Friday Funny

This week, I have been teaching my students songs for our Veterans' Day program. My kindergarten classes are learning "God Bless America". They were all so very proud and excited to tell me that they already knew all the words to the song. I, in turn, also acted proud and excited for them and asked them to sing it for me. They did a wonderful job (there is not much cuter than 5-year-olds singing).

Next came one of my favorite parts of teaching songs to little people - explaining what the words to the song mean.

God Bless America,
Land that I love;
Stand beside her,
And guide her...........

"Who's 'her'?", I asked. Puzzled faces and furrowed brows were their reply.
"It's the girl in the song", someone finally concluded.
"What girl?", I quizzed.
"The one in America."

Hm.

After telling them that "her" was actually referring to the country itself, we continued.

Through the night
With a Light
From above.


(They love this part because it rhymes. "Night" and "light" are always highly accented.)


From the mountains,
To the prairies..........

"What in the world is a 'prairie'?", I dared to question again.
Silence, with the exception of grinding brain gears.
"Oh, oh, I know!!", one little person exclaimed.
"Alright, what is a prairie?", I said.
"It's a little person who prays", she said with a high degree of satisfaction.
Trying my best to hide my amusement, I replied,
"I think you're thinking of a 'fairy', but that was a very good guess".

They loved discovering that"prairies" are the flat-lands where cowboys ride horses.

To the oceans
white with foam.........


I stopped with a quizzical look.
They looked back at me as if to say, "Oh, no, what will it be this time?".
"Foam", I repeated. "Foam?"
Again, they were lost in thought, searching through their 5 year old vocabularies.
"Foam is like play-doh!"..... "No, it's paper, fluffy paper!"......"Is it bubbles?"
Hooray, we have a winner!! Bubbles!! The moving of the waves makes bubbles, or foam.
"Why don't we just sing 'bubbles' instead of foam?", a seemingly innocent one asked.
"Because it wouldn't sound right to sing 'To the oceans white with bubbles!" , I sang as they erupted into giggles.


God Bless America
My Home Sweet Home.


"Alright boys and girls, let's stand up and sing through this again, now that we know what we're singing about............."


And so they sang:


God Bless America,
Land that I love;
Stand beside her,
And guide her
Through the night
With a Light
From above.
From the mountains,
To the prairies
To the oceans
White with BUBBLES (I kid you not)
God Bless America
My Home Sweet Home.


Kids crack me up.