I say potato, you say potato

One of the biggest things I've learned in the last year and a half of teaching first grade is that first graders lose a lot of teeth. This really impacts their speech, most of them to the point where I can't understand them! Right now I have 6 children that are missing both of their front teeth. Honestly, those are my favorite smiles, the ones with no teeth. But its making it almost impossible to understand them!

But then I have the stubborn children who can speak perfectly fine but insist on saying things like pack pack...which really means backpack. The one I hate the most is "I gotta use it." This is usually how our conversation:
1st grader: "I gotta use it."
Miss. Wenner: "Use what?"
1st grader: "use IT"
Miss. Wenner: "Whats it?"
1st grader: "you know, it!"
Miss. Wenner: "No, I don't know what it is. Once you can tell me what it is, then I'll let you use it."
1st grader: "Miss. Wenner, I really really need to use it. I'm gonna pee on myself!"
Miss. Wenner: "Oh, do you need to use the restroom?"
1st grader: "Yeah...I need to use it!"
Miss. Wenner: "You need to use the restroom?"
1st grader: "no it"
Miss. Wenner: "We do not refer to the restroom as it. If you need to use the restroom, we say...Can I please use the restroom?"

Seriously, I swear to you that's how it goes every time with all of my kids. We have talked about this since the first day of school, and we are still saying "I gotta use it." Ughh...sometimes I think they keep doing it because they know it drives me nuts!

I may be the only one who has spring fever...that can't be a good thing when the teacher does before the kids!

"eww...look what I found in my ear!"

I really wish I was better at writing down all the crazy, funny, random things my kids come up with because there is never a dull moment in 1st grade! One of my little friends was "pulling" things out of his ear today...so we had a mini lesson on ear wax and why its important to clean our ears! He was also the one who came to school with his shirt on backwards today. Oh my goodness, I'll just add that to the list of things I didn't think I would have to teach!

Its been an interesting last few weeks, we have testing this week so we've been trying to cram in all those last minute things. As well as covering everything in our classroom. Every word, letter, number, etc must be covered. Its kind of funny that I spend weeks up here in the summer decorating the room and then it all has to be taken down or covered for 2 days of testing...ugh!

We are on the downhill slide for the school year, with only 8 weeks and 2 days left! I think I'm the only one keeping track...my kids haven't caught on yet :-) Its been a good year though, and its gone by so fast! I'm ready for summer. Although it looks like I may be teaching summer school for 4 weeks, its just too good to pass up $25/hr!