Yum!

Me: Ok...we have been working with synonyms.
L: I LOVE synonyms!
Me:  Really?  Good!  They make you a better reader and can help you with your writing.
L: I like synonyms on toast, too!

Get it?

Library Books

Ok...so we went to the library today.  I noticed one of my rough and tumble 4th grade boys had a whole pile of new books to check out.  "Little Monsters", "Dragons", "Monster Trucks" and....

"Barbie Nutcracker"??????  It was even the first book he sat down to read.  We decided he must like the pretty girls in the pictures.

"Barbie Nutcracker"....fourth grade "Playboy"...

Of kids and angels....

Me: what is this? "Angel". (shows various angels)
Student: No! Me Angel (that is his name, after all...)
Me: You are the name Angel, this is an angel.
Student: No! Girl (with disgust) No! (adamantly and repeatedly makes a pecking sign)
Me: What's that? (imitates sign)
Student: (peck, peck) Chicken
Me: Chicken? For Christmas?
Student: Christmas chicken (peck, peck) (indicates shooing away)
Me: I don't understand.
Student: CHRISTMAS CHICKEN (peck, peck) (indicates feathered wings on angel)

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Will you have a Chritmas chicken on top of your tree this year??? Ya gotta love Deaf kids and their perceptions of the world around them!

Turkey tale

We were preparing for Thanksgiving last year, and had discussed the concept of "thankful."  I had given each student three "turkey" feathers to write on.  They were to think of three things they were thankful for...not an easy task for kids with such limited language.  I was out in the hallway, putting the finished turkey feathers on our now not-so-naked turkey, when one of other adults brought me a feather from one of the students.  He was clearly quite concerned.  Curious, I took the feather.  There, above the 3rd grader's name, boldly written in the fanciest letters he could muster, was the word "Playboy."

Ever the calm and wise educator (right....), I suggested we ask the student to read us his turkey feathers and tell us what he was thankful for.  I walked back in the room to see the student looking up naively at the adult and signing "play dog." 

Of course he was thankful for being able to play with his dog.

Amazing what a difference a couple of inverted or malformed letters can make!

Say what?

The Angry Bird

I have a severely autistic student in my class. He LOVES the angry birds.  He draws them.  Writes about them.  Follows them around on the playground.  Ok...he follows kids who have angry birds shirts on.  When I saw the shirt at Walmart with the angry bird face on it, I KNEW I had to have it. 

That Friday, I put on my angry bird shirt, and headed off to school--very excited to see what the reaction would be.  Much to my disappointment, I got a brief smile...then back to the book.  Really???  During morning routines, I did my very foolish best to draw my student's attention to the great angry bird shirt I had on.  The child next to him emphatically informed me that "that" (pointing to my shirt) could "not fly!"  I informed her that of course he could...he was an angry bird!  "No!" she exclaimed, "P octopus.  Can't fly!"  P?  Does his name start with P?  "Yes!  P octopus!" Internally shaking my head at how little these poor kids knew about culture, I headed to the computer to Google the angry birds characters and see if any started with P.  No luck.

I showed her the pictures on the computer.  None of them started with P.  None of them looked much like the bird on my shirt, either. "NO!" she emphatically declared.  "NOT bird!  P octopus!!!"  At that point, my para observed that perhaps she was talking about "that character" from Phineas and Ferb. "YES!!!!  P octopus!!"  "Do you mean Perry?" asked my para.  "YES!!!!"

Perry?

Did you know there is no sign for platypus????

By the way....anyone want to buy a used Perry the Platypus shirt?  I can only imagine what my angry bird-loving student was thinking....