Winner or wiener?

So last Friday I had a competition in my classroom. The students were playing a game where, using only their hands, they had to try to knock their partner off balance. I made it into a tournament, with brackets and everything, and then we talked about what it had to do with force. The kids loved it, I had fun, and it was a great way to connect something so basic with something we were talking about. When the competition ended, one girl yelled out, "Yay! So and so is the WIENER!!" I just about died.

I proceeded to write the words "winner" and "wiener" up on the board. I read each one a few times. Only a few students in the class knew what a wiener was. She had no idea what she was saying or how it was wrong, which made it even more priceless. Of course, from my Wisconsinite roots, I broke down into a chorus of the Oscar Mayer song. Then she was able to make the connection and turned so red. Poor honey!

My kids make me laugh :)

Yesterday during lab, one of my students, who has a hard time in my class, looked like he was really spaced out. He was just kind of staring off into nowheresville and then turned out and looked at me and with a mystical look on his face said, "Ms. Sarah.... science is.. everywhere." I think that it is my crowning moment of my year so far. Thank you, Kathy Blomker, for helping me to realize that and for helping me to convey it to a bunch of 15 year olds, who, when I was in their shoes, would have never been able to make that connection. Success!!