cold showers and logic

More from the fifth-grade classroom:

Incident #1:  Cold showers

I was telling my students about Mongolia. I told them how the running water broke at camp, so we had to go down to the river to take baths instead.  I confided that I have been taking cold showers every morning since then - on purpose - because I just like them better now instead of hot.  (This is true.)  They thought that was really strange.  (Understandably.  I don't understand it either.)

This morning one of the girls comes up to me and says, "Guess what, Ms. Eckstrom?  I took a cold shower last night."

Me:  "What? You did??"

"Yeah."  [pained look]  "It was coooold!"

(And she wasn't the only one who tried it, I found out.)  Will this come up at parent-teacher conferences?

Incident #2:  Logic

New vocab word:  logic.  Mrs. D told the students to think up examples.

Fifth-grader [matter-of-factly]:  "It is logic when you go out the door in the morning, and all the neighbors are staring at you, and then you realize, 'Oh, duh!  I forgot to put my pants on.'"

In the back of the room, I blink.  Mrs. D pauses for just a second, then says brightly,  "Yeah, don't you hate it when that happens?"

Duck Dynasty and consciences

First week of school with my fifth-graders.

Get-to-know-you activities can elicit unique answers.

Mrs. D:  How many siblings do you have?
5th-grader:  Am I supposed to count myself?
Mrs. D:  Are you your own brother?
5th-grader:  No.  [Pause.]  But my conscience is.

On a student's worksheet:

Question:  What do you want to study this year?
5th-grader's answer:  Sppelling

Mrs. D:  What's your favorite movie?
5th-grader:  Breakfast Club.
Mrs. D:  Breakfast Club?  Well, that's a classic.
5th-grader [airily]:  It's only eighties.

Mrs. D:  What's your favorite TV show?
5th-grader [innocent drawl]:  Duck Dah-nisty an' Law 'n' Or-dur.

Mrs. D:  What's your favorite food?
5th-grader [big glasses, serious/deliberate]:  First of all, lasgana, and second of all -- um, I don't know if you guys are going to think this is disgusting -- but, hotdogs dipped in applesauce.

the slow-going South

This weekend I took my sister down to Oklahoma to start her freshman year of college.

We went to Walmart to stock up on folders, notebooks, binders, etc.  We got in line behind an older mustached, full-bellied man.  He turned around and drawled out slowly, "Would you like ta git ahead a' me?  Ya only got a few things and I ain't in a hurry."

"Uh, wow -- really?  Um, actually, that would be really nice!"  (Only because we were running late.)

Then the tiny white-haired lady next in line asked us if we wanted to go ahead of her too.

I couldn't help asking, "Is everybody in Oklahoma this nice?"

The mustached man chuckled.  "Waaaay-ll, most of us are.  We gen'rilly try to treat uh-thur people th' way we like to be treated."

go easy on the cello music, folks

This evening I was puttering around in my room.  I had put a CD in the player, one of my favorites, of Yo-Yo Ma on the cello.

I left my room to vacuum the car.  I came back: no music, someone had paused the CD.  That's odd, no one is around.

Later I asked Gracie about it.

Me:  "Did you stop my music?"

Grace [matter-of-factly]:  "Yes."

Me:  "Why?"

Grace [pauses, thinks assertively]:  "It was CREEPY."

Me:  "What?  How??"

Grace [another pause]:  "Because it was making me SENTIMENTAL, and I don't want THAT to happen."

Hmm.  This may have something to do with the fact that she's currently in the process of packing for her freshman year of college.  However, she never has been enthusiastic about "all that boring music you listen to without any words."

good ol' Nebraska

clouds, etc.

the fruited plains

Under the mulberry tree

Saturday night campfire (why no, all those green things aren't weeds...)

Recurring theme:  Mulberries.  (Photo #1:  still on the tree; Photo #2:  now on the boy, looking rather like badly-applied lipstick)

Sunday afternoons in Nebraska

Hike to the lake with Little Brother, peanuts, and a book: