January 28, 2014

First of all, I'm ashamed to say that I forgot a quote from M yesterday!

M: Do you want to hear about this thing I saw from York Country?
Me: [inner monologue: York Country?] No, not really.
M: You know them papers that they have? The tissue paper that's all cut up for decoration?
Me: Papel picado?
M: Yea, that I saw that in Richmond at an eating place.
Me: A restaurant? [Inner monologue: What is York Country? Wait, does she mean "your" country? That makes more sense. Except, this is my country. So she thinks I'm Mexican.]

Talking about Mesoamerican Indians with third graders...

Girl: Who built the pyramids for them?
Me: What do you mean? The Aztec pyramids?
Girl: Yea, who built them?
Me: Well, the Aztecs.

Boy: Did they ever sacrifice anyone by throwing them off of the pyramid?
Me: I don't think so. I'd have to check to be sure.
Boy: Like they threw them off the pyramid into a ring of fire?
Me: Well I'm fairly certain no one was ever thrown into a ring of fire. [Inner monologue: I fell into a burning ring of fire...]

While reading a book about Pablo Picasso in kindergarten, we learned that his blue period started when his best friend died...

Boy: Sometimes when you grow up, your friends die before you.
Me: I suppose that does happen.

First grade, tick tok tick tok...

Boy: Look at my watch. If you press this button it counts. It can count all the way to 59.
Me: That's right, it's counting seconds. There are 60 seconds in a minute.
Boy: See, watch. And if you forget any numbers it tells you because they're on there.

First grade native speakers got some splaining to do...

Boy: Me and her and Miss Black know more Spanish than all of you.
Me: Of course we do, sweetie. You 2 are native speakers, that means you speak Spanish at home.
Boy: No. My mom doesn't know no Spanish. She's learning. I go to Louisville to church to learn Spanish.
Girl: Louisville is for some people who speak Spanish but more for people who speak English.
Boy: 101 people speak Spanish there!
...
Girl 2: I think church is more important than just having fun.
Girl: Church is for talking to God, you know?

A kindergarten girl walks into the empty room before dismissal...

Girl: I guess we're the first ones here.
Me: That's a good guess.
Girl: It's because sometimes I think. Wait, I need to zip up my coat.
Me: Sometimes you think.
Girl: How did my coat do that?
Me: And sometimes you don't.

The funniest thing happened and I wish I could share it with my kindergarteners...

Ever since Dexter came back to Netflix I've been running some hardcore marathons when I'm on my own. I'm up to season 8 (the final season) and in the first episode I hear this guy say what sounded like "sapo". I figured that I misheard it because I was in the kitchen making my very adult meal of chicken nuggets and mac and cheese at the time. But then I heard him say "Mr. Toad" so I knew that he must have said sapo because sapo means toad. I got so excited because I just taught kindergarten "The Sapo Song" and I thought, "Wow, what a funny example of running across Spanish in real life. I should tell my students." But then I realized that very few 5 year-olds probably watch Dexter.  At least I hope that's the case. Even if it is a case of poor parenting and kids just watch whatever is on TV, Dexter isn't on the air anymore so the kids are probably watching a current show that is equally damaging.