Jesus died for our fish

One of the wonderful things about being a first grade teacher is that my kids say hilarious things pretty much all the time. Recently, we've been talking about Semana Santa (Holy Week) and why we celebrate it, and our conversations have provoked some serious laughing fits on my part! Here are some snapshots into my conversations with my kids.

Me: What happened during Semana Santa?
Kids: Santa comes and brings us presents!

Me: What did Jesus do during Semana Santa?
Kids: He died on the cross of horse! (Caballo, horse, is pretty similar to Calvario, Calvary - I'll give them partial credit for that one!)

Me: That's right, Jesus died on the cross. He died to take away our...
Kids: Fish! (pescado, fish, is VERY similar to pecado, sin)
Me: Um... (laughing) no, no, no, Jesus died to take away our SINS. (this is where I launch into a phonics lesson and we read the words pescado and pecado a few times) Jesus died to take away our sins and give us life...
Kids (finally!): eternal! (they got it!)

Even when we're not talking theology, my kids are pretty great. On Wednesday we were learning the letter Z, which makes an s sound in Spanish.
Me: We know lots of words that start with z! Who is the character on Dora the Explorer who starts with s-s-s and always steals things from us? (I was going for Zorro, the Spanish name for Swiper.)
Kids: SATAN! (at the top of their little lungs. They did eventually figure out it was Zorro.)

Later that day, we were reading The Little Red Hen and talking about how we should help other people.

Me: Should we help our friends? Kids: Yes.
Me: Should we help our neighbors? Kids: Yes.
Me: Should we help everybody? Kids: Yes.
Kids: Except Satan. We can't help Satan. That makes God sad. That's a fish. (refer to previous convo!)
Me: That's right. We don't help Satan. But we help other people. Why do we help them?
Kids: Because if we don't help them they won't give us bread. (Completely logical conclusion, since that's what happens in the book, but not quite the universal application I was going for!)

Moral of the story: I love my first graders. And if you come visit my class, they will say hilarious things for you, too - all of these happened on one day while we had a visitor, who got to laugh along with me!

So as you think about Good Friday and Easter, pray that God will help me get it into my kids' heads that Jesus died for our sins, not our fish!