Tales from my world

Remember how I recently told some stories from my classroom, illustrating how interesting my class is going to be this year?
Well, I've got some more....

The other day, after distributing a reflection on their writing, I was running through the three questions the students will have to respond to. I wrote some of the answers on the board--the genre they wrote, the title of the unit...and then instructed the students to respond to the rest of the questions about their writing on their own. After running through the directions and repeating the directions, I asked if anyone had any questions (sometimes a dangerous question with third graders, but necessary nonetheless). One of my little girls raised her hand and said "So wait, are we answering these questions?"

Recently, at our Halloween party, I had a conversation with a student that went something like this:

Me: Did you bring in plates and napkins for the party?

Student: (With a blank stare.) Shakes her head no.

Me: Your mom sent me an email, saying that she was going to send in enough napkins to last us for the year, and some plates for today. Do you remember if you carried those upstairs today or yesterday?

Student: (Looking puzzled) No, I didn't bring in any plates or napkins. Neither did my Mom.
My student teacher, overhearing this last part of the conversation chimes in with: "Oh yeah, she brought them this morning, they are in the closet, I'll grab them."

Later on, I asked, just out of curiousity, if she had, in fact, carried the plates or napkins upstairs or if Mom had dropped them off. My student teacher informed me that my student did carry up the plates, and her Mom carried up the napkins.
Apparently she didn't remember doing so.


Finally, one last conversation:
Me: Put your math sheets and number cards in your math folder.

A student, sitting directly in front of me: Wait, where do we put our sheets?