vocabulary

jonathan is an avid reader and is always trying to incorporate the new words he uses in his writing, even when he's not quite sure what they mean:

"i just found out yesterday that my best friend, kevin, is moving away!! oh, the sadness!!! oh, the prosperity!!!"

apocalypse

we noticed in math that the date was 10/10/08. megan commented that in two years the date would be 10/10/10 which the kids thought was pretty exciting. then they realized that it'll happen again in 2011 and 2012 and then in 2099 it will be 9/9/99. they got increasingly excited for each date...except for dominick. he looked more and more concerned until he finally asked, "how long is this world going to last?"

farmers

i told the kids that the roman empire started as a small group of farmers and eventually grew to include most of europe and parts of asia and africa. bryson wondered aloud, "i wonder how a group of farmers conquered so much land." ryan had the most logical answer, "i think they used their pitchforks."

surprise

noticing that noah was busy flexing and inspecting his skinny little biceps, mrs. m stopped at his desk and said, "wow, noah, those are some pretty big muscles you have there." perplexed, he replied, "yeah, i know...and i don't even know how they got that big!"

recipe

1. how to make spider soup.
2. you put a loote of evel
3. no happynise
4. put allot of suger
5. with evel
6. put chiken heads in it.

end

-madison

flying

i was explaining how birds could fly. i told the class that part of the reason we can't fly is because our bones are full of marrow and other things, but birds have hollow bones that make them lighter. lucy pondered this for a minute then asked, "what if i didn't eat for a week...then could i fly?"

snide

isaac liked to bring his copy of "what your third grader needs to know" to school with him. while i would teach a lesson, he would turn to the corresponding chapter and share facts or look up things for us. one day i was lauding the intelligence of my class and dyllan muttered resentfully, to no one in particular, "take away isaac's book, THEN we'll see how smart he is."

fire

we were preparing for a fire drill and i told the kids that when they heard the alarm they should put everything down, quietly line up at the door, and follow me out. i asked if there were any questions. teague raised his hand and said, very seriously, "i just have one thing to say. if any of you have this [he held up a small bottle of hand sanitizer] in your desk, you should take it out with you." i asked him why, thinking that having germ free hands would be the least of our concerns in an actual fire. he responded, "because on the bottle it says 'keep away from flames.'"