Third grade is my favorite

I have 7 third grade boys on Thursday afternoons and I really think it's my favorite class to teach. Today, we were working on punctuation marks as a part of the fluency training we do. We talked about several different kinds of punctuation and what that meant for reading out loud. They had some trouble, so I put some of the marks up on the board for them to identify. Our exchange went like this:

Me: (writes a comma on the board)

Boy 1: Ooo! A pause!

Me: Yep, that's what it does, but we call it a comma.

(writes quotation marks on the board)

Boy 2: Ooo! Ooo! Me me me! Those are... concentration marks!

Me: (stifling a giggle) Actually we call them quotation marks.

(writes an exclamation point on the board)

Boy 3: Hey! An excitement mark!

Earlier in that same class, we'd been reading a book about a dog and the discussion turned to pets. One of my students said he had a new dog.

Me: Oh, wow! What kind of dog?

Boy: A Pomeranian mixed with something else

Me: Is it a boy dog or a girl dog?

Boy: Girl dog

Me: What's her name?

Boy: Lola Ballerina. My sister named it. It's a stupid name. And I'm pretty sure my Papaw hates the dog. Stupid dog.

I love my boys.