Teacher Tales: Funny Notes That Remind Parents How Trying Their Kids Can Be

Never underestimate a kid’s ability to get into trouble. Whether it’s at home, on a road trip, or during an ordinary day at school, things are never dull when kids are around. This shouldn’t come as a surprise—after all, every adult was once a kid—but it still takes us aback when we learn just what crazy shenanigans kiddos have gotten into. And teachers know this better than anyone!

While parents are out at work, these resilient souls have to put up with these unpredictable balls of energy. Don’t worry, though. They don’t keep the chaos to themselves. Some teachers aren’t afraid to let parents know what the heck their kids did that day to earn a trip to detention… or an extra scoop of ice cream, depending on your sense of humor.

Here are just some classroom shenanigans, as told by notes sent home by teachers.

It’s not lice

Here’s a letter to Brian’s parents from his teacher. According to this note, Brian didn’t seem to be enjoying math. He was struggling so much that he kept scratching his head. So the teacher let Brian miss part of math class.

This is a testament to how good this teacher is at his job. Instead of berating Brian, he sent him to the nurse to make sure it wasn’t lice. And thank goodness it wasn’t! That’s a positive end to the note.

Childhood crisis

You know how people would cut their hair on a whim during a quarter-life crisis or following an unpleasant experience? That’s what little Demi did. But she did not go to a salon. She cut her own hair during class!

How sweet of this teacher to pack the locks of hair in a Ziploc bag for her parents. But it’s not like it does anything! Her parents can’t glue the hair back onto Demi’s scalp. They’re just going to live with her uneven hair for a few weeks.

Too pretty to work

This teacher’s note to Madison’s parents detailed how she refused to do classwork because she’s “too pretty to work.” Oh, Madison. If only life worked this way. Unfortunately, unless you were born into wealth, you’re going to have to toil away.

We have no doubt Madison is a beautiful child. But you don’t get to skip work just because you’re pretty! We love how the teacher didn’t even try to do anything about this. They just left it for the parents to handle.

“Your mama” jokes

We see this note is relatively recent, and it’s proof that “your mama” jokes are timeless, despite the fact that they are disrespectful. This teacher reported a child for telling one of these jokes as a form of class participation.

Uh oh. She could have been sent straight to detention. But if you read the teacher’s note, it says, “Inappropriate response for class.” Meaning this teacher probably believes it would have been funny if it had not happened in class.

More haircuts

Apparently, when you put children and scissors in the same vicinity, they will often get the urge to give themselves a new hairstyle. It probably doesn’t matter if there’s a piece of paper on the table; they will go for the hair.

The good thing is, at least Raeya here used child-safe scissors. But we’re also wondering why the teacher had to attach the lock of hair to the page. This is the second teacher to send home proof of the child’s attempts to create a new style!

Forged note

Most kids would think about forging a doctor’s note to show their teacher to stay home from school. But not Collin here. He’s innovative. He forged a teacher’s note instead, telling his parents that there will be no school today.

If only Collin were a little better at penmanship and spelling, this note would have been believable. Unfortunately, we hardly think a teacher would use two bold exclamation points at the end of the sentence. And they surely wouldn’t misspell “teacher.”

Post-lunch nap

Everyone knows that the hardest hour of the day to get through is after lunch. You have food in your system, and then you get drowsy, and you can’t focus on anything. Your eyes start drooping, and pretty soon, you’re asleep at your desk.

That is what happened to Gisele. She had a little lunch, got hit with the post-lunch drowsiness, and just fell asleep on her assignment. Unfortunately, nap times at school are only for kindergarteners. So Gisele got sent home with a note.

Tech-savvy

There’s no denying that the younger generation will always be more tech-savvy than the older generation. This teacher’s note was sent to the parents of a junior in high school in 2007, giving the strange reason he was given detention.

Oh, Mr. Smith. If only you knew that your student was right. Firefox is one of the more recommended browsers, but maybe that just hadn’t caught on back in 2007. Poor kid had to go to detention just for stating facts.

Identity reveal

Every child dreams of becoming their favorite movie character or superhero. We’ve heard many instances of children refusing to wear anything other than their Spiderman costume or Batman t-shirt. It seems Anthony is one of them.

