elementos

Yesterday, one of my little first graders, who is struggling with reading and writing, was trying to put together the alphabet. I had given him little round discs, all different colors, with the ABC's on them and he was to put them in alphabetical order. Singing under his breath, he got his A, B, C, D, E...all the way up to K and then he stopped. I could see he was really confused. He kept looking around at all the discs. He'd pick up the L and then put it back. I heard him singing it over again from the beginning, a -b -c -d -e -f -g... over and over. Then, I finally heard it. It was the l-m-n-o part that had him scratching his head. I asked him to sing it outloud for me and when he got to that part, he looked at me and said, "i know what comes next, but i don't see that elemento part here"

Ahhh, yes, the elemento part, but of course. Sometimes I feel like I should just know these things.