This morning during morning meeting we played a brief game of “Guess My Number.”
“Okay, boys and girls, I am thinking of a number between ONE and TEN. Ask me some describing questions to see if you can get enough clues to guess my number!”
They asked great questions like, “Is it between 4 and 6?” and “Does it start with a T?” and so on. They were awesome questions, and I was so proud of them!
After a few more numbers, I decided to up the ante and said, “Okay, NOW I am thinking of a number between 10 and 20! Can you guess my number?”
They asked questions similar to the others, and then Jack asked, “Does it END in ‘teen’?”
“YES!” I said with a smile.
“Is it twenty?” He asked confidently.
“Um, no. Remember, it ENDS in TEEN.” I reminded him.
He lit up and shouted, “Thirty! It’s THIRTY!”
“No," I said in a louder voice, "It’s between 10 and 20 and ENDS in ‘teen’ and starts with an s, remember?”
And just about then, to use the words that Jack himself supplied only last week, all hell broke loose as they furiously shouted numbers at me as fast as air pellets, some of which I had never even HEARD OF.”
Lesson learned? The numbers in the teens might as well be spoken in Japanese. (And yes, tomorrow’s math lesson? The numbers in the teens; again - for the ONE HUNDREDTH TIME.)
