"Don't worry, Ms. Louise!"

My parents were heading for Washington DC to see a sister of mine, so my mother came into the classroom to say goodbye. She was explaining to the class about where she was going, and fielding questions about her plans to meet up with President Obama. As she was getting ready to depart and waving goodbye, one of my girls piped up from the rug:

"Don't worry, Ms. Louise! We'll look after your son while you're gone!"

Cute, AND thoughtful.

I'm sorry, what?

We were having sharing time, and one student brought a mini-keyboard thing. She was explaining why it was important to her, and seemed to lose track of where she was:

"It's important to me because it can make this sound" she plays a key "and this sound" plays another key "and also because my grandmother gave it to me before..."

"Before?" I innocently prompt.

"Yeah, before. Before she went to hell." she finishes, totally seriously, perhaps not even noticing the language.

Oh, wow. Yeah, I chose to roll with that one, rather than try to explore that issue.

"I found almost everything, Mr. Graham...."

At the end of my reading group, I gave the kids a hidden picture sheet to work with. On the way out the door, (switching back to regular classes), David (primarily a Vietnamese speaker) turns to me and says, "I found almost everything, Mr. Graham, except the hooker."

"Sorry, say that again, David?"

"I found almost everything, except the hooker!"

In my head, I'm thinking, "but it's 11 AM... they're not out yet!"

At this point, he is gesturing at the page, which has a fishhook prominently un-crossed out.

Ahhhh, riiight. Gotcha.

High point of the day

We were discussing Martin Luther King, Jr, and reading the book "Martin's Big Words". It was very touching how absolutely shocked the kids were at the idea of people sitting in different parts of the bus based on the color of their skin. "Not fair!" "Wrong!" and "That's racism, Mr. Graham." Very touching.

Earlier in the day, we'd posed for a picture about skin color.

The other high point of the day was three students playing Uno during choosing time: at home, these three students speak Arabic, Vietnamese and Russian, but they can play a fierce game of Uno in English.

"That doesn't help me to get more cards. I have to get zero cards to win!"

Ducks versus Beavers

The Oregon Ducks are playing against Auburn for the BCS championship today, so the kids have been hearing a lot about this at home. As a result of that, every so often, there's a Ducks vs Beavers conversation that crops up during work time. Today's was particularly hilarious.

One student was busily working on her paper, but she popped her head up to comment on the issue:

"I like the Ducks, but I like the Beavers more because of Justin Bieber." (now I'm stuck on the idea of the OSU Biebers. The football helmets could have wigs!)

Correspondence from the front

A couple of notes I received today:

The first, from a first grader in my class this year:

The second, from a student who was a first grader in my K/1 blend last year:

Napoleon?

I was explaining the schedule for January to the kids today, and was talking about having a day off for MLK Day in the middle of January. I'm planning to talk more about MLK and why he is important later in the month, so I'm trying to scoot quickly along and get on to the rest of the day.

One of the kids pipes up with, "Is he important, like NAPOLEON?" and just giggles herself back into her seat. No idea where that came from, or why a 1st grader is even aware of the ostensibly-diminutive former Emperor of the French.