Inches and Pinches

Today during our math lesson, the students had an activity where they got to measure items in the classroom with gummy worms. Each child set out with their gummy worm in hand and headed to a workspace with their selected partner.

One of the questions asked how tall the students were in gummy worms and they were supposed to measure each other. As I was observing the students working in pairs, I wound up stopping by one particular pair of boys. They are both great kids, but one of them needs a little more guidance with these projects at times as he seems to have his head in the clouds.......... When I saw the one boy struggling to measure himself with his little gummy worm, I figured it was time to step in with a little extra guidance. So, I told them to take turns measuring each other. They tried it once but really didn't get an accurate count so I told the one boy to turn his back towards us and we'd use that flat surface to measure his height. Well, I began to assist the one child (our daydreamer) in measuring his partner and we started from his head and worked our way down. I figured that would be the easiest way. It was all going smoothly and we had an accurate count............UNTIL we came to the child's rear end. Of course, the child had his back to us so he had no idea what was going on or what it looked like---but I sure did! I could NOT control my giggle and I broke out into a huge grin. Daydreamer saw me laughing and he started to laugh as well, but he had no idea what the real reason was behind my laugh. He just thought the whole gummy worm project was funny. As I knelt on the floor, I couldn't help but giggle at the predicament before me. One had his back to us and our lil Daydreamer, who was holding the gummy worm, had it pinched between his fingers right next to the boys rear end. It looked as though Daydreamer was pinching the other little boy on the bum. And with little Daydreamer laughing away it was almost too much for me to handle. He had no idea why it was so funny!

I decided then and there that it was time to turn the boy, being measured, sideways. NO MORE measuring the backside. Every time I thought about that little episode I would break out into another fit of giggles. It truly was too funny. If only you could have seen it. (Especially if you knew these kids, they're a goofy group!)