For an hour or so once a week, I volunteer in my son's first-grade class. I'm supposed to be helping these 5- and 6-year-olds become better readers, but often it's about me escaping with my sanity intact and without the virus du jour.
Sometimes, though, the assignment just clicks. Like the other week, my task was to have the kiddies cut out letters printed on a piece of paper, scramble them up on the table and put them together so they made words ending with long vowel sounds.
Words like "grow."
And "day."
"How about this?" asked one of my prodigies. "Is this a good word?"
"Hmm," I said. "Let me get a ruling on that one from your teacher. … Mrs. S, is this acceptable?"
She looked at it and smiled.
"Yes. That's fine. Like Santa says, 'Ho, ho, ho!'"
Ha! That's awesome, man.
ReplyDeleteKid's say the darnedest things, right?
You had fun!
ReplyDeleteSounds great!
Perfect!
ReplyDeleteYou're truly shaping young minds! Also, promise not to think I'm riding your coat tails when I get to my post about a spirited game of Boggle with hos. Unless you want me to ride on your coat tails, that is.
ReplyDeleteYou should have taken her cue and showed the kids some of the other things Santa says, like when he falls off one of those rooftops.
ReplyDeleteThink of the endless supply of questions for the teacher and their parents-- you'd be a legend!
There's no such thing as bad publicity, by the way.
I'm sure Eddie Murphy would agree with the teacher's assessment.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to helping with math, I have two words for you:
ReplyDeleteFlashcard Poker
Learning math, life skills, and a career option at age 7. This is my definition of Instructional Support.
At least these kids are thinking Ho-Ho-Ho as in Santa...not Ho-Ho-Ho as in , well....ho-ho-ho's.
ReplyDeleteMy My My...
ReplyDelete(teacher, does that count?)
Nice. You are a hero.
ReplyDeleteIf Ho was the only borderline word you were lucky. The stuff kids know these days...
ReplyDeleteLike those kids never ate a Ho-Ho for breakfast?
ReplyDeleteyep...it is a long vowel sound.
ReplyDeletewhen i taught kindergarten i loved when we had to name words that started with a certain letter. i heard made up words all the time, but as long as they started right i counted them. spelling them was another story. my favorite was helimabot. i never could figure out what the kid meant, but it started with h so it worked.
I'll never forget my young son asking "Daddy, where's my hoe?" when playing with his kiddie gardening tools. Priceless. (Kudos, by the way, for working with the young minds of Stamford. This city needs all the help it can get!)
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the teacher just loves you :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like the assignment did indeed click. Great that you're paired up with a cool teacher, too.
ReplyDelete