If you think like me...

If you think like me, maybe you'll think this is funny.

Today I was going to introduce to my students what matter is. From there we would move on to atoms and molecules. Before I told them anything though, I told them they had a minute to go find some matter. After a minute they needed to be back in their seats with matter in their hands. The countdown began. This is where I really started laughing. None of the kids knew what matter was. Most just wandered around the room and watched what other people were picking up. One of my smartest students got the dictionary right away and tried to look it up in a minute--he didn't get it done, but since at the end of the minute he had a dictionary in his hands, he still passed with flying colors. The part I loved the most is that one of my students who never wants to get anything wrong was trying desperately to quiz me on this-- to get some kind of information from me. He said, "Is there one for everybody??" and "Does it have 'matter' written on it??" I immediately wrote that down so I wouldn't forget. Such silly questions!
At the end of the minute they all sat down and said out loud what they picked up. More than half had a dictionary or a science book---I guess they figured there's strength in numbers. They were amazed when I told them all of them were correct! I think they learned what matter is today!

**Anybody still sitting there wondering what matter is?? Go look it up!