I found my little beaver with the pencils.

One of the other kids said, “Mr. L,  Sammy’s chewing on a pencil!”  I looked and, that pencil looked a lot like the one featured in a previous post.  I said, “Sammy,  why are you chewing on that pencil?”

His reply?  “Mr. L, They are DELICIOUS!”

So once again we had, “The Germ Talk“

The lunch lady has got to feed them more…………

They are just gross though,  for snacks most days, I give them a choice between a 4 oz cup of dry cereal, Gold Fish, or animal crackers.  We do other things on other days but that is one of my basic stand bys.  It’s cheap, and since I’m usually doing it out of my own pocket, that’s the primary factor.   Anyway sometimes kids don’t eat their whole cup full and will toss the rest.  Yesterday one of my favorite little darlings was digging some of it out of the trash and EATING IT.  He’s the same one that has to swab down the entire toilet with Clorox Wipes after using it because he doesn’t seem to get the idea that he needs to lift the seat and his aim isn’t good.  He’s marginally potty trained at best, I could go on, but won’t.

Disgusting!

Somebody in my room thinks they swim, build dams, and eats wood………

It’s one of those nice BIG Kindergarten pencils too.  I wanted to just dunk it in the hand sanitizer.

And then there’s this.

Apparently one can get quite involved at circle time.

I neither SAW or FELT this going on…………I have no idea who did it…to me…..

Alphabet Books

There’s LOTS of alphabet books out there, and I do like collecting them.  What with teaching kindergarten and all……

Anyway, I bought this one awhile back.

The other day I pulled it out and we were reading it together.  Everything was going great until we got to this page:

And we had this dialog, “T is for Elephant……..Why?”  Thoughtful silence for a bit, then this one boy wildly raised his hand,  “Oh, I KNOW!”

“Yes, Johnny?”

“It’s for “HORNY!!!”

Choking I manage to sputter, “No the sound we are looking for is “T” as in, (turn the page) TRUMPET, elephants TRUMPET with their trunks and anyway, they are called tusks, not horns.”

At the end of the day dismissal

At the end of the day, parents gather outside the gate to the kindergarten playground to pick up their kids.  It’s too congested at the gate, so when the bell rings, the gate is unlocked and they come to our rooms or in the case of two of our classes without outside doors, to the hall doors and we release them to the parent or older sibling.  Normally the teacher next door opens her door, takes about three steps and unlocks the gate.  But for the last two weeks and for the next week, her class has been on break.  I have to leave my class in the room, walk down, unlock the gate and then walk back.

At first they were pretty good about sitting there on the floor with their backpacks and waiting for me to get back.  But lately, they have started sneaking over to the door and peeking out.  They think it’s great fun (they are SO scared of me).  The other day I walked out, then quickly turned around and waited by the door, then jumped out and scared them.  The timing was just right, a whole bunch of them were almost to the door and I caught them in mid stride.  All the parents thought that was hilarious.

My annual shoelace post.

 

 

It seems like AT LEAST once a year one of my kids does this…….  This year I must have over achievers, this was in the first two weeks…….

I have two of these board books that teach how to tie your laces.  The directions are right there, in pictures, step by step.  AND THEY DON’T HAVE YOU ENDING UP ANYTHING LIKE THIS.  But this is a pretty good indicator of how well they all follow directions this year………

I was doing something

And this one little girl says, “Teacher, you’re crazy.”

And I said, “Well, maybe just a little bit.”

And she shook her head and replied, “No, you are a whole BUNCH of crazy……”

Gotta love ‘um.

I Took My Class to the Library……

 

Our special today was library.  I always potty break them before dropping them off at specials.  You never know how busy it will be at the bathrooms.  Today we got done early and had to wait a few minutes, so I had them sit down in line along the wall.  I sat accross from them and played a game where I would do something new and they would have to figure out what it was and copy me.  Finally the librarian came out to get them and as she was taking them into the library, she asked if I was going to be able to get up off the floor.  Honesty!  But to add insult to injury, one of my kids pipped up,  “He’s OLD!”

I have to laugh at my kids.

They are really getting adjusted to kindergarten.  Well, MOST of them anyway.  But it’s a struggle for some, apparently they have spend most of their 5 years of life as the center of SOMEONES  universe, and can’t understand why they have to compete for that role with 27 other kids now. (YES! if you have been keeping track, that means I lost one today. Apparently he moved out of state)  And silly kids, somewhere, a lot of them got the idea that if they didn’t want to do something, well, they just didn’t have to do it.  Huh, that doesn’t go over real well in MY class.  One little boy didn’t want to write his name, he hadn’t finished a single thing all morning.  I told him if he didn’t get something done, there would be no lunch recess.  He said he was just too tired, I told him to go to bed earlier and come to school ready to work.  He threw a real fit.  I had to practically drag him out of the room to sit in timeout on the playground so that I could go eat MY lunch.  I guess he persisted in that so long that he had to throw away half his lunch when I went to pick them up.  That made him real happy as well.

