My Yellow Crayon

I have one student who has an intellectual disability. We'll name him "Jake". He is a great kid, but naturally with that kind of disability isn't quite all the way with it. He has the greatest smile and he makes me laugh. Here's one of my funniest stories ever!
One day, I had another student "Andy" who was having issue with passing gas. We talked about how everyone passes gas and it's not something we laugh at or point fingers. We just say "excuse me" and move on. Well during an activity they were all coloring and "Andy" did IT again. I guess that "Jake" didn't hear it because he kept on working. At first I was grateful that the little talk earlier had "sunk in" Then he started smelling his paper. When asked what he was doing he said..."Boy something smells really good" Then to test his theory of the origin of the smell, he scribbles really hard with his crayon and sniffs it. I was a bit confused until he looked up and said. "Yep! It's definately my yellow crayon." Then he gave his darling smile and I just smiled back. I was glad that somebody thought it smelled good.

Eggs

As it was getting closer to Easter, we were talking about eggs. We were brainstorming all the different things you can do with eggs. When I had one student ask "Where do eggs come from?" Assuming they already knew this I was taken back and returned the question to the kids. Only one child had their hand raised, so I called on him. His reply was this..."eggs are inside us humans" That caught me off guard and I didn't quite know how to respond. I simply said..."The eggs we eat come from chickens and we'll leave it at that!"

sixty-nine pounds

I work with an autistic boy we'll call him "Simon". He is extremely smart and takes everything literally. For example, the other day I heard him stomping down the hall and being pretty loud. I walked up to him and asked him to walk with quiet feet. He said in the most serious voice, "Miss Dent, I can't!!! I am sixty-nine pounds and that is heavy. I have to take sixty-nine pound steps." "Simon" makes me smile.

Another funny "Simon" story happened a few months ago when we were reading a book with a lion. It was a non-fictional book which talked about the food chain. After reading a bit, "Simon" ponders and says..."Miss Dent? In the 2nd Coming will their be a food chain? Because I learned that all the animals will live in peace. Right?" Smart boy!

P is for Panties

I was working with my little "Paco" A 2nd grader who still doesn't know his letter names and sounds. One thing about "Paco" is that not only does he have a learning disability, but his family is from Mexico and he struggles with the English Language too. A double whamy....one day, we were working on the letter 'P' After reading a story called 'Purple Paint.' He was to draw a picture to match the 'P' words. One of the words was PAN. He started drawing his picture. I couldn't tell what it was he was drawing so I asked him. Being ELL (English Language Learner) He proceeds to tell me

"Those are...(pause)....um....(another pause, looking for the right vocabulary word)...those are 'panties'. You know some people call them underwear!"

I was so excited that he got the concept, that I didnt' even realized how funny this was. I just praised so much and celebrated with him. Later that day I was telling my roommates about the whole story. I then realized how funny it truly was especially since one of my roommate hasn't been able to say the "P" word (Panties) for years. We laughed for hours.