Did you see Part 1 of my day in the life story? We left off as I was rushing out the door, late for work. Join me now for more of Thursday, March 18…
Through Mid-Afternoon
0834 Enter my classroom. As I suspected, my uneaten breakfast burrito from yesterday is sitting right where I left it. Into the trash it goes!
0840 Head for the office to pick up the juice. Meet my early bird student in the carpool drop off so bring her with me to the office. The juice isn’t ready yet so we go back to class. Miss Chatty hasn’t stopped talking since she got out of the car. Once in the room, she “reads” a book (out loud of course!) while I finish getting ready. Calendars, pencils, erasers, and crayons on the tables; table activities set up.
0852 Okay – I think I’m ready. Miss Chatty is still at it.
0854 Oh look – Mr. Chatty has arrived to join Miss Chatty. Only two kids are here so far and they are both talking non-stop.
0900 Now we’re up to 3 out of my 10 (though I’m only expecting at most 8 students today). School starts at 9. I guess I’m not the only one running late these days.
1005 Morning work is done. Ended up with 7 students today. Time for free play. And of course they are immediately arguing about blocks. I am occasionally tempted to take the blocks away for a day and force them to do something else. However I’m pretty sure they will just find new things to argue about which are potentially worse. Which do I choose? The problem I know already or the one I don’t know yet?
While the kids are playing I call them over one at a time to add glitter to the pots of gold project.
1045 Pots of gold are done and hanging. Time to get snack ready.
1050 Snack is prepped for the kids. Time for me to eat my burrito snack. They have moved on from arguing over blocks to now arguing over the airport and the My Little Pony/Littlest Pet Shop houses.
1107 Time to clean up. A little behind schedule today. As usual it takes FOREVER to clean up the blocks (another reason to put the blocks in time out). Once everything is finally cleaned up it is time for flag, morning message, letter sound review for W and X, question of the day, and calendar. Then wash hands and pass out snack. After snack they read books in their seat while everyone is finishing up.
1140 Moving to the rug for story time. Today I taught the Water Cycle song and read two books (Falling Raindrop and Little Cloud). We still had a few minutes left so after packing up I passed out blue paper and white crayons for them to draw their own cloud shape. A couple cute ones.
12:00 p.m. Carpool time! While waiting for everyone to be picked up I pull the names off the question board and change the morning message for tomorrow. As each table empties I wipe it down.
12:20 p.m. Everyone has gone home or over to the other building for lunch bunch. Lilah (my carpool kid) brought a big stuffed Olaf to school today. Lilah, Olaf, and I put out the trash then head to the parking lot. Lilah insists that Olaf be buckled up also. This requires me to climb over Lilah into the back seat to get him buckled then climb back over Lilah without breaking her or myself. Safety first, right? Olaf is safe but I’m a clutz so I’m glad I didn’t fall out and hurt myself.
12:31 p.m. Drop Lilah (and Olaf!) at Gaga’s house.
12:40 p.m. Arrive at Gino and Ziva’s house to let them out for a potty break in the backyard. It’s payday- yay!
12:50 p.m. I’m starving and need food pronto before I go back to school. Decide to grab Noodles for lunch plus my usual Starbucks. I’m so hungry I have the food out of the bag and open before I remember that I was planning to eat back at school. Oh well. Eating in the car it is.
– -Look away now and come back for the next post if you want to preserve your childhood Leprechaun dreams–
1:30 p.m. Okay, officially wasting time. Time to go back to school to make leprechaun footprints and mischief all over the classroom.
2:44 p.m. Leprechaun mischief managed. My hands are completed covered in evidence (glitter and green paint). Hopefully it’ll all wash off before school tomorrow.
2:50 p.m. Home. Felisa is already here and changed for soccer practice. I unload the car, bring in the mail, let the dog out back, grab a potty break, pull my MP3 player off the charger, and wash the dirty pasta pot and stoneware pan sitting on the stove.
3:03 p.m. Walk Rocco. We meet Ryan coming up from the bus stop. Bella went to St Marks after school for her Assistant Director volunteer job. Melissa is helping them do a Shakespeare play and brought Bella in to help. She’s loving it.
3:21 p.m. Home from the walk. Time to wash more dishes and cook dinner before soccer.
4:00 p.m. Dinner is done and in the crockpot to stay warm. Time to gather my gear for soccer.
4:15 p.m. Time to go. Sending a quick text back about the cookie money and Felisa tells me to hurry – we’re late.