you got questions, i got answers

Every week in the first grade, we brainstorm sounds.  We make a chart and try to come up with as many words as possible.  I say "we" try to come up with them because really Miss P. and I are doing half the work and having most the fun.  When the kids seem at a blank for another  bŭ-  word:   They've given us bubble, bump, bunny, and bumble bee and I'll jump in with okay, what about a type of pan that you bake a cake in?...you know it's bu-bu-bu  and then Paula jumps in with  yeah, that's right, it's a pan or tray or some people say it's a type of cake?...you know, it's bu-bu-bu
and finally, with all their empty-eyed staring at us, or guess-out-loud-yelling: "BAKING PAN!", "CAKE!", "CAKE PAN!","Bŭ-TRAY!"  We usually then share a moment of i guess that mighta been a tough one while the kids sit there wondering why we're cracking each other up over the word "bundt".  They'd never heard it before.

This week was the sound "da" as in:  dance, dangle, dad, dandruff.
Two of our more curious boys sat at the this particular work station during Language Arts and one of them asked me why they couldn't use the word "damnit", because that worked too.

D: and it was up there before but Miss P. crossed it out 'cuz she said it was a swear word

ME:  well, it is a swear word

O: (perfectly innocent O.) you mean like the word 'stupid'?

ME: no, worse than that

D: you mean like the word 'fat'?

ME: no

O: you mean like the word 'idiot'?

ME: worse than that, and D, 'fat' isn't actually a swear word

D: yes it is, like if you call someone 'fat'

ME:  well, 'fat' is an insult, 'damnit' is a straight-up swear word


O: you mean like 'fuck'?

ME:  yes, O, just like that

That cleared it all up!