Proud

Our class gets Scholastic News every week, which is a newspaper for kids. The kids love it, because it usually has cool stories. I also enjoy it, because the kids enjoy it. There are also comprehension questions on the last page of the newspaper so the kids can practice the comprehension strategies I've been teaching them. We read the newspaper right before lunch, when the kids are too hungry to do much learning. 

This week's main article was about monkeys. One of the vocabulary words was primates. The kids were working independently on the questions. One vocab question on the back said, "humans, apes and monkeys are part of the _______ group." The answer they wanted was the word primates. (I didn't write the questions - I try to stay away from controversial subjects that don't really belong in third grade). 

Well, they didn't get the answer they wanted from one of my students. He raised his hand, and said quite vehemently, "Ms. J, this isn't the right answer, because we did NOT evolve from monkeys!" 

I told him he could cross off the word humans so the sentence would say "apes and monkeys are part of the primate group." He used so much lead to cross that word out - it was hilarious. I also noticed he wore his cross necklace outside his shirt (instead of tucked inside) for the rest of the day. 

I must say - I am very proud of him for standing up for what he believes. Not many third graders would do that. 

I'm also kind of annoyed with Scholastic news - let's keep those discussions out of school until later years. 

-Ms. J.