Do NOT eat the metal around the eraser of your pencil or your clip will be pulled

Good gracious, I had two nursing students put into my class for 3.5 hours today to do observations and my comment to them at the end of the day, "thanks for coming, sorry you got put in my class!" We LITERALLY waste so much time each day because I have pip-squeaks who think they cannot sit on the rug, or refuse to at that. It's not that my kids don't want to act right, they just don't know how. Some of them might not have structure at home, which really throws them for a loop when they get to school and are expected to act a certain way. Not going to lie, a couple of my lovely babies have taken trips to the Principal's office. I only wish I could take a video of the last 10 minutes of school and have you see the way that one literally runs around the room, laughing, picking up anything he can find, opening bookbags of anyone in front of him, and turning KB (our classroom) into a shitshow. Excuse the language, it's true.

Speaking of which...several of my kids (boys in particular) will raise their hands and say "scurse me." It drives me nuts, it's such a strange word. Other words like that...we sit on the rug and go through a little saying which includes, "my back is straight and tall." They say, "my back is skrate and tall." One of my lovelies had the hook-ups today...i.e. hiccups. Ah, I should make a better list because this is the tip of the iceberg!

Another tidbit, the boy who I have problems with everyday...well his mom is used to getting a phone call from me and coming up to school, generally 4 times a day. Now, his mom got a note from my principal saying he wasn't going to be coming back to school unless she sat through the entire day of school with him. Wow, she wasn't happy about this, but after they called her this morning, she rolled out of bed and hung out in Kindergarten. Don't get me wrong, she didn't last all day. In fact, she didn't last all morning. But right after lunch, she finally got so frustrated with the way he was acting, she took him home. Welcome to my world...at least nothing was just being noncompliant and not temper-tantrum-throwing-things.

Next week we give our first 9 weeks test. Dun, dun, dunnnnnn. I'm N.E.R.V.O.U.S. I feel as if the nine-weeks test is greatly reflective of my teaching, which, duh, it is. What am I going to do if they all fail? Oh good grief....We are trying to do some review leading up to it so we can refresh our memory on what we have learned thus far. Let me tell you, I just introduced syllables to the groups at my center this week...my kids have been rocking my face off on syllables. Today I challenged them with lemonade and cucumber, they rocked. The test is going to be challenging mostly because so much of it is done individually. My assistant is going to be reading a LOT of stories or review worksheets with the class while I do the testing.

I know this is going in a random direction, but let me just say I had an AMAZING weekend! On Friday night I hauled butt back to Ruleville in time to watch some of my kindergarten cheerleaders in the Ruleville homecoming parade. I went for dinner and margartias with some friends and then back in time for the Ruleville homecoming football game. It was so fan, even though they lost by 26. Saturday I got up early and realized the Ruleville homecoming/fall festival was going on at the park which is 1.5 blocks from my house. So I walked up there and checked out the sights for awhile. Then I sat outside waiting for Lois to finish washing her car and then we went on a 4.5 mile walk. We walked out of town and to a nearby river. It was so fun and my skin saw the sun for the first time since early JULY. Blah...I needed a tan like my kindergartners need naptime. Needless to say I didn't do ANY work for school until 6:10 then evening, this is HUGE for me. Sunday I spent doing a lot of work, but I managed to sit outside for an hour or two as well. Don't worry, I didn't touch two things that should have gotten done but don't have a pressing dead line, but oh well. I felt so relaxed and Sunday night didn't feel hectic and stressful...babysteps, I know! Hopefully soon the entire weekend feels relaxed and carefree!!

Well...tomorrow is the first of the month (and 31 days closer to the official start of christmas music!!!!!) which means I need to get busy on making a new pattern for our daily calendar. Although I complain about them a lot, my kids are great and quite hilarious! They are fascinated by the smallest things in life and lately we are working really hard at giving compliments which is GREAT to hear! No matter what happens each day, they never cease to amaze me.

Especially at lunch when they are fascinated each and everyday with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I think they are laughing at it, but really, I don't care.