He meant “dishwasher”. We clarified when he brought it up to my desk for me to check.
See, the thing is, teaching 3 grade is the best. The kids are independent, they get your jokes (well most of them unless you try to tell something that doesn’t involve the words “knock knock”), yet they still want hugs and draw you pictures of flowers and a sun wearing sunglasses and tell you that you are the prettiest person in the world. (It would be wrong to argue with them).
So every so often we skip learning cursive (because daily cursive practice makes me curse) and we put building the Eifffel Tower out of marshmallows on hold and we put a bookmark in our novel study and we write. We write about dragons and aliens and unicorns and pirates holding us hostage. We write animal book reports, Geronimo Stilton book reviews and the science behind rainbows. We write to-do lists for Santa, disgusting restaurant menus, reports about how bees make honey and we write biographies about people we admire. We write.
And on Friday, we wrote about love.
Specifically, what how we know when someone loves us, or how we know when we see something that equals love. After a lively debate and one quick change of topic when a child brought up once seeing his parents “naked wrestle”, I put up a few prompts on the board and gave the kids free rein. The prompts:
” Love means…..”
” If you love someone you should…”
” The best part of loving someone is…”
Annnnd the results:
(*please note, I’ve changed all the names to protect the geniuses. Also, I left in all their spelling/grammatical errors. I think it adds to the cute…. and are the scary reminder that we need to spend more time on spelling.)
- ” The best part of loving someone is when you do something nice for them because you love them and they are like oh em gee and get really eksited.”- Mallory, age 8
- “If you love someone you should all ways be a spechial, increbible, glitere friend”. – Brandon, age 8 (we are working on describing words at school).
- “Love means holding there hand if they are sad.”- Luke, age 7
-”The best part of loving someone is that when you do something wrong or make a bad choise they will usualee still be friends with you if you say I’M SORRRY!!!!!!!”- Parker, age 8
- “If you love someone you always hafta think about sharing. Maybe it’s your DSi that you dont’ want to share because you hate sharing specialy with people who are bossing too much but if you love someone you share sometimes anyway.”- Colby, age 7
” Love means that when you get in to a fight you think about how they feel even if you do not rilly care that much because you already know you are rite.”- Tristan, age 8
- “If you love someone you tell them that you saw them being nise in the bootroom because you know it will fill there bucket right up to the top and may be make it overflow.”- Emily, age 8 ( We use this book a lot in class, hence the bucket talk)
- “Love means letting someone else be goalie.”- Lane, age 8
- “If you love someone it’s like you will do what you can to make them happy!!! So maybe that means at lunch you share chiken nugets with them or you ask them to ask their mom if they can come for double sleepover and you guys can build forts or do something more difrent if you guys are girls or something. Like you guys could play a girl game and have fun!”- Eric, age 7
- ” Love means you let the other person hold the book when it is partner reading time. EVEN when it’s your book from home and not from the class library.”- Elizabeth, age 8
- “the best part about loving someone is that then you can do stuff together with out being nervus when you ask them if they wanna do it”- Steven, age 8
- “If you love someone you be there friend. Just be there friend! THE END!!!!”- Jesse, age 8 (At least he’s concise?)
- “The best part of loving someone is that it means at recess time you are never looking for someone to be playing with because you have you’re friend right there and they will play any game you want if you ask polietley and have the idea for the game.”- Drew, age 8
“Okay. So when you love someone it means that you just wanna help them be rilly good at all the stuff they do. So when they are learning how to rid a 2 wheeler for exkample you will be there helping. Or at school before a big test you will say it is okay buddy it is just a test.”- Andy, age 8
- “Love means that when 1 of you wanna watch 1 show and the other person wanna watches some other show that you watch the show that they want to watch even if it is the most horrible, allfill show on the hole tv.”- Laura, age 8
- “If you love someone you lisen to them talk about when there dog ran away even when they all ready told you three times.”- Jacob, age 8
- “the best part of loving someone is that chanses are that if you love them and be nise they will be doing the same and then you will be a bff.”- Ainsley, age 8
And my favourite…
- “the best thing about loving some one like your friend is that when you come to school and ur mom has been getting mad at you and Curly is missing you can just tell your bff and they will say that it is okay and that ur mom is a little bit crazee and that curly will come home bekcause he will miss you to much and it just makes things inside feel better .” (PS: CURLY CAME BACK! :D) – Cam, age 8
It goes without saying, but Curly is his dog.
