just passing through town and wouldn't be around long enough to meet up after school. Some of the kids were asking questions, and one student asked, "How old are you?" Ellen answered, "Well, I'm 26", just as Marcus, with this incredibly shocked and worried look on his face, leans over to the other student and says in a loud whisper, "You can't do that! You're never supposed to ask a girl how old she is!"

"Mr. Graham! Mr. Graham!"

So, I was digging through some piles in my classroom, and found a Scholastic magazine about St. Patrick's Day. Insomuch as it was already April, I decided that we should read it before it got even less topical. I passed it out to the kids, and they were looking through it before we read the text together. I was circulating in the classroom, and saw Irvin looking at this section pictured above. With a very worried look on his face, he looks up at me, and exclaims, "Mr. Graham! Mr. Graham! Why is that man killing that leprechaun?"