I Really Should Just Open a Bakery...

Today, as I was walking a group of third graders back to their class after practicing their speech with me, one of the little boys came up alongside me.
"Mrs. Brubaker?  I have a question," He said, pushing his glasses up on his nose, "Do you like to bake?"
"Yes, I do,"  I smiled at him. 

It was sort of a random question, but being 2.5 years into this marriage, I had an inkling where his train of thought was going.

"I thought so," He said proudly, as if he had cracked a major mystery, "That's why your name is Mrs. Brubaker!"


Oh, yes...I am Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Bagel, Mrs. Bakery, Mrs. Blueberry, Mrs. Blue Bagel, Mrs. Rude Baker, Mrs. Blue Baker, and Mrs. Cake Baker.  I feel like I must have heard them all by now.  But each one still makes me laugh, and I know that with childrens' creativity, they're just going to keep coming!

Election Day

This is a conversation I heard at school today that made me laugh:

Teacher: Alright, class, time to go to lunch!  Please get your things quickly; I need to run out during lunch and vote.
Second Grader: Are you going to vote for yourself?
Teacher: No!  I'm going to vote for the candidates.
Second Grader: Oh.  My daddy nominated himself for governor!

A Smile When I Need It

I had an interview today.  For a 3rd/4th combined class.

I'm not one to be nervous about interviews usually, but after interviewing for a job at my church's school and being rejected, my confidence level has taken a beating this summer.

As I was collecting things to bring with me (samples of my lesson plans, pictures of things I've done with students), I found the book that the 3rd grade class from my student teaching days made for me.  It brought a smile to my face!

They were a fun class!

A letter from Raquel

"An Appreciated Letter For Mrs. Brubaker"

Dear Mrs. Brubaker.

Thank you for teaching me lots of things!  Now I'm a verry smart girl.  You are verry sweat [hopefully that means sweet!] and kind.  I will miss you.  Once again, Thank You!

Best Regards, Joie

Brubaker is very helpful

Really pretty

Unique

Brubaker never gives up (she's 100% cool!)

Always on the lead

Knows everything

Everday has everything ready

Really nice

p.s. that's why I asked you yesterday what "best regards" means so that I can put it on here.

p.p.s.  I think that you will be a good teacher.

p.p.p.s. You taught me everything that you were supposed to teach me and that's why I'm so smart.

p.p.p.p.s. thank you for everything you did.

p.p.p.p.p.s. I will never forget about you!

From Jessie:

I will miss you so much, Mrs. Brububaker.  I will never forget you.  You are one of my fovete teacher.  You are very nice, pretty, and smart.  I kown you are going to be a very good teacher and what ever class has you they are very lucky.

♥ Jessie

I like your hair

From Audrey

From Anthony:

Dear Brubaker,

Thanks for coming.  I miss you.  Could you name some students at your old school?  I would be proud if you say I'm one of them.  Mrs. Lee invited you to come back for a good party.  See you later!

Love, Anthony

"This is a reminder of how class looks like"

Dear Mrs. B,

Thank you for having lunch with us!   I can't believe how Jubileo cannon balled our group hug and you almost tripped.  Wow!  Don't forget us I miss really bad!  Don't forget the class.

Love, Maddie

Dear Mrs. Brubaker,

Thank you for teaching me every thing.  Thank you for teaching me math and spelling.  I liked how you taught us how to be quiet.  Plus I love how you taught us how to write a letter.  I mostly like when you taught us how to do fractions.

Love, Steve

From Daniel

Silly class shot

That fills me with happy thoughts!

Pray for me today as I wait to hear back from the interview!

I hope I have good news by this time tomorrow.  I'm ready for it :-)

Riley

One of the 3rd graders I have in my math class this summer cracks me up!
He is always moving around, always getting in to something, and always saying something hilarious.  Here are my two favorite moments from yesterday and today:

As the opening activity for a lesson on solving math problems by drawing picture representations, I wrote this problem on the board:

If Cala has 3 pretzels, find out how many pretzels each of her friends has:
Courtney has 6 more pretzels than Rashaun
Rashaun has 2 fewer cookies than Taisha
Taisha has twice as many cookies as Cala has.