So now it’s your turn. Using one of the prompts above, leave a comment in comments. And see if you can come up with something that compares to my third grade darlings. Good luck!
And Happy Almost Valentine’s Day!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by brandyismagic, 20sb featured. 20sb featured said: [@brandyismagic] “Love means you gotta use your words when you are fighting about the dishwater again” http://via.20sb.net/h8fWBn [...]
Love means you forgive them even when they break your very special lamp that you bought in China and cannot replace unless you go back there which you have no intention of doing ever again. But still, you wish they would get a clue and Stop Jumping On The Couch!!!
The best part of loving someone is being able to make weird stomach noises and farts and still share the bed!
Love means that if they’ve been turned into a zombie, you still play video games with them, even though they’re chained up in your garden shed. (Shaun of the Dead)
Ohhh, I love this. I especially love Steven and Cam’s! So sweet.
For donna (and my mom. who probably could have written the same thing many years ago):
the best part of loving someone (sumwon?) is knowing they will always be your bff even if they are mad at you for jumping on the couch and breaking their very speshul china lamp.
So astute! Frankly, their responses are exactly what love is :)
For me, the best part of loving someone is having someone love you back.
Love means you give each other dutch ovens at night :)
I have a great knock knock joke for your class…I stole it from someone else…
knock knock
who’s there?
smell mop
smell mop who? (say it faster…again…out loud until you get it.)
It took my second graders a few minutes to get it, but once they did it was a big hit.
Love means not telling anyone about that time your wife had an accident in her pants.
(I still can’t believe he hasn’t told anyone.)
Tell Elizabeth (the reluctant book sharer) that I completely feel her.
As a member of the perpetually single, my take might be a little different. If you love someone, you should tell them, even if they’re just a friend and that’s what your love for them is. No one ever says it enough.
I love when you share these gems from your students. They are so sweet!
Love means kissing them good morning even when they have terrible morning breath.
Love is when your husband finally (after much training) learns how to buy surprise gifts and organize surprise parties and then gives you the present a month in advance coz he can’t keep anything from you.
Man, there is an awful lot of wisdom in those little ones!
Love is starting your partner’s car and clearing the snow and ice from it in freezing temperatures so that they can go to work in an already warm car.
Wow this is so great!
The best part about being in love is the little everyday things that bring the biggest smiles to your face like simple I miss you text even when you saw them an hour ago.
I honestly don’t think I can top:
“Love means letting someone else be goalie.”- Lane, age 8
Love means waking up to next to someone who has crazy 80′s hair band bedhead, morning breath & funny looking pajamas and still thinking they are the most beautiful person in the world.
Love is that moment when you’re SO SO SO SO SO MAD but you reach out and take the other person’s hand or touch their back anyways.
Also: grade 3 V-day is ten trillion times cuter than high school V-day, which is just weird kids making out and TOO MUCH CANDY AND TEDDY BEARS.
Happy Valentine’s Day, my love!
I already know I can’t top your kids’ responses, so I’m not even going to try.
Hands down favorite V-Day post I’ve read yet. Thank you.
This post made me laugh, almost made me cry, and made me really jealous that I’m not a third grade teacher.
And also, love is letting someone borrow your loofah sponge when they forget theirs on vacation. (I wouldn’t have done it for anyone else but my fiance – and that’s still the ultimate form of love.)
love this. thanks for sharing!
Love means choosing your battles, being patient, and always knowing the next line of the movie that’s been playing in their head all day when they whip a random line out at you when you least expect it.
Oh, and Maggie “you got red on you…”
Oh my goodness, these are so sweet. I especially loved the one about listening to someone tell you a story even if you’ve heard it three times already. Super cute!
As for my own response:
If you love someone you should make sure they know and tell them whenever possible.
Thank you for sharing these & happy Valentine’s Day! :)
The best part of loving someone is the part where you don’t even need words, where you can sit and just be okay with each other without needing to fill up space and time with words and actions.
And also, this one is so, so right on point:
“the best part about loving someone is that then you can do stuff together with out being nervus when you ask them if they wanna do it”- Steven, age 8
Love is taking mental notes year-round of all their favorite things and getting them the best gift ever.
Love is sitting there quietly watching the bachelor with her because SHE loves it so much… even thought you would rather stick needles in your eyes than watch that show….
I had to share this, because it was SO PRECIOUS.
Thank you for this wonderful post.