A Suprise for the Teacher

I have been teaching my 2nd and 3rd graders about clowns, the different types and how they are part of theatre. I also taught them tricks they could use as clown acts like juggling, balloon animals, pantomime, etc.... Each kid had to design their own clown complete with costume, makeup, and an act. Then they had to perform the act for the class. I have this one girl who is very, very quiet and sweet. She told me during our rehearsal she wanted to tell a joke for her act. I told her she would need to find a knock knock joke or something and bring it to class. So today she gets up to perform her act and she says, "I am a Pierrot clown, and for my act I am going to tell a joke." Then she says the part that made me go, uh oh. "So there's a chinese guy, a mexican, and a white guy on an airplane...." I almost died laughing, and not from the joke which wasn't very funny or racist (thank goodness). I think maybe she messed it up a little, but I am glad for that! I couldn't believe such a sweet, shy, quiet girl, had found one of those kind of jokes to tell her third grade class. These kids crack me up. Then there's another girl who is from Ethiopia. She just moved here a few months ago and speaks very little english. Rehearsing with her was not so easy. She wanted to do an animal trick, so I told her I would bring a stuffed animal and she could make it sit and stay. So she goes up on stage with a beloved dog Jeff gave me when we first started dating (that unfortunately was the only stuffed animal not in my sleeping son's room this morning) and sits it on the stage. Then she walks to the other side of the stage, turns around and runs at the dog giving it a hard kick. It went flying across the room and of course the kids cracked up. I was in shock. Lost in translation I guess.
That was the exciting part of my day today, besides finding out Jakob got bit by a kid at daycare. He has a full imprint of teeth on his forehead. Not cool. I think I did a good job not freaking out about it though, I know its something toddlers go through and before long it will be my son doing the biting. I just hope its gone by Tuesday or we will be postponing his overdue 1st bday pics again. Its hard to catch a toddler on a day where he is bruise, scratch, and apparently bitemark free.