While Anthony’s actions did disrupt the learning process, you have to admit that this is a pretty cool thing to do. Who wouldn’t want to experience revealing your secret identity as a superhero like that?

Wizard insults

Children often wish that the reality they see in movies and books could be their own. So if, for example, a child were a big fan of the Harry Potter series, he would believe that he too was a wizard, and people who inconvenience him were muggles.

For kids, fantasy and reality aren’t separated by a hard line; they’re blurred. But maybe this kid did not mean to use “muggle” as an insult. After all, true Harry Potter fans will know that the real insult is “mud-blood.”

Not fun

All kids want is to be able to play. As far as they’re concerned, work is for adults like Mommy and Daddy who go to the office every day. So when they reach school age and find out that they also have to work, it can be a jarring change.

No, Josiah, work is not fun. But we would rather be doing classwork than office work! Kids don’t know what they have until they lose it or grow out of it. Josiah will miss the kind of work he has to do in class when he’s older.

Wanted a taste

Curiosity always gets the better of people, but especially children. This girl Danica brought her chapstick to school and came back with a chunk of it missing. The teacher attached a note to the lip balm container explaining the situation.

It probably smelled too good to pass up. But that’s not what we’re thinking about. This child must have been really young, judging by the fact that the friend took a bite of chapstick. What is a kid doing with an EOS lip balm?

When the student becomes the teacher

Now, this is a plot twist! Looking at the cover of this teacher’s note, it seems that Dakota Coleman got in very big trouble at school. The use of all capital letters indicates some offense. But that’s not what it is when you open the note.

Imagine if you were Dakota’s parents. Your son comes home with this note, and you are already thinking, “Oh no, what did he do this time?” But as it turns out, your son’s teacher just wants to learn some moves!

Tanner and the lizard

Some teacher’s notes detailing the child’s shenanigans only end up embarrassing the parents. Here’s one describing what happened to Tanner and a certain lizard he found in the sandbox during recess. We kinda feel they didn’t need to get a note sent home about this.

Yikes. The kid really kept a dead lizard in his sock and then put his shoe on and walked around with the thing there. Maybe it’s the guilt driving him to do it, knowing that he had stepped on it.

Charlotte’s problematic day

It looks like Charlotte has had a bit of a day. Tantrums, even lashing out at her teacher. It’s no question this is bad behavior. But Ms. Taylor is the sweetest; she sent Charlotte home with this note and even signed it with a smiley face.

Taking the seriousness of these offenses away, it’s actually pretty hilarious that this kid stuffed dirt down her pants. The things children do to show you that they are upset don’t always make sense. Charlotte’s parents have their work ahead of them.

A little gross

What is it with children and their fascination for the more disgusting things in life? They laugh at the thought of poo, put dirt in their mouth, and when it comes to little Timmy here, even collect boogers. We all remember those days, though.

It would have been a little disconcerting for his parents to read this. Now they’re going to have to raid their son’s pencil case for signs of a mound of grossness. And it’s not even made of just Timmy’s boogers, but many kids’!

Violent

This is what happens with children who do not yet know how to control their emotions. Haiden already received a time-out, but he did not stop there. When removed to the library, he created even more of a fuss. He got an angry face sticker for it.

There goes his parents’ money. They now have to pay to replace the library book. Judging by the damage Haiden did, he was probably really angry. For a kid to do this, that’s some Hulk-level destruction! We wonder what had him so upset.

Food report

One of the tasks on a teacher’s plate is to report any student’s unseemly and problematic behavior. In younger classes, this includes informing the parents of how their kids did at lunch. We might think it’s silly, but it’s a thing.

How fancy of Gabby to have been packed brie cheese for lunch. All we ever got were sheets of Kraft Singles. But of course, a little girl shouldn’t be expected to have the tastebuds to be able to appreciate brie.

No more nap time

Some schools have nap times for their pre-k and kindergarten students. It’s all well and good until, of course, the kids graduate into grade school and need to leave nap time behind. They usually forget that they’re no longer in kindergarten.

Richone, sleeping during class does not count as participation anymore. Get that in your head, dear. You’re a big boy now, and big boys don’t get naps in school. You gotta say goodbye to nap time, buddy. We know it sucks. Believe us, we know.

