Oh, Shoot

What a doozie!

This morning I was giving my 4th graders their spelling pre-test when I noticed one of the new spelling words was "shoot". Our routine when giving a test is to say the word, use it in a sentence, and repeat the word one last time. My mind drew a blank when it came time to place "shoot" in a sentence and as the students were watching me, waiting for the sentence, I popped out the only thing that came to mind. I said, "I must learn how to shoot the gun." (On a side note, I would just like to say that I don't think the lead teacher was in the classroom when that went down, but maybe he was, I can't remember. Pahhhhhh! Hopefully he wasn't.......) After repeating the word, I noticed a few boys who immediately decided to pretend their hands were guns. Terrific, Miss Judith Anne.

Not until a few hours later did I realize my mistake in phrasing the sentence. I felt like knocking myself in the head. I could have said one of many sentences such as, "The coach told me to shoot the ball." HELLO! Why did I not put two and two together?! I could have tied in "shoot" with any kind of sport or ball. What a doofus, hahaha.

So much for a violence free school zone. Good grief. Maybe I should skip making up my own sentences for their spelling words from now on and use the example sentences in the teachers manual...........now there's an idea!