Monkeying Around

You've been introduced to the life and inner most secrets of my Basic Reading class. But did you know that I teach three other classes?

In my third grade class we've been reading Arthur's Funny Money. This Arthur is not Arthur the Aardvark from the wonderful and lovable Arthur Series. No, this Arthur is from the 1940s or 1950s (think same era as Bedtime for Frances) and happens to be a monkey. I don't exactly understand why they are having us read these books. First, they are way too easy for my third graders--they're brilliant I tell you! Second, they use phrases that no one uses today. One thing my kids can relate to is Arthur's addiction to a candy--black licorice.

Here in Taiwan, licorice is non-existent. Since I have an amazing family in America, I asked my dear, sweet mom to ship me some black and red licorice, so my kids could truly understand what Arthur the monkey was so excited about.

Yesterday, the much anticipated package arrived. Brian, one of my students, interrupted my BR class twice in his excitement. ("Miss Shanna! I saw a package and your name is on it. I think it's our licorice!") The following is a documentation of said event:
My class had the same opinion as I do about black licorice--it's absolutely disgusting (sorry Mom)! Here, Brian is openly showing his disgust. They thought it was so funny that they took it to one of the girls sisters in another classroom and forced her and all her classmates to try it. They did like red licorice a lot more. I just wanted to publicly thank my mom for making my third grade class's day, or even whole life experience.