The Beginning of "Girls' Day"

Before Cyndie and I met Anneke and Andrea for our day of shopping, we went to Kaydence's soccer game and then to the very end of Kylee's. Cute little girls. Aaron is Kylee's coach and also helps with Kaydence's when they aren't at the same time. After the soccer games, us girls had a fun day shopping and eating out. We missed Amy a lot, but the next time she's in Utah/Idaho, we'll have another party. Yay! Love those parties!

Little Pig, by Hans Bayles

I was looking through some boxes, trying to find a paper that Andrea needs, and I found this story hand-written by Hans when he was in the 3rd grade. And you all know how I feel about 3rd graders - they are a special bunch. So I'm sharing this special story. I know you kids will appreciate your dad's writing talent. :) I'm going to type it just like he wrote it.

Little Pig

Once there was a little pig.
His name was Piggy, "Wiggy.
He was a cute little pig.
But once a dog chase"d him. He was
scared off the dog.
The dog"s name was Lady.
He was a pretty dog.
His master was Lary.
Lary"s mother and father was named
Mr. and Mrs. Lary Edward.
They lived at Horse Ranch.
They had a big ranch.
They had horses, cow,s pigs and
chickens.
They liked their ranch.
They lived far from town.
Lary was 8 years old he went to shcool.
His shcool name was Big Shoe. Lary like his shcool very much.
The end.

Kind of funny that the theme of the story changed by the end huh? How cute. This was on the back of the same page:

About my famlee

I have three brothers I have one sister. One off my brothers name is Bruce he is a funny little brother he has glod (gold) hair brown eyes he is a cute little brother. One off my brother"s name is Gary he has red hair he brown eyes too his a funny little brother to. One off my brother"s name is Jimmy he is my littlest brother. he has red hair to he is cute to. my sister she is busy little girl. she is funny little girl to shes cute to. my mother and father their names are Mr. and Mrs. Hanson Balyes all off my famlee is happy they all have brown eyes to.
The end
Hans

Another funny.

You know, I really could write something funny about every day at school, but I don't want to be obnoxious about it. But here's one more. This little boy came into my room with this note near the end of the school day today. I used to teach him Language Arts at the beginning of the year, but now we've changed the schedule and I don't any more.

"Dear Mrs. Bayles

You were a good techer. I had a good time your class. My mom Ruth is cold in the summer.

Love
Ryan"

All I can say is that if his mom is cold in the summer, watch out Ruth! Winter is on its way!

Field Trip

The 3rd graders went on a field trip yesterday to the American West Heritage Center and Willow Park. It was great fun except for the rain and cold. At the AWH Center, one of the ladies there was telling the kids about a pioneer kitchen. She held up a biscuit cutter and asked, "Do any of you know what this is?" I was with a group of 16 - yes, 16 boys - and they had pretty good guesses, like a cup, a tiny bowl and a piece of wood with a knob on it, but I knew that none of them would guess 'biscuit cutter', so I leaned over to Austin and whispered in his ear "It's a biscuit cutter". He didn't volunteer the answer right off, so I kind of nudged him and he said, "Is it a piss cutter?" Okay - obviously he hadn't understood me. The lady looked at me with wide eyes and we both about choked trying not to laugh. But she went right on like nothing unusual had happened. She was a real pioneer trooper.

Show and Tell

If anyone is ever bored on a Thursday afternoon between 12:30 and 12:50, you can come to Show and Tell at my class. My favorite time of the school week. Sometimes though, you learn some sad things, like the time a little boy stood up and said, "My mom and dad don't live together anymore because they got a divorce. (pause) But I hope they get married again someday." Wow. What do you say to that? Thank goodness, most of the things they show or tell about are fun. One boy in my class, Brayden, likes to write music. So for show and tell he sang some of his songs. He had a whole stack of them, so I told him to just sing his favorite one. The name of it was "I Fell In A Dark Hole." Sometimes it is SOOOOOO hard to keep a straight face! He whipped out a song for me too. You can sing it to any tune (because that's what he does). The name of it is Bayles Teaches School. Here's how it goes: "Bayles teaches school and she's my teacher. She's an awesome teacher. I loooooove third grade!" He just belted it out. I was almost crying I was trying so hard not to laugh but he probably thought I was just so touched. He asks me every day if I like my song and I assure him I do. Another show and tell day a boy, named Kris, brought a flat pizza box, (his parents own a pizza place in Preston), and he held it up and said, "Do any of you know what this is?" A couple of kids did, but most of them didn't. So he said, "I'm going to show you how to fold a pizza box." So he proceeded to do so. The class was amazed at his talent and several of them ooo'd and ahhh'd over it. One comment was that he was just like a magician the way he turned that cardboard into a pizza box. He was very proud and he even presented the finished box to me. I'm so lucky. My own song and my own personal-sized pizza box.

Happy Constitution Day!

In case you didn't know, this has been Constitution Day. In 1786 on this day, our constitution was signed. We talked about it today in school and I found out that the kids couldn't give me a definition of the word 'freedom'. One boy said "It's like when you go bungee jumping." That was the closest definition I got. So we had a good talk about it. Then all the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders went outside and surrounded the flagpole and they took down our old raggy flag and put up a beautiful new one. The kids were almost reverent about it and we all said the pledge together and it was really cool. They were impressed with it all. I'd never go bungee jumping, but I'M THANKFUL FOR MY FREEDOMS!!!! As third graders would say, "AMERICA ROCKS!"

School Blues

I had a pretty rotten day at school today. It started with waking up at 4 a.m. and not being able to go back to sleep. So my nerves were a little on edge and my class jumped all over them today. We had to take 3 different tests today and it wasn't a fun day anyway, but I tried to fit in some Chinese writing because we had just read The Ballad of Mulan. Even that fun activity turned out to be so nerve wracking. By the end of the day, I threw a book down and said, "I can't stand any more" and we had a 15 minute talk about how noisy and disrespectful they have been. I was so angry and so upset that I almost cried right in front of 24 little 3rd graders. THEY CAN NOT BE QUIET!!!!!!!!!! I said, "obviously, I'm not a very good teacher if I can't get you to listen to me when I'm trying to read a story to you." I thought they would be repentant and be sorry, but no....they started giving me suggestions on how to be a better teacher! Here are some of their comments:
1. You could throw the lid off your marker at us if we are being noisy.
2. You could make us miss the field trip next week.
3. You could call our parents and tell them to come get us.
4. You could give us a treat everyday that we are nice.
5. You could make us stay in from recess and do math.
6. You could make us stay in from recess and sit and do nothing.

There were more, but that's all I can think of. We didn't come to a consensus on the best way for me to be a better teacher, so I guess I'll just have to keep trying my way - loving the little buggers.