A Time I Laughed

Today I was grading writing prompts at school and just had to e-mail myself this one little girl's story. The topic was "A Time I Laughed". The story itself isn't really funny. I just loved her spelling. I'll show you exactly how she wrote it and then a translation underneath, just in case you didn't get it.


"My ante debey grapol me mom and dad I what to the zoo and I got to see the pengwhens wen I whus 4 yes old I dropt cotin candey on my hed and I crat up lafing I felt varey happey be kus is whus fun gowing to the zoo then I got to get a stoft atomol pingwen."


My aunt Debbie, Grandpa, me, Mom, and Dad went to the zoo, and I got to see the penguins when I was 4 years old. I dropped cotton candy on my head, and I cracked up laughing. I felt very happy because it was fun going to the zoo. Then I got to get a stuffed animal penguin.

Last night I read over the story the kids wrote as a class because I had to read it to them this morning. I wanted to translate it on my own before trying to read it out loud. I called in Mom and Jen to help me on some of them, but they couldn't even help me for a few kids. We had quite a time trying to figure it all out. Lol.

Messages to Mom From My Kiddos

Happy belated Mother's Day to all you mamas! And for those who aren't moms yet and are still waiting on God to bless you with a child, please know that I was thinking about you a lot yesterday! I love you all!

I finished up my junior block teaching experience on Friday. I was in a second grade classroom in Ft. Wayne. The kids are hilarious. I had 5 from Thailand, 6 that were black, and 10 that were white. We worked last week on an acrostic that spelled MOTHER, a questionnaire about their moms, a letter to their moms, and finally a coupon or certificate to their moms (their choice between the two of those). Then on Friday, in between pulling kids to reteach concepts or finish papers, I was kept busy pulling kids back to my table to roll everything up together for their moms, choose which color ribbon they wanted, tie the scroll up with a bow, and curl the ends of the ribbon. A few of them wanted to roll up their own papers, but I did all the cutting, tying, and curling for everyone. And most of them wanted me to roll the papers up so they wouldn't "get ruined". They were SO proud of those and couldn't wait to give them to their moms. It was sweet how a few of them sat and contemplated which color ribbon their moms would like best. One just asked me for my opinion of what his mom would like. Considering I've never met the woman...let's go with the peach one??? How was I supposed to know!? Lol.

As I was frantically trying to get all of those done in between my other responsibilities, I was trying to jot down pieces of the kids' papers about their moms on a sheet of paper. Some of them were so precious or just down-right hilarious, and I wanted to remember as many as I could. Unfortunately, I didn't get to look at and read everyone's, but I tried to take some notes on some of them without the kids noticing. Not too easy when I'm the one doing all the work while they watch. Lol. But here are some for your reading pleasure...

Oh, and some of these were ones where they were given the first part of the sentence, and they had to fill in the rest, so the parts they were provided will be in normal text while their responses are underlined. I tried to get down their unique spelling on some of them, too, but since I was trying to hurry, I just wrote the correct spelling on most of them. My comments are next to each one.

"I promise to not back talk." Good one, buddy. Your mom will appreciate that! And while you're at it, practicing that everyday would be greatly appreciated, too!

"I like it when you tuck me in, read me a story, and kiss my cheek at night." I love that some second grade boys aren't too embarrassed or "macho" to admit that yet.


Here are some responses for the letter R in the acrostic. For some reason I only took down the R answers. The rest must have not been as creative. Haha:

• "Mom you'r awas rite." I'm glad she got this one in writing to pull out down the road.
  
• "You are always rite." Another one? These boys sure do know how to butter their mamas up.
  
• "You are respectful from your son." Not sure exactly what he was trying to say from the wording. Is it that she is always respectful? Or he is?
• "Your royal to me." Awww. Apparently our lesson on the proper form of your/you're still needs some practice.
• "My mom is romantic." Ooookay. Just what does he deem romantic?
  

Some responses to "My mom is the best/greatest..."

• "My mom is the greatest because she cooks in the family." And she'll appreciate you acknowledging as much.
• "My mom is the best at picking out clothes." His side comment to me- "She likes to shop." Haha!
• "My mom is the best at working at Subway." Something we can all strive to achieve??

Responses to "My mom is smart! She even knows..."

• "My mom is smart! She even knows how many pints are in four quarts." She must have been valedictorian of her class.
• "My mom is smart! She even knows how to reed a dook upsiddom and bakwords." (read a book upside-down and backwords). Now that is one talented mom, folks.
• "My mom is smart! She even knows five cousins' names!" (from one of my Thai children) Does she only remember 5 of them because there are too many or are there only 5 in the first place??
• "My mom is smart! She even knows how to teach kindergartners." (She is an aide in a kindergarten class.) That takes a special individual to do so.

Responses to "My mom is as pretty as..." And this is where it got interesting. I really wish I would have written more of their answers down for this one! There were some really great ones!

• "My mom is as pretty as a butterfly."
• "My mom is as pretty as a flower."
• "My mom is as pretty as a modl." (model) Now that is one fine answer, sweetheart. You get dessert tonight!
• "My mom is as pretty as a rainbow." She must be one colorful individual.
• "My mom is as pretty as a bird." Hopefully he wasn't thinking of an ugly bird.
• "My mom is as pretty as the cum." Queen, maybe???
• "My mom is as pretty as a panda bear." Alrighty then!

My personal favorite was that one of my boys wanted to use the word "horrific" for the letter H. We gently told him that MIGHT not be quite the right message to send to Mom on her Mother's Day. We then explained that horrific was like the word "horror." Not a good thing. Terrific WAS a good answer, though, for letter T. Lol.