Funny Questions

Funny questions are plentiful in the first grade classroom. Everything in the universe is new to them. So my students are naturally curious and intrigued with the world - and each other.

And that may present a problem ... Because before I can respond to some of their ASTOUNDING questions, I sometimes simply reply, “Uh, ... mmmmmmm … ” Read on and you'll see why.

I believe that birthdays are what they think about most often. I KNOW that’s all they want to talk about…

I knew that Michael’s mother had just given birth to a baby girl, so I asked him about his new little sister.

“Her birthday is just like mine,” he said.

“Oh?” I asked. “How’s that?”

He was pleased with his answer. “We both got born-did on Wednesday.”

... I noticed Amy, who had been listening, had a far-away look in her eye.

Finally, she said, “Teacher, when a baby’s born, does that mean it gets a cake with NO CANDLES ON IT?”

Another funny question...

This morning Gena entered the classroom pointing to her neck. She plopped down in her seat and promptly began coughing, repeatedly.

“Are you okay, Sweetie?” I asked.

She held her neck and mouthed the words, “I can’t talk very far.”

She motioned for me to come closer.

“Teacher,” she whispered, “have YOU ever had a horse in YOUR THROAT?”

As part of the review of the lesson about the exclamation mark, I asked, “What is the name of the ending punctuation mark we use whenever we are excited? Remember, we use it whenever we have great passion in our voices.”

Clarrisa said, “I know! A EXCITING POINT.”

Loegan said, “Is it a passion mark?”

At Recess Ema was showing me the amazing trick she had learned: She was leaned against the school building standing on her head.

“See?” she said, proudly. “I can stand on my head a long time!"

About that time Stevie ran by…

Suddenly he stopped and his mouth dropped wide open. “What happened?” he gasped. “Did she fall down and land like that?”

I showed the first graders Marvelous Marvin. He IS marvelous because we can take him apart and study each of his various manipulative body parts.

By referring to the large black numbers stamped on each of his parts, I can look up the corresponding numbers in the teacher’s guide. And tell the students as much information as they want about the human body.

The children were ecstatic whenever they saw the plastic replicas of what their insides looked like. They passed around Marvin’s heart, lungs, kidneys, and so on. And there were questions galore.

“You mean I look like this on the inside of me?” Martin said.

“That’s right.” I told him.

“Wow, I didn’t know that!” He shook his head in awe. “You telling me I got them BIG NUMBERS and everthang?”

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