Did I hear that correctly?

This blog is for sharing the happenings in the world of a kindergarten teacher and her classroom.
When I was in college, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. One of my grandmothers had been a teacher in the early 1900's and I always thought that was cool. I heard about the school laws back then that required female teachers to be unmarried and even leave the profession if they married. Well, my grandmother did not teach long in the one room schoolhouse in Arkansas,  because she married my grandfather in her early twenties. My mother was a teacher also. She taught for 35 years and even taught at Richland in the 60's. By the sixties, school policies had changed a little for women that went into the teaching profession. They could be married, but had to resign when she they were expecting a child. A female teacher could not "show" and was expected to give up her position after 3 months. My mother had to resign when she found out she was having my sister. I remember being told of this and being shocked, but it is a true story! Times have really changed, haven't they?

The above reflection brings me to last Friday in the classroom.
As the class anticipates our upcoming field trip to The Memphis Zoo this Friday, the children eagerly listen to books about zoo animals. Our topic this morning was about real and make-believe. I held up two books in front of the children titled Giraffes Can't Dance and Giraffes.  "Let's look at the cover of these two books children and predict which book is real or make-believe."  One book had a colorful yellow and orange giraffe dancing on a page of purple. The other book showed a National Geographic type photograph of a brown and beige giraffe. Many children eagerly raised their hands and gave their accurate predictions of the two choices. 

I played a song on a CD about a giraffe to set the mood and asked them to listen so they could recall things that the song says giraffes can do. After naming them, I began the non-fiction book on Giraffes.
I paused after page two of the beautifully photographed book,  to ask the group of listeners a high-order thinking question....  "Why do you think giraffes have such long tongues?"  Very quickly a little boy threw his hand up in the air. "Yes" I said. Ever so seriously, he said "Their tongues are really long because they use them to go up and then help clean out their noses."  YES, your eyes read what I heard!!! There were two parent volunteers helping in the class, Mrs. Carlisle and Mrs. Sandlin, that heard it too!!!! So I have witnesses!!!! I'm NOT making this stuff up folks!!! We had to resist to keep from bursting out with hysterical laughter! The children, not quite knowing what to think of his comment, sat and looked a little bewildered.
With a straight face, I continued to read and was so relieved to get to the page that explained how the giraffes use their tongues (which are as long as a child's arm) to wrap around leaves and branches. 
"This is what they use their tongues for." I said. "Oh" the children sighed.

I love teaching kindergarten!
They can say the cutest things.