Twin shenanigans

There’s nothing more devious than a pair of twins in school. They will take the fall for each other just because they are identical. They will also try to fool you by switching places in class, like Chad and Sean did, as detailed in this teacher’s note.

It’s double the trouble when it comes to these boys. Something tells us they’re the school’s resident Zack and Cody. But never mind that. This points system the teacher referenced in the note makes it seem like the boys go to Hogwarts!

Bowel movement

Oh, teachers. We truly do not deserve the time and energy you put into your service. You watch over our children with the same love and care that we do every day, even taking care of their diapers and… bowel movements.

This daily report sheet seems to be something teachers send home to parents every day. On this particular day, this child had an accident. And the evidence of that accident could be found in his backpack. Need we say more?

Discipline notice

We can see this happening in a kindergarten or elementary school, but this discipline notice came from a high school. It says so right there on the top left corner of the page. Read on to find out what earned Joe detention.

Chair squeaking, we can understand. It’s almost too good to pass up a squeaky chair. But farting in another student’s face? That really is disgusting and disruptive to the learning process. We’re mortified for Joe’s parents, but we bet his friends had a laugh.

The purest friendship

This next note sounds like a teen rom-com waiting to happen. The tagline would be something like: “childhood friends who had known each other since before they were potty trained grow up to realize their feelings for each other as teenagers.”

It’s so sweet of Parker to help her friend to the stall. Apparently, all Fox needed was a little motivation from his best friend. Maybe this was the moment he started to realize that Parker was special, but we digress.

A what?

Students are like sponges. They pick up everything they see and hear, and without really understanding what it means, they attach those things to their identity. They start having a different vocabulary, behaving like the people they see in the media.

Apparently this student was a gamer. Or she had previously watched her parents play this video game. For those who don’t know, Hanzo is a character in Overwatch. Just so you know, this girl definitely meant it as an insult.

Disgusting!

We’re not sure how teachers walk the very thin line of discerning what’s funny and what’s gross when it comes to dealing with students. But maybe we are just childish and have a 5-year old’s sense of humor. That’s probably true.

This teacher disciplined a student because they didn’t use kind words. To put it nicely, this student told a classmate they would “go” on him! It’s not a kind thing to say, but we’re imagining this coming out of the mouth of a child, and we can’t help but laugh.

Sarcastic

Juliana is a saucy little girl! She’s got the level of sarcasm most adults would envy. We’re sure her delivery of this line was spot-on and deadpan too. Of course, we understand that this warrants a teacher’s note, but wow, we love it.

There’s no doubt that this is disrespectful behavior, but we would also like to appreciate the sass. If we were this teacher, we’d be a little taken aback but also impressed. There’s no way we wouldn’t have laughed at this.

Fruits me no likey

Kids are known to be picky eaters. They won’t eat their veggies, have a hard time eating anything other than chicken nuggets and mac and cheese (guilty!). Some kids grow out of it, and some always have a mistrust of vegetables.

For Xavier, it’s fruit that he has a personal grudge against. No matter what fruit his parents pack in his lunchbox, Xavier throws it away, unaware of the concept of waste. All he knows is, he does not like fruit.

Freedom of expression

The great thing about being a kid is you can do whatever you want, and people around you will just chuck it up to “kids just being kids.” So this little girl decided to take full advantage of that and strip down to her birthday suit.

We love that this teacher took the time to comment that it was pretty funny. Good. They appreciate the humor in it. And it’s a good thing they covered the child up immediately too. Acknowledging its hilarity but still taking charge—that’s a good teacher!

An artist in the making

Here is yet another proof of children’s fascination with backsides. This child was drawing during math class instead of doing his assignments, which was the first offense. The second offense is the object of his art. We’re still giggling, juvenile as we are.

Yup. This kid drew people’s – um – backsides. And he used the defense that at least he only drew two! This kid is either going to fail school or become an artist when he’s older. Oh wait, he will do both those things in that order.

Mimicking elephants

Remember when we said children are receptive? They not only mimic people around them; they might also mimic other creatures. They love playing pretend, and this kid loves pretending he’s an elephant. We loved being puppies when we were little, so we get it.

