Good comedic timing; ACES

I was waiting for the 5th grade kids to transition from one subject to another. Being in a silly mood, I placed my hand under the overhead projector (referred to as the Elmo – I thought because it’s red like the Muppet, but it’s the name of the company that makes/sells them.) I curled and uncurled my fingers as they approached the camera, so that it looked on the whiteboard-screen like something was coming towards the students. Some of them noticed and laughed.

Then J. got up, hurried to the front of the room and flattened himself against the whiteboard feigning fright so that it looked like the “monster hand” was capturing him. Everybody cracked up – especially me. I told him that he has great comedic timing. He smiled and asked, “Is that a good thing?” I responded that it all depends on when and how he uses it. 🙂 To me – it showed a quick wit – he saw that I was being silly (which gave him liberty to do so as well) – saw a way to enhance it into further comedy, and pulled it off.

Once a year the school has ACES: All Children Exercising Simultaneously for an hour.
Last year we walked around the building for a half an hour – which got pretty old for most kids after about 20 minutes. Another time the kids walked around the outside track. Today the 6th graders, due to a grant, were bused to University of Michigan to participate in some exercising there.

The fifth graders were split into two groups: one in the cafeteria, and one in the gym. In the cafeteria, we did line dancing (most, but not all, of which I was able to participate in). Then, in the gym, they played volleyball using a larger, lighter ball and basically just serving it and hitting it back and forth with great levity and not a whole lot of rules and even less strategy.  At the outset, several members of the class suggested playing boys vs. girls, and I said okay. It turned out to be a smart move. The girls had go-getters and stand-backers that played, tending to group together all in the middle and ignore the entire left side of the playing area. The boys were mostly hot shots with a penchant for flinging themselves onto the floor whenever they thought it would bring them a laugh, with a few shy guys on the fringes that hit the ball occasionally. There was one particularly exciting round where the ball made it back and forth (and even once into the next class’s territory where it was hit back and continued in play) about 8-10 times.

Over all it was a pretty good day. This was a different Livonia school, but fifth grade was a good bunch. Well, I did send L. to the resource room within 5 minutes of the beginning of math class, but according to my subbing notes, that was pretty well expected. Poor boy had “no idea” what he could possibly be doing to distract anyone. Sigh.   I did talk to another fifth grade teacher who said she has 9 uncooperative boys in her class this year. I’m going to remember her name and avoid that bunch.