"It gives me something to play with..."

Phew! Another week in the books. This week was great overall. I have done a pretty good job of not "over-talking" this year, which remains a huge goal of mine. Last year I lost my voice at the end of every week and so far, I haven't lost my voice yet. Last week it was scratchy, but this week it seems better thus far. I am learning to just stop talking and use my silent signals more effectively. My kids are pretty good about stopping (most of the time) when I ring a bell and it's been a life-saver for my vocal chords.

I had some funnies this week for sure. I have a little red-headed kid in my class who is just plain out there. He's a wonderful, sweet, charming student who is completely his own person. He has a very tender heart and gives me 100 or more hugs a day. He also kind of dances to the beat of a different drummer. When we get to the playground each day, he runs with his arms flailing above his head, screaming "ahahhhhahahahahaaaaaahhhh"...and he pretty much doesn't stop for about 10 minutes. If you've seen the Friends episode where Pheobe and Rachel are running in Central Park and Pheobe is flailing her arms...it's pretty much just like that, just done by a 6 year old. In addition to his screaming, flailing, running, he decided yesterday to come out of the bathroom with his shorts (not underwear, but outer shorts) turned completed inside-out. They were buttoned up and ready to go...just inside-out. When I asked him why he had his pants on that way, he said that he "liked them better that way...it gave his hands something to play with" (meaning HIS POCKETS...gutter brains). Anyway, it was all I could not to laugh out loud as I told him to return to the bathroom and put his shorts the correct way. Of course ALL of this is after he refused to answer to his name all morning. I would call on him and he'd ignore me...until I finally asked him if he was hearing me, to which he replied, "Yes, but my name isn't Danny...it's Indy...Indiana Jones to be exact." HAHAHAHA! So...I had to call him Indy for a while, oh well.

Last night was our Open House for the year and it went off without a hitch. I had 17 out of 21 parents show up, which is a great number. When "Danny" arrived he was talking on his "cell" phone to his "boss"...this kid has a great imagination. =)

My kids also did some fun work this week on the topic of "alliteration". Here are a couple of pictures of their work. Too cute! Each table group has a name and they had to come up with a first name as well, for this exercise. Then they had to finish the sentence, "_______ _______ likes to ________." For example, "Larry Leopard likes to leap." It was SO cute to see what they came up with. On the first day of school, I had students draw a picture of themselves. For Open House I taped these up on the wall and had parents guess to see if they could figure out which picture was drawn by their student. It was pretty funny! All of their pictures are adorable. Later on I will laminate them and then give them to their parents at parent/teacher conferences.


The next couple of weeks will be interesting as I will be gone for 1.5 weeks starting next Thursday. While I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family, I'm dreading what my substitute will or will NOT decide to teach. =( I will spend the next few days not only packing for Montana, but also trying to get my room and lesson plans ready. Who would have thought taking time off would be so stressful?? My kiddos are really pretty good this year, so I think the sub will have an easy time of it (fingers crossed).

That's all for now. Love to all!