You Are NOT Having As Much Fun As I Am...I Can Bet You!

[Get a snack. This is a long one-but ~possibly~ good one...]

I think the role of motherhood has prepared me for days like this.

B.C. {"Before Children"-}, maybe a day like this would have had me begging for a quiet, dark room at the end of the day.

Possibly popping the Advil like candy for a stress headache.

I would possibly have been completely stressed out.

But, I am not.

Seriously!

I had a great day.

Instead,

I still had a smile on my face, and a laugh in my heart.

The day started with helping my first graders order (or not-) hot lunch before leaving for our morning  field trip. My mind was focused on if I had enough drivers [-check.],
 and the one absent student. What if the absent student came late to school and missed us? We were leaving very shortly.
I was counting to make sure everyone had a booster seat. [-check.]

The lunch of the day was 'popcorn chicken', which I guess is in hot demand in the school cafeteria.

One particular student wanted to order lunch, but I was pretty sure I saw him set down a lunch box.

 So, after a few minutes of questions (I hesitate to call it an 'interigation', but whatev-),

he agreed with me:

Yes. He wanted to buy lunch, but his mom did pack a lunch so he couldn't buy today.

[Yeah, I knew that-]

The field trip went great. Fun, uneventful, and then we were back by lunchtime.

 [So far, so good, right? Yeah, I thought so too, but the excitement was just getting under way...]

...

I was stopped by the office staff: They heard one of my students swear as he walked in from the field trip...and it was an inappropriate word used correctly in a sentence...

Then, as I dropped my class at the lunch room, I noticed the lunch lady discussing the importance of ordering lunch with the same student from the morning!

Apparently, he decided to buy-and left his lunch in the classroom.

But now he was telling us it was just a snack.

I was suspicious (My mom radar kicked in-I can ferret out a tall tale when I hear one-) and so I asked him to go get it, and show me the contents of his lunch box.

But, Wow.

My mom radar must have been broken, because I was wrong!

It WAS just a snack.

Hmmm.

The afternoon brought our [required] classroom spelling bee.

Everyone was nervous, and there were lots of questions.

I tried to calm everyone down, and remind them, this was actually for fun.

We did a practice round, and then went on to the assigned list.

I had one student give me 'angry eyebrows' and tell me I "rigged!" the whole thing.

Then I had one student rush to throw up  in the garbage can because his nerves got the best of him.

So Imagine:

Angry student standing by the door, arms crossed, will not sit at seat. 

Another student barfing in the trash can.

[Cue the principal.]

Of course! Why wouldn't the principal walk in during mayhem?

I mean, when I am teaching my class how to read, and pulling out all the stops-the kids are engaged, and everyone is rasing their hands to answer-Now that would be the perfect time for the principal to walk in.

Or when we are doing a really cool hands-on activity that the children love-that would be the perfect time.

But no, it was during the stress-filled afternoon of the spelling bee.

While one student is shooting me dagers with his eyes, and another vomiting in the trash can.

So he stayed and helped.

Patted a back,

and talked my dear one out of his anger.

Crazy. Day.

I got everyone packed up, and out the door pretty much on time at the end of the day.

As I walked around the room,

tidying things up,

picking up scraps on the floor,

erasing a few things on the chalkboard,

putting pencils where they belong,

and setting my daily plan book back on my desk.

I noticed a student cubby with a shadow toward the back.

Wouldn't you know it?

It was the student's sandwich that he said he didn't have... (!!!)

I smiled.

Then laughed outloud.

What a fun day.

Really!

I love my job, I love my students {all of them-} and I think today went great.

Crazy, but fun.

What A Great Day in First Grade!

(...Who has mom radar, and it ain't broke. I knew it-)