Thank Goodness for 3 Day Weekends!

Oh what a week! I seriously need 3 days to recuperate! This week was our Ocean Theme, and it went swimmingly! I used a lot of cute ideas from Deanna Jump - so far we have made her shark, orca and crab crafts. We are continuing the theme next week, so look for pictures on Friday! My firsties jumped on board with the Ocean theme - it really spoke to them. I had 2 students bring in books from home to share, have to love it when they do that! I checked out about a dozen non-fiction books from our library all about sharks, dolphins, whales etc. so our Science center was therefore the most highly visited place in our classroom!

My firsties are loving my crate seats, in fact, they are in such demand that I will be making more this weekend. Luckily I got my id badge this week so I can sign up for the teacher discount at JoAnn Fabrics again! I'm also checking out Hobby Lobby for some more ideas, I love these shelves by Johnny in a Dress.

My kindergarten coworker accepted a job with an online charter school. Higher pay, working from home, no need to buy her own supplies! She had 27 little kinders and it was a tough first 2 weeks, so I totally understand her jumping ship to better herself. This does, however, leave me in even more limbo than before! We now have one K teacher and 54 students. Obviously we need at least 1 more teacher, preferably two (I really think K should be capped at 20 students).

So, will I be moved back to K or will they hire someone else? If they hire someone else am I forever in first or can I move back down next year? Kindergarten is my true passion, but I am enjoying my firsties as well - I had one little guy write about "pokey sea urchins" this week! My firsties are capable of so much more writing and reading, I think I would really enjoy seeing what they come up with this year.

Our behavior has started to improve as well. I got myself a "bucket" (clear vase) so I can add a pom pom every time my firsties fill my bucket by following procedure.  For the most part I have a very good class, and they are striving to fill my bucket each time we line up or come to carpet. I do have a few discipline problems though and it's those few that are really making me long for a new class of kinders lol!

One little darling decided that she didn't want to do her journal so she stuck it back in the crate without even attempting to do any of it- seriously, she pasted on the prompt and that was it! I promptly pulled it back out and gave it back to her to complete. Which led to an hour of crocodile tears and complaints of a belly ache. She had done this sort of thing last year (she is rather infamous at school for it!) so I kindly explained that even if she wasn't feeling well, since she didn't have a fever and wasn't throwing up I couldn't send her home so she had better take her mind off it by finishing her work. Well, we went to lunch right then and I could see the wheels turning as she stuffed her cheeks full of french fries (oven baked!). Sure enough, she heads to the bathroom with chipmunk cheeks and spends a minute spitting it all into the toilet - voila instant vomiting!

I sent her to the office to get her temp taken and it was 97.7 - sorry little lady, you're staying at school! Once she realized that none of her ideas were going to work the tears quickly stopped, she played at recess with no problems and when she came back in she completed that journal lickety-split! Game, set and match to Mrs. Knopf, but I really don't want to play that game again! I am trying to come up with ideas to nip this in the bud quickly, because it was seriously distracting to my tender-hearted firsties who really thought she was ill. Aside from taking her recess because she's too "ill" to play (I didn't have duty and really didn't want to spend my free 15 minutes listening to her moaning) what else can I do to discourage this kind of faking?

I am almost finished with my subtraction ocean activity. I will post it as soon as it is finished! My computer should be back this afternoon, so no more having to wait for my husband to be done so I can jump on his computer! I am off for some much needed retail-therapy now, hope you all have a great Saturday!