The Dog Ate My Homework, Spelling Fun, and a Picture

And here I thought it was just an excuse...


To prove the point, the student brought in his old packet. There was a giant bite mark in it.

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The following are some classic examples of sentences written by my students using their spelling words. I made the spelling words bold, so you can appreciate their work even more. Why I never thought to share some of these gems in the past is a mystery. I will not make that mistake in the future.

I like to wiggle my butty.

My little sister wiggle a lot.

My sister skip school.

I was middle in the.

My kind of peopl is smot.

And my personal favorite:

I am low on the flow.

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A few months back I was given a new student, a kindergartener who was promoted early to first grade. This child is scary-smart - her reading levels are off the charts. However, like most freakishly smart people, she's a bit odd. Her parents, while not wanting to come out and say, "Our kid is a bit odd, we are worried that the first graders won't like her," were concerned about how she would fit in. I was concerned as well. The kids could tell she was different right off the bat - odd ducks are easy to spot. She has a tendency to laugh aloud out of nowhere. She has a way of sing-songing everything she says. If she actually gets something wrong (a rare occurrence), she cries about it, as she isn't used to ever being wrong. We're working on that. I actually spent an entire afternoon that first week purposely making one mistake after another just to make the kids laugh and show her that making mistakes was OK. I think it worked. I'm very good at making mistakes - purposely or not.

I did everything I could to make her feel comfortable and welcome in our classroom and with the kids. I didn't want her to feel like an outcast for the rest of the year. At the end of the first week, she brought me this picture.

On the back she had written: I like you Ms. Woes. And I like first grade too.

First Grade rules!