The first few weeks, the kindergartners hate the PE teacher.  Once they learn how to listen and follow directions, they love him.  The problem is that he has over 50 of them at one time for PE (two classes, if they are all there, it’s almost 60) and they don’t listen very well or follow directions very well, so he isn’t very fun.  Once they behave, he lightens up and everyone is happier.  But the little kids (mainly girls) who don’t like mean and gruff, don’t like him at first, even if he isn’t being mean and gruff to them specifically.  Two of my girls today tried to hang on me when I dropped them off.  They were perfectly happy  by the time I came back to get them.

And I have three who are probably going to be special needs kids.  One little boy doesn’t have a clue about what is going on in the class.  Hardly any language foundation at all.  He doesn’t seem to be able to even trace his name and there are only four letters in it., I finally taped his picture on his cubbie, because he can’t remember which one is his, doesn’t recognise his own name, and has no strategies to find it, like looking at his name tag and comparing it to the name on his cubbie.  In fact, I don’t think he can visually discriminate between one name and another.  He is pretty street smart though and swears like a sailor, not that he seems aware that anything is wrong with that……  He is always trying to be the leader, getting the other kids, or trying to get the other kids to follow him.  Although he has no clue where he’s going or what he is supposed to be doing.

Funny thing, his sister says he doesn’t listen at home either.  The only problem is, that I suspect that there is more to it than that he just doesn’t listen.

The first week of school

The week is finally over, and I even got home by 7:00 pm! On Friday…. (had to get those pesky homework folders set up and loaded for Monday).  I do homework, but it’s really not much, a reading log for the week, name practice sheets right now, one number writing practice sheet, and that’s about it.  Later on, it’s mostly practice with their sight words and a little math.  Homework goes out on Monday and comes back on Friday.

I spent a lot of MY time with my kids this first week.  I spent my entire lunch period helping them in the lunchroom (until yesterday anyway, more on that later) and part of each of my preps getting them settled with the different specialists, so they wouldn’t freak out.  It might have taken up my time, but I think it paid off in keeping them from stressing out.  In each instance, they came back to me calmer and less stressed than they otherwise would have.   Still the first week of school takes it’s toll, a number of kids had meltdowns throughout the week,  One little girl was fine the whole week, and today was just too much for her.  We had to pry her off mom this morning, and have mom leave and then she threw a fit for about a half hour before she quieted down.

They have been amazing this week.  They have really started to come together with the routines and procedures.  I’m actually teaching now.  But I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the babies at the beginning of the year though.  I was still teaching my previous class just three weeks ago, and they are first graders now, so I have to get my brain into the right place, I’m still trying to get them to do things that are too hard for them.  Like write their names……….

These little guys crack me up.  I have at least 6 out of my 29 who have to sing in the bathroom every time they go.  I had a talk with the music teacher, apparently it’s not coming from her……

There are some seriously wacky kids in my class.  I have one boy I can’t understand a word he says.  The speech teacher was coming into my room to visit one of the kids she will be working with and I asked her to listen to him.  She pulled him out into the hall and did a quick diagnostic with him and OH YEAH, he’s a candidate.  In her short 5 minutes she also thinks he might be learning disabled as well, but it’s hard to tell with kindergartners.  Most of them anyway.  I have another little boy who can’t do ANYTHING with paper, glue, pencils or scissors.  He had one paper he was supposed to cut some parts out of and glue onto the other paper, he made confetti out of both papers.  I got him a couple more and demonstrated the task, he did it again.  He’s everywhere in the room too. Can’t sit still and is into everything.

I’ve been going into the lunchroom and helping my kids get their lunches, seated, and helping them with opening their milk,ketsup, etc.  One little boy had been a bit of a whiny pain all morning.  When he got to lunch yesterday, he deliberately poured his milk on the boy next to him.  So I chewed him out, and made him move over to a vacant table to eat his lunch in “timeout”.  A mother who was in the lunchroom, saw me and complained to the principal that I had yelled at him, (I did speak sternly, but I didn’t YELL) shook him (NOT true), drug him by the arm over to the other table and “slammed” him onto the bench( again not true, but probably her perception) all for no reason.  She didn’t know what he had been doing all morning, she didn’t apparently know about the milk, and frankly, I could not care a bit whether she thought I was “mean” or not.  But I did have to explain to the principal what happened and told her to talk to some of the other staff who were present and hear their side.  Never-the-less, I was uninvited from helping in the lunchroom.  Apparently, I need more time away from my children.  Like THAT will make me cry……