This isn’t great because instead of mimicking an elephant’s heavy stomping or trumpeting, he just wants to mimic the spraying from the trunks. It makes a mess, and we can’t help but wonder who had to clean up the milk.

A badass girl

Who says a girl can’t throw a punch? No, sir, we are no longer in those times anymore. Just look at Lillian, throwing threats to a boy that she would “punch him” in the private parts. Look at her go.

Okay, this isn’t the best kind of behavior. Violence is never the answer to anything, and we’re unsure what triggered Lillian to pose this threat. But you have to commend the guts that this girl has. She is no scaredy-cat.

A learning moment

What we want to know first is how old these kids were. Judging by the emoticon indicators, we’d say they’re in kindergarten. We hope they are because if they are any older this would be a little bit of an issue.

While the parents might be embarrassed to read this teacher’s note, it can also be a learning moment for the child. This could be the perfect time to teach the kid about consent. It’s never too early to understand these things.

Censored

Kids say the darnedest things! They pick up vocabulary from anywhere. They could be passing a store and hearing a swear word, and they’ll start repeating it over and over. Dale here is no different. Check out this teacher’s note.

Do we want to know what Dale called his friend? We wish this word weren’t censored because we’re sure that whatever it is would be hilarious coming out of the mouth of a little kid! We can tell you it wasn’t a super strong curse word.

Award-winning excuse

We envy the creativity of children. They can create worlds so colorful and intricate in their imaginations. Sometimes, fantasy even blurs with reality. That’s how they can come up with such good excuses. This masterful art has been perfected by this little girl.

No, kid. It’s not your fault that your friend is ugly. You fell out of a chair; your teacher should understand that you don’t have control of your brain at the moment. We appreciate that your teacher sees the humor in this.

Trouble listening

What would we do without teachers? None of us would be here if it weren’t for their dedication to our education and general improvement. This teacher was so sweet to send Aysha home with this note. We wish all teachers were this considerate!

This teacher is so patient with Aysha. Despite her having to sit in the “think about it” chair twice (which we find hilarious, by the way), the teacher remained positive. “Each day is a new day,” they said, and they’re right.

No crust

What did we say about kids being picky eaters? Fruits and vegetables aren’t the only things they shove aside on the plate. They also notoriously leave behind pizza crusts. There’s just something about crusts that don’t appeal to children.

It’s not just the crust on pizza. Many parents can attest to this: kids don’t like the crust on bread either! How many parents reading this have had to cut off the edges from the sandwiches when they pack their kid’s lunch?

The ultimate child behavior

If you can’t decipher the handwriting, we’ll help you out. The note says, “Chase had a good afternoon, but he stuck his tongue out at me when I disciplined him in the morning. KB.” That Chase! Displaying the ultimate childish behavior.

Sticking your tongue out is probably the most childish thing anyone can ever do. This kid had the audacity to do it while his teacher was disciplining him! It is totally disrespectful, but this note still gave us a laugh.

So much love

Feelings are overwhelming for children. Often, they don’t quite know how to express their emotions yet, and they just end up crying (okay, adults sometimes do this too). Teachers report on behaviors like this to parents all the time via teacher’s notes.

This girl was so emotional today, but it wasn’t because anything was particularly wrong. She just has so much love for her daddy! How sweet is this? Even from a young age, she’s a daddy’s girl. We’d love to see this note from our kids’ teachers!

King Cake

The following note involves an incident we don’t have the details of. We’re not sure what Mrs. Shapiro means by “the King Cake situation,” but it’s obvious from the note that Charlie lied to his parents. We’ve probably all been there.

Lying is never a good thing, so Mrs. Shapiro made sure that Charlie came clean to his parents and apologized. Teachers play a big part in ensuring their students stay morally in check. They’re raising the next generation alongside parents.

Wildo the what?

Oh, kids. Imagination is such an asset, but sometimes it can go a little overboard. This is possibly the most formal teacher’s note detailing the most hilarious incident. And all because the kids decided to name the character Wildo the…

Yeah, you read that right. Imagine children running around the playground screaming that word. You can’t tell us that isn’t just the tiniest bit funny! Being a teacher must be a pretty entertaining job. Especially when their student have older siblings.