Day 18, 19 and 20

Obviously, 5 year olds wear me out and I can’t even keep up my stories on here.


Day 18- I ask my principal about the new student I received the day before. She responds with “He seemed so sweet when I met him Monday.” Wait, what?!?! You met this kid and knew I would be adding to my class but didn’t tell me until he showed up? Excuse me! I think I need to know these things. Instead, I run around my room like a chicken with my head cut off, with a sub trying to control my class, trying to get a name tag out so he can do work with the rest of us and have a little alphabet line to help out. Then I hear our secretary say, “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to ruin your birthday.” Thoughtful? Yes. Would it have hurt to tell me Tuesday morning? Absolutely not!


Farting continues. Some kid farted and another kid comments, “It must have been Mrs. Snow.” Super (I think...)! I have gotten my point across.


Day 19- New student doesn’t show up until 10:00. School starts at 9:00. Way to be tardy your first 2 days. This students does seem sweet even though the kids complained that he was picking his nose and wiping his boogers on their lunch. True? I don’t know. 5 year olds say the darndest things.


For example, behavior issues have returned…. One way, in the form of whining about having to go to the restroom during rest time. I let you go right before we came in. You cannot have to go again already. This child persists and I continue to ignore it when I hear a voice coming from the floor. “Go lay down.” “Just go lay down.” The whining continues but now it is about having to poop. The little voice also continues, “Just let her go.” Um, as simple as that sounds small voice (trying not to be heard while still wanting to be heard), it will defeat the purpose. You see, within the first few days of school I realized when trying to avoid an activity going to the restroom always popped up.


The office referrals have returned. We went for 4 good days, which was obviously hard so we relapsed. If we, at school, are going to work on this behavior, do us a favor and work on it at home. It doesn’t do any good to have the student check in and out daily with our counselor knowing the parent or grandparents are not going to sign the form. My note the next day, “Please sign the check in, check out form and return it to school so [student] knows we are communicating.”

Day 20- The forms came back and so did the behavior issues. You are not special and get to sit at your own desk. You are special and have to sit at your own desk because you make bad choices and pester your table mates! And for the record, you, in fact, do not have to poop during rest time. How do I know this? You tried it the day before. You went to the restroom right before we lay down and when you had the chance to go to the restroom after rest time, you DIDN’T GO. However, today you then follow it up with, “You’re right Mrs. Snow. I didn’t have to go.” I know, I tried telling you that 8000 times when you whined about going.


A friend fell on the playground and chipped a tooth. Did ya bother telling me when it happened? No. You just piddled around on the playground until it was time to line up. Then you tell me that you fell on your wrist bone. Seriously, I think your hand would hurt worse if you fell on it and chipped your tooth. O dreaded telling the mom after school but when I spoke to her she was okay with it.


Our school is doing PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention S….Something, Stuff). In doing this, we hand out “Gotcha’s” when we catch someone doing something good. Well, we ran out. My kids did not comprehend an IOU verbal praising, so I used the die cut and cut out some fish and wrote “Caught ya!” on them. The kids got a bigger (maybe 4 inch) fish to take home and I put a 1 inch fish in a bowl with their name on it. They seem to like it! Well, Lightning McQueen has a hard time listening but did an excellent job during math! So I hand out a fish! Talk about a proud kid. The fish went swimming everywhere on the playground that afternoon. He ended up coming and talking to me on the bench outside so I asked if he was proud of the fish. He said “Yes, because I was listening.” And then went off splashing with his fish. That afternoon, I made a point to tell the parent about it (especially since I had been to the car earlier in the week for growling at me and kicking another student) and ask them to make a big deal about it. Hopefully they did.