One lovely day, I stood in the hall outside of the bathroom, trying to keep my students quiet. As we waited for everybody to finish, one of my students made a really keen observation. 

As he stood against the wall, he saw a student from an older class walk past him. He remarked,

“That

is really tall and really skinny. I think when you are really tall, you are always really skinny.”

In grade 1 we observe.  And students observe everything.

We use our observations in more areas then you can imagine. We observe when we read books, in our theme units, on our field trips on the playground and when completing centers.

We observe with all our senses.

fall at Mill Lake, grade 1 classJust last week we went on a field trip and used observation to explore changes in the season of fall at Mill Lake. The students used their 5 senses to look for and recognize the seasonal changes.

As a woman at the above average height of 6’3” and the weight of…well…enough, I could hardly let that student’s comment slip by without inquiring more.

Putting my better judgment aside, and well aware that my self-esteem might take a hit by the end of this conversation, I said to this student,

“I am really tall. Am I also really skinny?”

Then I waited. I became increasingly nervous and this student looked me up and down and said,

“No, you are just normal.”

Partially defeated, but also proud that my students were making observations all over the place, I walked down the hall back to my classroom with my students in tow.

We work hard to observe many things, but some observations are best left unsaid.