Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day in fifth grade is a big stinking day! My students have planned, connived, plotted, and taken care to design this day to be just perfect for their sweethearts...all secretly of course. They are on the verge of busting out as total balls of hormones and this is truly their first Valentines Day that matters...or so they think.


I couldn't help but laugh this morning as I was passing out candy grams. For the past two weeks NJHS has been selling candy grams: Write a message and pick a type of candy and they will deliver it on Valentines Day. I had some students send out 30 and more and some only send a few. The point is, you can confess your undying devotion to someone in your class or another without them even knowing who you are. I just love it because I have had to painfully analyze their hand writing all year long- I now know who every boy in this class is crushing on.

Here are a few of my favorites:


"I like you eye."


"You pretty"


"um um...Happy V-day"


"Hi"


"You are good at sports."


I like the first one the best...he likes her eye- not both eyes...just one. The other one he can take or leave. I also like the nervousness you can sense behind them (i.e. you- not your or um um.)

I got some sweet grams:


"Hi. From Tyler and Alec" (x3...of the exact same thing)


"Happy Valentines Day....My mom wrote that."


So, have a great V-day and grow up a bit- tell your Valentine who you are...

Blessings!

*MB*

Oops! It just slipped out!

Today was simply hilarious! I cleared the desks out of the way in order to sit on the floor in a literature circle with my class. We have done this before, and they just love the time to sit and be able to talk about what we have already read. I think that they feel more grown up being able to discuss their opinions. I had one student say that he liked it because, "He can't be wrong..." classic.

So we were sitting in our circle and my students were busy jotting down something on their study guides. It was absolutely silent (something that I have spent the entire year working on with my class) as they worked hard. I too was writing and not really watching what they were doing when all of a sudden there was a familiar, yet rather non-kosher noise in the room. We all violently looked up towards the noise. One of my students sitting across the circle from me looked up at me and with the brightest red face I have ever seen and said, "Excuse me." His moment of flatulence sparked a roar of laughter amongst the fifth graders...and their teacher.

In his defense, or more for his encouragement, one of the other students said, "Well, at least it wasn't an S.B.D...Those are just horrible and unfair."

I didn't even attempt to gain control again after a comment like that. We laughed for a solid 10 minutes!

I love fifth grade!

Prayer Requests

So yesterday we were doing prayer requests- not that unusual for my class. My fairly odd student had her hand raised. This is the request that transpired. *students name has been altered for their protection.



Me: "Sarah do you have a request?"

Sarah: "Safe trip to the war."

Me: "The war? Is someone you know going to war?"

Sarah: "Yeah, me....(everyone looking so confused)...the S.E.A. We have to battle. It gets nuts."

Me: still confused "O-oh okay. We will certainly be praying for that."



No explanation. No S.E.A is ______. We just moved on. Later I prompted and she told me that her family is into like those original colonies reenactment groups. I knew that already...She continued to tell me, "One time my parents went to Apple Bee's and no one wanted to serve them because they were in their S.E.A. outfits. My dad was wearing his mail suit and had his sward drawn for all to see."

How could I not laugh a little?! How do people get into stuff like that? Do you wake up one morning and turn to your husband saying, "I can think of nothing hotter than you all dressed up like a peasant!" Pass.

I am thankful for a weekend- its been a long time coming. Happy Friday!