P is for....

Twice a week we work on cursive handwriting in our class. I first show the students how to form the letters (exciting I know) and then I ask for words that begin with that letter and write them in cursive on the board. Today we were doing the letter "p" and I asked for contributions from the class. I received the requisite words: piece, pumpkin, popsicle, penguin, proud, etc. After telling the class we only had room on the board for one more word I called on Madison who proceeded to yell out "penis." Instantly I thought that maybe she was mistaken and thought we were working on "v" for Venus. Of course I made the mistake of asking her to repeat the word, and there was no doubt that it was a strong, affirmative "penis." (There's an easy joke there so I'll keep moving along.) Half the class laughed hysterically as though someone let a fart slip out, while the other half cringed in horror with a collective "Ooohhhhhh" as though someone let a fart slip out in the middle of church during John-O's sermon. Needless to say we marched right down to the principal's office hand in hand. She stated that she didn't know that it was an inappropriate word. Rather her dad had been watching a movie last night and had overheard someone on it say that the guy looked like "a penis with a little hat on." Instantly I knew it was from A League of Their Own but that's beside the point. (Great role model, Tom Hanks.) As you can see, there's never a dull moment in third grade.