Laugh Lines November/December 2006

Poetic License
At the end of our poetry unit, my co-teacher and I were reviewing all the different types of poetry that we had taught our fourth graders. The children were calling out answers like haiku, cinquain and free verse. One student raised her hand and said, "cement." My coteacher and I looked at each other and chuckled. I asked her, "Do you mean concrete poems?" "Oh, yeah," she responded and laughed. Boy, did that make our day!
Danelle M. Gower
Jacksonville, FL

The First Step
One year I was sitting with my kindergarten class talking about Character Counts and how important it was to be nice to each other. We were having bullying situations at our grade level. I asked the question, "How do you stand up for yourself?" A quiet student in the back of the room said, "With your two legs."
Amanda Patterson
Roswell, NM

Animal Noises
During center time I saw one of my students sitting by himself near a shelf of animals. He picked up each animal and said its sound. For the horse he said, "Neigh." For the cow he said, "Moo." For the wolf he said, "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!"
Feige Fishelis
Brooklyn, NY

Tale of Tattling
I have a strict "no tattling" rule in my kindergarten classroom. One of my students has persisted in his attempts to get others into trouble. I have made it a habit to ask him, "Are you about to tattle?" He has made progress and can usually stop himself and confess "yes" and walk away. However, the other day he showed great improvement. He began walking up to me with that predictable look on his face, but before I could say anything he announced, "I'm about to tattle."
Corey Holman
Kansas City, MO

Cold Facts
While I was teaching my kindergarten class about the seasons, we made our own calendar. One student exclaimed, "Hey, I figured out why the last four months end in 'ber.'" I asked her why and she answered, "Because those are the cold months and everyone walks around going, 'Brrr!'"
Irene Hrycenko
Allentown, PA

Inspecting the Evidence
At Christmastime, some of the students were concerned about the existence of Santa Claus. They all believed but were looking for some concrete truth about him, his elves, etc. They even discussed that only boys could be elves. One little girl was adamant that she knew for a fact that Santa existed and that even girls could be elves. She announced, "I know that anyone can be an elf for Santa. I got a sleeping bag for Christmas and there was a tag inside that said 'inspected by Debbie' so I know that Debbie is one of Santa's elves!" That settled that. The class decided that Santa existed and even girls could be elves!
Lynda Courage
Webster, NY

November/December, 2006, Vol.37, No.3