Showing posts with label kids say. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids say. Show all posts
Our district superintendent says it best:  "Teaching is the only profession where you get to start over again, year after year."

Had a rough group of kids? You get to try again next year.

Didn't like the way certain things went? You get to try again next year.

Had a perfect class and everything went smoothly? You can loop with them and start over learning a new grade! :)

This was my 9th time to "start over" and it was a great day!  But I am also currently wondering if 7:48 is too early to go to sleep... {not kidding!}  My precious husband has learned how exhaustion the first two or three weeks back can be and even bought me chocolate to get me through the week AND offered to buy groceries yesterday!  Man, I'm lucky to have that man around!

I start every year off reading First Day Jitters.

This year, when we were talking about what the word "jitters" might mean, I asked {as I usually do} who all had jitters in their bellies this morning?  Several kids raised their hands, some said that they didn't have any, but for the first time in 9 years, I had a boy say,
 #priceless

The first day always seems to be filled with rules, rules, and more rules.  As I told my intern this morning, I try to make the first day as memorable and fun as I can, but there are just so many procedures to go over.  I seriously feel like I talk for 7 hours straight!  And I feel so sorry for my sweet 6 year olds by the end of the day!  We went over rules in the cafeteria, rules for the playground, rules for the hallway, rules for our own class, how to do morning procedures, how to clean up to go home, how to transition between desks and carpet, bathroom rules...and the list goes on.  

This book makes going over rules a little more exciting for the kiddos and they love inferring about what David is doing wrong in the story!  It's a great text to get some high-level thinking going on from the first day.

After we read the book, we brainstormed rules for our classroom.  Then, they each wrote their own rule for our class.  Later this week, we will be making a David craft to hang in the hallway with our writing.  My personal favorite rule this year...

We read through everyone's rules and then fit them together to make our 5 rules for our classroom.  We have motions that go with each of our 5 rules and we practice them 5,342 times a day...or at least it seems that way!  They were already becoming pros by the end of the day today!  {You can find my rule posters plus the rest of my classroom management materials HERE.}

Other than procedures and introductions, the biggest part of the first day of first grade is making sure kids get home!  We graphed how we go home {from this packet.}

....and *slapped* labels on kiddos this afternoon! Ha!  I just about did the hallelujah dance this afternoon, too, because all but 3 of my bus riders already had their bus number memorized!  It's the little things, people!

Maybe it's because I always remember how mentally exhausting it is to go over rules all.day.long.  Maybe it's because I feel sorry for 6 year olds having to listen to my voice so much during the day.  Or maybe it's just because I want my firsties to have a special first day with a little bit of fun memories to take with them.  But whatever the reason, I love sending home a treat with my kiddos on the first day of school.  And for my ELL babies learning English, it's a perfect opportunity to talk about what the idiom, "piece of cake" actually means.

In the midst of all of the craziness of lining up to go home, and passing out cakes, one sweetie said to me as we were hugging goodbye,

Oh. My. Word.

This group has my heart already.  But who am I kidding?  Nine years later, no matter how many times I "start over," each group seems to steal my heart in their own way by the end of the first day!
I thought I'd combine my next Kids Say post with my 5 for Friday for this week...

As I said in my first Kids Say post, I'm obsessed with kid cuteness and love sharing the funnies they say.  And since not everyone wants to hear about it, I'm blogging about it.  You've been warned!

1.  On our field trip last month, one of my girls asked, "Mrs. Shaddock, do you know why I'm wearing my Monitor Elementary shirt and not my Turnbow shirt?"  "No.  Why?"
What can I say? Girl's got some crazy hair.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?

2.  Same girl.  Same field trip.  {This girl was on top of her game that day!} Our bus driver was had the radio playing on the way to see our show.  Prince's Raspberry Beret came on.
 Of all the songs in the world, I had no idea Raspberry Beret was it...

3.  So, I was following behind a second grade class on the way to an assembly one day when I overheard a precious conversation.  A little boy had a tooth that had come out and was bleeding.  He was holding a kleenex over it.  He kept checking it and said, "It just won't stop bleeding." The second grader behind him said, "I know just what to do...."
He proceeded to tell him the Bible story he had learned at church...Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. "They walked around the first time.  Nothing happened!  They walked around the second time. Nothing happened!" he continued to tell him about each of the six times, getting more excited with each time.  "But on the 7th time, they went around and the wall came down, Dude.  Really! It did! So all you have to do is keep praying and the 7th time it will work!"

Oh, the sweet faith of a child.  It just warms my heart!

4.  And finally, yesterday...This sweet girl walked in saying, "I really wish my dad were still a doctor." {Her dad never was a doctor!} "Why?"
She continued, "And this is going to be the 4th time I've had it!!"  5 minutes later, her BFF had rechecked her throat and it had turned all white.  After lunch it was all pink. "This is getting serious now, Mrs. Shaddock.  I think I really need to go see the nurse!"

5.  How's this for a random number five?  I just posted my new Common Core Fairytale Unit in my TPT store.

143 pages of weekly visual plans, daily detailed lesson plans, Common Core standards tied to every activity in literacy, social studies and math!  All the materials you need and photos too!


This is a class favorite...even for my boys.  They especially love our end of unit Fairytale Ball that our grade level puts on.  Follow me on Facebook or on Bloglovin' to catch all the details of how this unit plays out in our classroom this year!


Even before I was a teacher, I loved hearing "school stories" about kids and their innate cuteness.  But it took me a while after I became a teacher to realize that not everyone enjoyed hearing my "school stories" as much as I enjoyed telling them. Oh, they smiled and graciously "laughed," but I knew that they didn't appreciate it as much as I did...

So part of the reason I started this blog was to have an outlet for sharing my school stories. For those people like me that never get tired of hearing funny things 6 and 7 year olds say.   Every time I told my mom a school story, she would say over and over, "You really need to write this stuff down!" So I am.  8 years later, I finally am writing these things down.

Here's the first installment of...

January was a short month for me in the classroom: Christmas break, 3 snow days, 2 meetings, 1 sick day with my baby and 4 days of not being in the classroom because my intern was solo teaching... So less time in the classroom, means less kid quotes.  But I think I still had a few gems this month...

After 8--yes 8!--snow days from December through the first week in January, one of my little boys said...
...why, yes, sweetie it does. Apparently Mother Nature wanted us to have a do-over...

Mr. brought my lunch by school {I left it at home} so I wouldn't starve. When he walked in our classroom, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.  One of my kids said in her best surprised voice, 
 ...*singing* I kissed a BOY and I liked it...

It's literally 13 degrees outside with a windchill of 0 and I hear, "Mrs. Shaddock, 
...No.Words...

Heard repeatedly this month:


...it's an all-time favorite.  Even if I am the only first grade teacher they've ever had.  It's the reason I come back to school each day...


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