What We Read When We Sit on the Omelette

I just finished a great chapter book called Frindle. As many of you know from a recent email, Frindle is a book about a 5th grade student named Nick. Nick is a great kid, and likes to use his inventive brain to get out of work. This leads to a confrontation of sorts with a very stern teacher.

Mrs. Granger LOVES the dictionary, and is a huge stickler for proper word usage. This gets Nick to really wonder about words - where did they come from? Who decides what to call things? He decides to do a little experiment and calls a pen a frindle. He tells his friends to as well, and soon his whole class is doing it. Then his whole school, then his whole town. He is interviewed by various reporters and talk show hosts, and all of a sudden there are frindle t-shirts, hats, notebooks ... and of course, pens! The word gets so famous that ten years later, when Nick is 21 years old, it gets into the beloved dictionary.

It was such a fun read, and the kids in class were all rooting for Nick. They admired his rather sneaky way of getting into trouble - but not TOO much trouble.

I was a bit sad to finish the book today...but then, at clean up time, I heard:

"Okay, everyone, put all the Lego on the omelette!"
"Yeah, it's easier to put them on the omelette and then dump them into the box!"
"Which omelette should we use?"

Hmmmmm...I really love these kids.