Class clowns. They’re in every classroom across America.
Yes, even mine.
Today before writing time (which I love to teach by the way), I read a sweet children’s book called The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant.
It’s about this cute little old lady who’s outlived all her friends, so she reluctantly gets a dog and they become good friends. Don’t you just love her cowboy boots?
After reading, I told my students to think of a topic to write about. To help them, I suggested they use the story I read as a springboard. I recommended writing about a pet dog or cat. Or maybe tell about a time a stray wandered up to their house. Did they get to keep it? Did they feed it like the little old lady in the story. What happened? Or, if they didn’t have an animal story, maybe they would like to write about their grandmothers. Their sweet, loving, kind grandmothers.
Here’s a story written by one of my girls.
My Grandmol’s Flab
My grandmol has more chins than a Chinese phone book.
She can’t see her feet.
When she sits on the toilet it says a-b-c-d-e-f-g, get your fat butt off of me.
Peace.
I hadn’t read this story myself prior to asking her to share it with the class. Needless to say, she had the whole lot of us in stitches.
Yes, including me.
I hope someday I can say, “I knew her when.”
Angel Wheeler 
How funny. Did this really happen in your class?
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True story. Cross my heart and hope to die.
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Cynthia Rylant’s The Relatives Came is one of my all time favorite books.
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Oh my gosh! Mine too!!! I love the part about all the different sounds of breathing.
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Once I got the tears of laughter out of my eyes I had to call my daughter who teaches 6th grade. It wasn’t easy because I kept laughing. Thanks for sharing that with us. I have about 7 other teacher friends/relatives that I will share this with. During this time of SAT and ARMT testing they need all the laughter they can get.
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I’m glad you got a kick out of it. I did too! I’m sure she’d heard these jokes somewhere, but to have the sense of humor to get them is quite remarkable.
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Love it!
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Wow! That little girl just might grow up to be a writer……even do some comedy, or cartoons. What an imagination! Smart, Really remarkable that 1 2nd grader could think like that!
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Just read this to my boys….they were in stitches, too!! Loved it! Thanks…AGAIN!!
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