It's Not Fair!

I was in a first grade class this week. Every morning after recess we would come into the class and I would read a book from the pile of books the teacher had selected from the library.

On Wednesday we read It’s Not Fair! By Robyne Supraner. It was copyrighted in 1976 which meant some content lead to a couple of interesting discussions. The book is about a little sister who is constantly complaining about what her baby brother can do/get away with. Throughout the book she says the refrain, “It’s not fair!”

Two things were of particular interest in the story. First, the sister complains about Andrew the baby because he gets to sit in the front seat. As every 6 year old knows, kids should not sit in the front seat because they “could get killed by the airbag.”

Later in the story the big sister does something really dumb and silly that damages the dining room chair. She gets a spanking. This leads one of my students to ask what a spanking is. “Is it a machine?”

Of course, during the rest of the week, whenever a student complained about something I would whine back at them, “It’s not fair!” This put an end to their complaining. I was tempted to threaten them with spankings but those threats would have been empty.

Each day, after reading a book, the students would take out their “writer’s notebook” and write something. Usually they were to write something inspired by what we read, though it didn’t have to be that. One day I decided to let those who wanted to to share something they wrote. This can be a disaster or interesting, depending on the kids. No one may think this is funny but it struck me funny. One kid wrote: “This is me when I am 89.” And he drew a picture of himself with a long beard. Another kid decided to write How to Feed a Venus Fly Trap. 1. Get a fly swater. 2. Swat fly. 3. Get tweazerse 4. Open cap from trap 5. Put fly on leaf.