I drew four stick figures up on the board and wrote a name under each to make it easier for the kids to solve.  As we figured out how many pretzels each friend had, we wrote the number under the stick figure.  Once we had solved the entire problem, I told the kids that they could throw away the scratch paper they had used, and get out their math books.

"Mrs. Brubaker, I can't throw this scratch paper away!  There's a war on it," Riley cried.
Completely puzzled, I told him that there was no war.
"Yes, there is," He yelled, and running up to me, he took the dry-erase marker out of my hand and drew a bow and arrow in the hand of each of my stick figures.  Each arrow was pointed at the stick figure to the right, and the last stick figure's arrow went underneath the stick-figure-gang and came up to shoot the first stick figure. 

What an imagination!  No wonder he can't concentrate on his assignments :-)



And then today, Riley interrupted me during our lesson to ask me if I had any children.
"Nope," I replied with a smile, "just you guys!"
"Ohhh..." Riley's face turned up into a slow smile, "So, we're like, your reinforcement family?"

Those Little Teaching Moments

Today, in the middle of 1st/2nd grade math, a little girl raised her hand.
"Yes, Katie?" I asked, expecting her to need help with a math problem.
Instead, she stood, walked up the aisle to me, put her yellow #2 pencil in front of my face and said,
"Mrs. Bluebaker, I don't like the color of this pencil."

Not in this little town...

I began teaching math at First Lutheran's summer program last week.
As one of my ice breakers, I thought it would be fun to do a little math "mind reader" game with them.
Let's see if it works on you:

As quickly as you can, add these problems mentally:

1+1=
2+2=
3+3=
4+4=
5+5=
6+6=
7+7=
8+8=
9+9=
10+10=

Now, quick!  What's the first vegetable that comes to mind?










If you answered carrot, you're among the 95% or so of Americans who think this way.  I thought it would be fun if I could "read the minds" of my students and impress them by knowing they would answer carrot.

Well, not in this little town.

Sometimes, I forget that I'm in the minority around here.

When I asked them to tell me what vegetable first popped into their minds, the number one answer I got was "cabbage."  The runner up was kimchi.  Does that even count as a vegetable?

She's a Curly Girl, That One!

Yesterday while sitting on the ground outside with the preschoolers, one of the little girls walked up to me and caught one of my curls in her hand.
"Mrs. Bluemaker," She said, twisting my hair between her fingers, "Your hair is wiggly!"

The Marrying Age

"Hailey's gettin' married," Mikayla skipped over to inform me about her 4 year old peer.
"She is?  Who's the lucky guy?" I played along.
"Cayden."
"And does Cayden know he's getting married?"
Mikayla shrugged.  "I dunno..."  And she was off.

I called Cayden over to get his side.  Things like this are so amusing!
"Cayden, are you getting married?"  I asked
"Nope," He looked up at me, "I've still got some growing up to do!  I'll probably get married when I'm 8 or 9."
"8 or 9 years old?"  I laughed.
"Yeah," He said matter-of-factly, "or maybe when I'm 91."

Happy Mother's Day!

I had the preschool class I'm taking care of right now (12 adorable 3 year olds) help me make cards for their moms for Mother's Day by filling in some sentences I had created. Some of their ideas were sweet, some were funny, and some make you go, "whaaaaa???"
Here are some of their answers:

"My mom's name is...Mommy."
--Sophia

"My mom is prettiest when she...puts her make-up on."
--Cayden

"I like to make my mom smile by...saying 'cheese!'"
--Kimberly

"When I am sad, my mom...gives me a bandaid."
--Sophia

"My mom is a good cook! My favorite thing she makes for me is...McDonalds."
--Cayden

