Classroom Antics: Times I Just Had to Laugh With Them
Have you ever had a student who you just know will bring fun to your classroom, even though they’re paying close attention and participating to the fullest? I hope every teacher is lucky enough to have the kids in their classes who are just funny. Art Beyond the Ink curriculum, centered around storytelling and letting imaginations run wild, often encourages some ridiculous and hilarious remarks from students, and sometimes, it’s nearly impossible to keep from laughing. I invite you to join me in some of my favorite memories. :)
A Witty Kid’s Worst Nightmare
One semester, we had an exceptionally bright student (although every single one of the students was quite smart and lovely) who always had the correct answers and loved to participate in class. We were learning about major and minor tonalities, a tricky concept that he was already confident in, and we were setting up for our Major and Minor Musical Auction; each student needed to create a paddle with a “major treat” on one side and “minor pain” on the other to use for a listening game.
When I went around the room, I saw sad but true anecdotes from children about the hardships they face, and I also saw their greatest joys — everything from a Big Mac to a brand new balloon at the zoo. When I went to this student, he shared his major treat: “I drew my report card: straight A’s!”
It warmed my heart that he, above all things, delighted in good grades. I said, “Oh wow! Have you finished working on minor pain yet?”
“Yeah, it’s my worst nightmare... all F’s.😤”
Brazilian… Dessert Music?
Every semester, in our musical genre module, we present a class on Brazilian Choro music. It’s one of my favorites, and the kids tend to love the activities played with it. But, the name of the genre can be a little hard for young kids to remember because of its pronunciation (students often confuse the ch for a sh sound).
At the end of every module, we play a game of Jeopardy to review. One student picked a question from the genre category, and the challenge was: “Name this Brazilian music genre.”
After playing the listening example for them, the kids immediately had ideas. They started describing little details we had learned, like what instruments were used in the recording, but… they couldn’t remember the name of the genre!
To help them out, I said, “The name sounds like a delicious dessert!” I was thinking of churros.
But this threw them completely off the trail. “Cupcake?” one student guessed. “No, no, cookie!” another shrieked with hope.
Another kid confidently shot their hand up and said, “I KNOW what it’s called.”
Optimistic that this student would remember, I said, “Yes! Tell us.”
With smug satisfaction, the student said, “The answer is hot dog.” They then danced along to the music celebrating their “correct” answer.
Double Doom on Zoom
Fun fact about Art Beyond the Ink: our first-ever multi-day program was a week-long online summer camp in July 2020! To this day, I’m appreciative of the families who trusted our brand-new business (which officially launched that May) to entertain and enrich their kids during such a difficult time.
While all of the students got progressively more comfortable over the course of the week, one started off particularly shy and ended as our most talkative. He would occasionally let his humor shine with small jokes and actions, but on the last day, he really unleashed it all!
While we were working on a craft project, the student (let’s call him “Jack”), changed his Zoom profile picture and name to match the arcade character “Stickman.” Not thinking much of it, as it seemed to be a typical kid-thing, Rebecca and I complimented his look and continued.
That is, until a second Stickman joined. Rebecca and I laughed and urged Jack to finish his project, but he began to shout about how he had a doppelgänger and was experiencing identity theft. “A THIEF!” he yelled. “WHO is the real Stickman?! We must battle to KNOW!!”
A few minutes later, after some strobe-like flashing of camera on/off and a screaming Jack sounding from both Zoom boxes, one of the Stickmen “mysteriously” dropped out of the meeting just in time for Jack to share with us his final assignment, his absolute favorite song to listen to for musical stories. Luckily, his song had a music video, and well, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did…
Quick Links:
Learn more about how we developed our curriculum based on one kid’s musical story.
Check out our children’s workbook, which teaches general music theory and musical storytelling using a story-filled approach.
Read more classroom antics here!
More Blog Posts:
A creepy collection of classroom stories about video games, conspiracy videos, and the color green.