(no subject)
Pieces of my pretty fantastic reading group this morning, with the first graders who can't read. We read a book about astronauts going into space, and this was clearly the pinnacle of their reading lives. A book! About space! How could this not be considered the BEST. THING. EVER.?
Kid M (viewing a photo of Earth): Is that really what Earth looks like?
me: Yep. It's round, like a basketball, but a LOT bigger.
Kid M: Wow. Where are we?
me: Well, you can't see America here. Look, this is Africa, where Classmate M is from. And this is Antarctica, where the penguins live. We're on the other side of the world.
Kid J: Like, on the back of the page!
me: ... Sure.
Kid J: I feel like maybe those penguins might fall off! They're upside down!
me: You know what, no matter where you are on the Earth, you always feel like you're on the top. Isn't that a surprising thing? To the penguins, they might think WE would fall off! But the Earth pulls on us, so we stay on the ground.
Kid J: Very surprising!
Kid M: Why is he wearing that funny hat?
me: Well, that astronaut wants to breathe, and there's no air in space, so they have to take their air with them.
Kid M: But inside the space shuttle they didn't wear those hats!
me: True. They just put all the air in the shuttle. But outside, no air.
Kid M: Well, what is outside?
me: In space?
Kid M: Yeah.
me: Um. Not much. Sometimes rocks. Mostly, just...space. It's pretty empty. No air. No water.
Kid M: No water either?!
me: No.
Kid M: Then what's that astronaut floating on?!
me: ... Good question?
Kid M: I want to go to that planet!
me: Well, astronauts don't really go to other planets, because it would take a really really long time to get there.
Kid J: Yeah, and you'd have to pack some food.
me: Right.
Kid J: And we wouldn't want to go to Jupiter, because we'd get flat.
Kid M: But we can meet the aliens!
me: Well, we don't actually know if any living things exist anywhere else on the other planets. We've never seen any. So we don't know if there are any aliens.
Kid J: Well, except for illegal aliens. But those ones are people.
me: Good point.
It was a great group. Too bad we didn't get our, you know, READING done, but they were just so excited and engaged I didn't have the heart to tell them, "Enough chat! Time for rote sight word memorization!". Now if only all my groups would be so enthusiastic. Or if this group would learn to read. That'd be good, too.
Kid M (viewing a photo of Earth): Is that really what Earth looks like?
me: Yep. It's round, like a basketball, but a LOT bigger.
Kid M: Wow. Where are we?
me: Well, you can't see America here. Look, this is Africa, where Classmate M is from. And this is Antarctica, where the penguins live. We're on the other side of the world.
Kid J: Like, on the back of the page!
me: ... Sure.
Kid J: I feel like maybe those penguins might fall off! They're upside down!
me: You know what, no matter where you are on the Earth, you always feel like you're on the top. Isn't that a surprising thing? To the penguins, they might think WE would fall off! But the Earth pulls on us, so we stay on the ground.
Kid J: Very surprising!
Kid M: Why is he wearing that funny hat?
me: Well, that astronaut wants to breathe, and there's no air in space, so they have to take their air with them.
Kid M: But inside the space shuttle they didn't wear those hats!
me: True. They just put all the air in the shuttle. But outside, no air.
Kid M: Well, what is outside?
me: In space?
Kid M: Yeah.
me: Um. Not much. Sometimes rocks. Mostly, just...space. It's pretty empty. No air. No water.
Kid M: No water either?!
me: No.
Kid M: Then what's that astronaut floating on?!
me: ... Good question?
Kid M: I want to go to that planet!
me: Well, astronauts don't really go to other planets, because it would take a really really long time to get there.
Kid J: Yeah, and you'd have to pack some food.
me: Right.
Kid J: And we wouldn't want to go to Jupiter, because we'd get flat.
Kid M: But we can meet the aliens!
me: Well, we don't actually know if any living things exist anywhere else on the other planets. We've never seen any. So we don't know if there are any aliens.
Kid J: Well, except for illegal aliens. But those ones are people.
me: Good point.
It was a great group. Too bad we didn't get our, you know, READING done, but they were just so excited and engaged I didn't have the heart to tell them, "Enough chat! Time for rote sight word memorization!". Now if only all my groups would be so enthusiastic. Or if this group would learn to read. That'd be good, too.