Close Reading in Kindergarten

Misc–karmic mistakes?, Teaching, Words, words, words

My kindergarten teacher taught us an old rhyme:
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Wasn’t that a dainty dish,
To set before the king?

A Conversation From My Youth:

Me: What does “dainty” mean?
My teacher: Small.
Me: A pie with 24 blackbirds would be really big. Are we saying this wrong? Should we say “undainty”?
[Long pause.]
My teacher: No one else has ever had a problem with this.

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2 comments… add one
  • A reader Jun 25, 2018 Link

    Doesn’t the term dainty also mean delicious?

  • Dr Karma Jun 26, 2018 Link

    Yes, but I didn’t know that at the time–and it seems like my teacher didn’t either.

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