My life in the First Grade

The Case of the Lost Pencils--I have worked at the school now for five years. Almost each and every day from the beginning I would hear helpless VICTIMS cry, "I have no pencil. My pencil is lost. Someone took my pencil." The VICTIMS' pitiful cries would make my heart bleed. For the last 5 years I have been trying to solve this sad situation. I have interviewed many of these VICTIMS. "Where did you last see it?" I would question. "I just had it a minute ago, but it's not there anymore," sobbed the VICTIMS. After much investigating I have come to some conclusions.

1. The VICTIMS' desks eat pencils. I know that desks don't like to eat paper because some desks actually spit it out, but pencils, hmmmmm, maybe they taste better.

2. There are Pencil Eating Monsters (PEMs) who live at the school. They have yellow bodies and long dark teeth (from eating so much lead). They must, however, either come at night or be invisible.

3. A black hole has somehow mysteriously formed under the school and sucks up unsuspecting pencils.

Just today, I viewed some pencil survivors. Even that didn't help me narrow down the suspect. Some of these pencil survivors were very short. They didn't have a sharp point and their erasers were all gone. Who would do such a thing to an innocent pencil?

Could it be all my conjectures were totally wrong? Perhaps something more sinister is at work. Maybe the VICTIMS aren't really victims. . .

The Popsicle Stick--One morning at the beginning of the school year, Mrs. J.'s class was making puppets with some cut-out characters from the story of the week. These characters were being taped to craft sticks so each character could move and jump around. Something was really bothering E. He walked up to me with a very concerned look on his face and questioned, "Are these Popsicle sticks new or have they been used?"

The WOW factor--Every afternoon Mrs. J.'s class takes a timed math test. If they finish the test and get every one right, I write a big WOW across the page and they get their name announced in class as having passed their plus ones, plus twos and on up. They also get a sticker on their chart. These kids love getting WOW's! It's the greatest thing ever to them and they will work hard to get one. I wish we could find something like a WOW written across the page to get them to work that hard on everything!