Ah, the Humanities.
Last week we started our year long study of Latin stems. Additionally, we did a jigsaw activity about Populism. Before we could start the activity, though, I thought I’d connect the two.
I opened the lesson by writing pop=people on the board and explained that it was a stem we’d meet later but tied into that day’s lesson. Naturally, I asked kids for other words they knew that had “pop” in it. I got the expected responses: population, popular. Then someone asked, “What about popcorn?”. We all knew they were trying to be funny.
All eyes looked at me. I replied, as they expected, “That one doesn’t work because that comes from the verb “pop” which is not from Latin.” I paused and thought a bit, then added, “However, it could apply because popcorn is the snack of the people!”
booksandbassets 
Playful experiences with words is what grows word nerds. (I consider myself a proud member of that group)
Isn’t it great when we take something a student says to be funny and make it fit into our lesson? I think it really throws the students a curve when things don’t go the way they think they will.
Excellent come back! I love it!