"I know she loves me because...she hugs me."
--Zion

My mom is prettiest when she...wears pants."
--Juan

"I like to make my mom smile by...playing with her."
--Sophia

"When I am sad, my mom...makes silly faces with me."
--Sammy

"My mom is prettiest when she...is being happy."
--Jaden

"My mom is a good cook! My favorite thing she makes for me is...breakfast."
--Victoria

"I like to make my mom smile by...putting on a show for her."
--Zion

"I know she loves me because...I make her laugh."
--Cayden

"I like to make my mom smile by...making pancakes for her in the kitchen with Daddy."
--Sammy

"I know she loves me because...she's my mom!"
--Jaden

"I Wanna Kiss You"

I wasn't quite sure what to say on my first day of subbing in preschool on Monday, when a cute little 2 year old came up to me and said, "I wanna kiss you!"
"You want to kiss me?" I asked, "ok, you can kiss my hand." And I held out the back of my hand for him.
"Noo! I wanna kiss you!"
"What do you mean," I asked, confused. "Show me."
And with that, he got out of his chair, ran over to the counter, and pulled a tissue from the Kleenex box.
"A KISSYOU!" He said, and wiped his little nose.

Priscilla's Prediction

This happened about a month ago, but I was never able to put the picture up, so I didn't both writing about it.  Now that I have a new computer, I can!  Please don't get sick of my posts as I play catch up :)
(I found the camera cord, by the way, in case you didn't figure that out!  Jesse's car is an excellent black hole for all of your lost item needs...)


On the way to a field trip to see the play "Miss Nelson is Missing," I sat next to little Priscilla, one of my kindergarteners.

"Mrs. Brubaker, do you have kids?"
"Nope."
"Well, do you want kids?" She persisted.
When I answered "someday," she asked to see my hand.
She looked at it carefully for a few minutes, tracing the lines and studying every curve.

"Two girls...and a boy," She said matter of factly.
"Two girls and a boy?" I repeated.
"Yup, that's what I think you're gonna have."
I looked at her surprised.  She looked back at me with a question:
"Can you tell me if I'm right?"

The Secret Ingredient

I swear, this kindergarten class is the cutest thing ever!

Lucas came up to me this morning and said, "My mom makes the bestest quesadillas!  And you know what?" He asked with big eyes.

"What?" I smiled, leaning in.

"She puts a secret ingredient in them!"

"Ohh!  A secret ingredient?  What is it?"

He motioned for me to bend down so he could whisper in my ear.  Pushing my hair aside, and checking to make sure no one else could hear, he whispered excitedly, "Cheese!"

It Must be March...

Here's a funny moment from Kindergarten science this morning:

We were learning about rocks, sand, and soil when I had a fun bit of information for them.  "Does anyone know what the hardest rock in the whole wide world is?"  (Kindergarteners don't know what precious stones or minerals are, for that matter, so "rock" is the word for diamonds!)

Many hands went up with suggestions like "mountains," "boulders," "lava rock," and others, but my favorite answer came from little Vincent, who threw his arm excitedly into the air and shouted out before even being called on, "Shamrocks!"

Those silly presidents...

Today, while reviewing pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters in class, I asked the kindergarteners if they knew whose head was on the quarter.  They all stared blankly, so I gave them a hint.
"He was the very first president of the United States," I said.
Kevin shot his hand up.  "Obama!" He shouted, without even waiting to be called on.
Lauren shook her head. "That can't be Obama," she said importantly.  I sighed with relief that she could tell the difference between a very anglican-looking old man and the current president of the US.  All my hopes were dashed, however, when the reason she knew it wasn't Obama was because, "Obama's bald!"

The Donut No No

One of the kindergarteners brought donuts to share with all of her friends at recess today.  I passed them out right before the bell rang, and the kids praised the little girl up and down for bringing their favorite treat. 
"Reine, could you do this every day?" One of them asked.
Charlie shook his head, "No!  We can't do this every day.  Donuts have too many calories!"

In This Day and Age...

