Of course you have to let it preheat!

Student walks into my class late after I have already begun teaching:
[holding a wet paper towel on his forehead] "Miss Sjoberg, I just have this migraine and I haven't been able to work for the last 2 hours. It's just awful. See, I'm trying to hold this wet cloth on it. And my forehead's been preheating for 2 hours."

I'm not sure what it means for a forehead to be preheating, but it sounds like it's awful.

Favorite 5th grade quotes

"My back just really hurts. I need a little person to walk on it."

"I was just wondering if I could eat this Starburst. My throat's really been bothering me."

"Cotton Eyed Joe" played on Just Dance during recess and my kids convinced me to dance to it. One student: "Miss Sjoberg, you gotta put some hip action into it!"

Me: "Unless by some miracle the internet starts working we're not going to be able to watch the brainpop video. But we have other things we can do!"
Student (said somewhat quietly): "We need a miracle."

Oh, the creative minds!

The following was are writing prompts with the student's response:

It was just another day on the moon when I looked out the spaceship's window only to find...
..."a 10 foot alien saying, 'take me to your leader.' I say, 'what is that thing?' It had 6 arms, blue and red skin. It was so ugly I passed out. When I woke up I was in some building. I was being examined."

..."Abraham Lincoln."


I was sailing on Saturn's rings for a relaxing two hours when I got a call on my spaceship's radio...
..."so I listened and it said 'I'M GONNA GET YOU!' I said, 'what a weird day.'"

..."to help a stranded astronaut. I turned on my ship's engine and raced to the scene to help the astronaut. I saw the astronaut so I pulled him in. I laid him on the floor and pulled off his helmet. It was love at first sight..."

The Maine Way

The life of a teacher is not only busy, but I've found the busier it gets the harder it is to truly appreciate the little things my kids say. But this one was simply unforgettable. And I got a good laugh about it.

Student A: Miss Sjoberg, how do you write so neat? Your handwriting is so good.

Student B: Because she's from Maine, so she writes nice. My brother dated a girl from Maine and she had good handwriting too.

That's how we raise 'em folks!

It's easy for YOU!

As my students prepare for ISTEP (Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress), we have been working on skills to help them on the testing. Last week and this week we have been reviewing what it means to draw inferences (specifically from a text, as they will see on the tests). Today we played a game that solicited some great responses from the kids. I had a stack of index cards with emotions on them (i.e. worried, afraid, excited, guilty) and one student would come to the front and sit in a chair. Another student would hold the card above the first student's head and the classmates would call out things to help the student guess what the word was. For instance, guilty: "I feel so bad about what I did." "The judge might say this to you in court." You get the point.

So one student has the word joyful above his head. I admit, this is a tough one, but they asked for a hard one. We gave him hints such as "synonyms for this word include: cheerful, happy, excited." He was struggling so I started to hum "Joy to the World" and several students joined me. He was still clueless. Finally one of the students said, "It's so easy. She sang the song to you!" He replied, "Sure, it's easy for you. You're LOOKING at the word!"

I probably got the best participation I've ever had from my class playing this game. And they had me laughing pretty hard at times.

Studying the solar system

Identify the following planets [pictures of planets] and how you are able to identify them:
"Sun - only planet on fire"
"Sun - it is the first hottest place"
"Earth - I live on it"


Describe the features of a comet:
"Here's a description of a comet: there's to tails and kinda in the middle theres a sun type thing."


Draw a picture of an object that might impact a planet. Label and describe the object.
"The sun would destroy the moon because of the hotness."
"The asteroid would hit a planet or moon because it does not know where its going."
"This is a piece of space junk. It could hit a planet or moon if it was in front of it or behind it."
And this one gets my vote:
"A shoe could impact a planet because the wood, metal or plastic that's on the bottom could indent it. There's proof because a shoemaker did this once."


So astronomy might not be their strongest subject [grammar might not be for that matter] but they're persevering through this unit.

Grade these essays with a straight face

Here's what my 5th graders have to say about a good teacher and a good student:

A Good Teacher...

• should assign no homework (who saw that coming?)
• maybe sometimes they will play a game if students are good
  
• helps you when you are confused
• most of all should be educational
• it would be nice to not be mean to the students
• should not be a grumpy bear
• always respects her students' wishes (Is that a wish?)
• makes us smart
• gives her students an A+ every time on their report cards

A Good Student...

• friendly to their pears (that's a direct quote from a journal entry)
• will be no slacking at NO time
• thinks all day
• should not yell
• does not talk about nasty stuff
• make sure they try to get good grades
• always amazing and outstanding
• never bosses anyone around
• needs to read

Okay, so there were some really good essays, and many of them expressed themselves very well. But these were just classic.