Year Two silliness...

It's bicycle time of the year. Yup, third grade is drawing bicycles again. This year, I wised up and scheduled the unit to overlap with fourth grade's figure drawing. Both drawing units require the same classroom configuration---two tables in the middle, the rest of the tables facing in. Amazingly, third and fourth grade are the only classes I teach on Tuesday and Thursday!

I did some quick calculations and realized I moved my room into this configuration, then back to normal 18 or more times last year. 36 times moving the tables...

This year, it should be only 8 round trips for the tables---8 set-ups and 8 returns to normal. (Being a 2nd year teacher is awesome. Planning in advance, I love it!)

The drawings are turning out well. I'd post some pictures, but my camera died :o(
This post isn't about their drawings anyway. It's about the silly things they say...

Remember my buddy Fred? He made Christmas Tree Korea. His brother, Jerry, spelled his name Favd and drew a yellow ocean...

Well Fred is making me laugh again.

To help them draw the bicycle, I need to get very close to them and see their eye-line to the bike. Mind you, third grade is mesmerized by this task of drawing the bicycle. They work silently, and not at my request. As I was up close and personal with Fred on Thursday, he loudly announced "you smell good." Nervous about my kimchi breath from lunch (Korean fermented spicy cabbage, pretty rough on the breath...), I said "maybe it's my Korean lunch." I'd only finished eating about 15 minutes before they came to class. "No, it's your skin! You smell like...chocolate!"

Seriously? Too funny. And the whole class heard. I tried to hold back the laughter! On top of all that, I was being observed by my department head. She was cracking up in the corner! At least smelling like chocolate is a compliment, I think...


Another funny comment came at the end of class. As third grade was lining up in the hallway, my department head (and good friend---she teaches elementary music) was walking through their class line to cross the hallway into our fine arts office. Tommy stopped her and said "you and Miss M, you're like best friends, right?" So cute! And she is one of my best friends in China...