Here is a snippet of a conversation from Kindergarten a couple days ago:

Lauren: "I wish I had 100 Webkinz." (Webkinz are this generation's Beanie Babies)
Jacob: "Oh yeah? I wish I had infinity Webkinz."
Lucas: "Oh yeah? I wish I had google Webkinz!"
Me: "Google Webkinz?"
Lucas: "Yeah. Google is more than infinity because Google has everything."


!!!!

Kindergarten

Well, I've left 4/5th grade behind me, and moved down to Kindergarten for the next 10 weeks!

These kiddos are gauranteed to give me lots of things to write about. Here are my two favorites from this week:

During Science Time:
Me: Ok, so we've talked about some animals that have fur, and animals that have skin, and animals that have scales; now let's talk about animals that have feathers. Who can tell me what animal has feathers?
Lucas: Horses!

During Circle Time:
Me: Lauren, you need to sit still.
Lauren: Sorry, Mrs. BroomMaker, but my bones are having a party.

Today's Laugh

I can't believe I forgot to write this down!

Last week, the 4/5 graders took a Social Studies test on early American history. One of the short answer questions asked, "What brought the Spanish to the Americas? What brought the African peoples to the Americas?"

The correct answer would have been something like, "The Spanish came to the Americas in search of gold, land, and wealth. The African peoples were brought to the Americas to works as slaves."

The student answer which gave me the biggest smile simply said "boats and boats."



Another favorite moment:

During a Language Arts lesson, I was teaching the kids how to use comparative language (more/most). Making sure that they didn't overuse it (i.e. "That was more better"), I gave them several examples to practice with.

"Who can tell me what's wrong with this sentence," I asked, "'Did you know that cats are the most popularest pets in the United States?'"

JJ popped his hand up and said quickly, "It's wrong because cats aren't--dogs are!"

Farewell, First Grade

My last day of subbing for my wonderful first grade class was October 16th.
I miss them so much!

Here are a few more of my favorite moments from my last few days there:

Savannah walked in one morning with her jacket pulled all the way over her head. When I suggested that she take it off so she could see, she said, "But you see, I'm having a hair situation today."
"A hair situation?" I asked.
"Yup," she replied, "I woked up this mornin' and it was all stickin' up!"

After helping Beverlynn (a precious, tiny little girl--the smallest in the class) with one of the math problems she was struggling on, I said, "Ok, Pumpkin, you're all set!"
To which she promptly replied, "I not your punkin! I's your goat. Goats be heavy."

During Social Studies one afternoon, the children were supposed to draw a picture of their families. Ariel announced that she was going to draw her whole entire family, but since we were pressed for time, I encouraged her only to draw the people who lived in her house--mom, dad, brothers, sisters.
"I don't have a dad!" Ariel blurted out.
"That's ok, not everyone does," I said, trying to avoid any situation that could stem from that.
But it was too late. The kids latched onto her truth viciously. "You don't have a dad?" they questioned, "How can you not have a dad?"
"I don't have a dad," Ariel informed them matter-of-factly, "I was just born because my mom was with a man!"

And last but not least, every Friday, the first graders recite their Bible verse individually for a grade. The verse of the week was Psalm 25:4-5 : Show me Your ways, O Lord, guide me in Your truth and lead me.
Noah came up to say the verse for me, but he stumble a lot and it was obvious he hadn't spent much time working on it at home. "Show....show me...uh...your ways...uh...uh..."
I helped him out with the prompt "O,"
That seemed to make something click in his brain, and he began the verse again with a fresh start: "Show me your ways, O Baby!"


"I would like to be a teacher, so I get to pass out homework."


Farewell, First Grade! All you precious cuties, you!

Bless You!

My favorite moment from Friday came when the kids turned in their spelling test moments after they had taken it. One of the little guys came up to me, and when he handed me his paper, I noticed that there were drops of moisture spattered on it.

"Sorry, Teacher," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, "I hachooed on it."