Nap time for 4th graders!

I remember when I was little I hated taking naps.  They seemed like such a waste of time and I could never fall asleep.  Come to think of it, I still hate naps.  Imagine my surprise this morning when my 4th graders announced they would rather take a nap than do our morning sharing (aka show and tell).  Someone suggested it, they voted on it, and I decided it was better to just go along with it.

First I had to lay some ground rules so they wouldn't go crazy.  They had to sit in their desks and put their heads down.  If they didn't want to take a nap, they could read a book at their desks.  We have some pillows in the back of the classroom, and to avoid arguments over their use, I drew Popsicle sticks until all were taken.  Then I set the timer for 15 minutes and they had nap time.  It actually worked pretty well for me because I could correct papers in peace and quiet.  Still... nap time.  I never would've thought it an activity 4th graders would get excited about.  Afterwards they all congratulated the student who originally proposed the idea and said they hope to do it again!

In other news, last week's word of the week (rotund) was used multiple times this week, and it's only Tuesday!  The word got off to a rather rough start last week.  I was giving the spelling test and came up with a sentence using the word from the top of my head.  Looking back on it, I probably could've come up with a better sentence for the word rotund, but it's hard to think on the fly!  I'm pretty sure my sentence went something like this, "The kindergartener could be described as being rotund."  Yeah.  That didn't go over too well.  Some started giggling and one 4th grader pointed a finger at me and gasped, "You're a bully! Calling a little kid fat!"  The other kids chimed in and it got a little out of hand.  But I admitted I made a mistake and said it was not kind of me to use the word in that sense, and we moved on with our spelling test.

This week, I showed a picture of Miggery Sow from The Tale of Despereaux and one of my 4th graders shouted, "She is rotund!" which is true.  I'm glad to see they are adding the word to their vocabularies.  It's such a good word, it's a shame it's not used very often.