A Day in The Life

Fun Fridays are supposed to be fun. We had fun, but let's start at the beginnng. It is only the 4th day for these kids in school and already they need just a bit of reminding for the morning "check in" routine. Amazing what they can learn. They each come in with something on their mind...sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad...but it is their life. Our job is to hear what they say and even what they don't say and greet them each as special.
Today was Apple Day.
First thing they got to find the word apple in a story and do apple patterns.
Next was karaoke time for reciting their poem for the week. Every single one of them got up and took the microphone...most with authority...many with their lips right on the equipment. We went through a few Clorox wipes! What fun that was to watch. One little guy who never complains had a little puffiness in his eye. I thought perhaps just a cold settling in or the effects of tiredness at the end of a long week. Within a half hour it was seriously puffy and the other eye was very red...off to the nurse and he goes home. We peel and cut apples and put them in crock pots to start cooking for applesauce. Four adults with 6 or 7 kids assisting and about 10 pounds of apples. Those car assembly lines have nothing on us. We were through those 10 pounds in about 1/2 hour! You, get apples. You, get rid of the peels. You, push the corer thingy to make slices. You, get your fingers out of your mouth and go wash you hands (just kidding...). You, take these cut up pieces to the crock pot...yea! for team work.
Did a little singing and dancing to relax.
Lunch time. Recess. Next crisis. One of my baby girls fell off of the monkey bars, landed on her wrist and got up saying ow ow ow ow ow, just quietly. I take one look, toss the radio to Stevie and start for the nurse's office. She is fine for about 25 steps and then gets a bit shaky and white so I pick her up and start praying that I can carry her up the stairs and all the way to the nurse's office. She is so brave and just whimpering and clinging to me. We get her settled, call her mom who is luckily just about 2 minutes away. Off they go to the hospital. I run her backpack and folder down to the emergency room and have a last little visit. X-rays show both bones in wrist broken and twisted...off to Morgantown. She told her mom she wanted to have some of our applesauce. (I saved her some.)
We are busy doing a graph before special class while Stevie meets with a parent. One of my princesses has a birthday and mom brings cupcakes. We eat and sing our birthday song. Mom cries and cries...sweet.
We are busy doing more apple activities when we have the 2nd firedrill in 3 days. We all get out there and are out there and out there and out there. We begin to look for smoke! Finally, one of the teacher's radios in and asks if we can come back and they say, "Oh, sure. Didn't anyone tell you?" We go back in and finish the last apple activity and have about 20 minutes to eat our yummy applesauce with ginger cookie "spoons"...kindergarten teachers are not to be deterred by the fact that we were out of spoons in our stash...lots of forks but no spoons. Cookie spoons were a big hit. One slept through this part. Busses start coming. Kids start leaving. It looks like something blew up in the classroom, but everyone left happy and I have great help for clean up...oh, and only one wee one missed the bus. Well, one of Stevie's did, too, but the bus came back from the high school to get him.
Oh. Before the broken wrist this same little girl came down the fireman's pole and was very proud of herself, so I said, "So, are you going to be a fireman when you grow up?" She says, "Uh, no. A Princess." And off another of my little princessses ran.
Amazing day. Amazing job. A week that lasted longer than the whole summer off.
So, how was your day?