Time: Monday morning
Location: Brooklyn, NY; Ms. Smith's Classroom
Age group: 3 and 4-year-olds
Topic: A lesson in sequencing

Discussion: Today I attempted to teach the children sequencing. I wanted them to understand the idea of putting situations in the correct order, and to understand the terms "first", "next", and "last". I decided to use examples with them in an attempt to have them discover the correct answers on their own.

First example: I gave them three letters. A, B, and C. Mixing them up, I asked them to put them in order. This was a simple task and they accomplished it quickly.

Second example: I gave them the numbers 1, 2, and 3. Again mixing up the numbers I had the children put them in order. I made sure to use the key terms with them. Which number comes first? 1. Which number comes next? 2. Which number comes last? 3. Piece of cake.

Third example: Taking the task out of context, I provided the kids with a scenario: Suppose they were going to wash their hands. The question I asked was "What is the first thing you need to do when you wash your hands?"

After a moments silence... over half the class looked at me, and yelled simultaneously....

FLUSH THE TOILET!

from the mouths of babes... sigh.