Precious moments

You know how 3rd graders are really 2nd graders (meaning they're still so small!)...well I forget sometimes that they can only handle so much. At some point today we were putting labels on our "Take Home Folders". It took about 5 minutes to pass out the labels and have them put them ON TOP and IN THE CENTER of their folder and write their name in permanent marker, BUT ONLY WRITE ON YOUR FOLDER, IT'S PERMANENT MARKER! We're almost done with the whole scene when one of my students holds up his spirals (or composition books, or journals, or notebooks as I've already explained the fifteen times, each kid insisting on calling them a different name) and asks "What do we do with the spirals??" Oh my. I can't even tell you the conversations we had about spirals earlier. We barely made it out alive. I'm all..."Are we talking about spirals now?" And of course his response, "Oh. no." To which I answer in a slightly higher pitched voice, "Then put the spirals away. Now. And nobody gets hurt." Organizing supplies when you overestimate how many directions 8 year olds can take at a time can be a real mess.

Another funny thing was little Johnny. He's a literal type of guy. Takes everything at face value. Gotta love him. He comes up to the lunch line out of breath. So, of course I ask him if he was running. He looks at me for a while, and I can tell that he's really thinking, "Man! Do I lie or tell the truth. Lie or tell the truth, man!?" While this battle is going on inside his head, I'm waiting patiently. He finally responds and tells me he was actually jogging. As if he was getting a quick workout in before lunch. I smiled, told him this was his warning, there is no jogging in the cafeteria, hugged him and told him I appreciated his honesty.