I told my students

"Are you pregnant Mrs. Shupe? Because someone said you're pregnant." This is what I was asked while we were at library last Friday and I didn't know how to answer because I didn't want that to be the way I announced it. So I said, "Wouldn't I tell you something like that?!"Another girl walks over and says, "You look like maybe you're pregnant." I got a nervous feeling in my stomach and decided, 4th graders aren't as naive as I must have thought.. especially considering most of my students have a pregnant mother or a new baby in their homes. 

I decided then and there, I would tell them the following Monday. Originally I was going to wear the previously mentioned shirt with the skeleton and baby skeleton to announce the news to my kiddos. Well, that wouldn't fly because it would be a week before Halloween and no one is wearing skeleton shirts on random days in October. 

So I decided I would introduce the game "Hang Man" to my students. To my delight, they knew the game (some didn't last year and being that they're mostly newcomers to the country, you never know what games they may or may not know.) So I put up the following: 

___ ____ ___       _____ ____ _____ _____ ____    

____ ____       ______ ____ _____ _____ _____ _____

____     _____ _____ _____ _____

They're guessing and finally they had something like Mrs Shupe is    ___a___ing    a    ___a___y. 

I start hearing whispers, "Is she having a baby?"   "Do you think she's having a baby?"  "I think Mrs. Shupe is having a baby." Then they solved it! 

They bursted with questions! What is it!? are you really having a baby?! What's it's name?! Can we name it? When is it coming?! 

And my three favorite questions: 

3. "Aren't you supposed to be big and fat?" (Love this kid forever for making me feel good lol) 

2. "So can we really have a class baby?" 

and the number 1 question that still makes me giggle now....

1. "Does Mr. Shupe know?" 

LOL!!! ... He does. 

They're super cute and are asking me questions about the baby already and giving me name suggestions as well as suggesting a name suggestion jar that they can add to whenever they think of names. There has also been a request that Mr. Shupe please come in and let them know when the baby comes so they can find out if it's a boy or girl. 

Oh and my nerves were settled when the only controversial question that was asked was, "How did you know you were pregnant? Like, how did you actually know a baby is in there?" A simple, "The doctor told me," solved that one and the questions were done! Thank God! 

...Now I'm off to my most visited place, the bathroom. At least I made it through typing this whole thing out!