Children should be seen and not heard

What a nightmare. The day before the big Halloween party and the kids are nuts. They survived the social studies lesson GREAT! In fact, it was quite a good lesson. For once we had some peace and quiet. It was about cooperation and getting along involves talking, listening, sharing, and taking turns. The first activity had them drawing a picture. The catch was, each pair had one crayon. They both had to have one hand on the crayon. They had to try to draw a picture, but they weren't allowed to talk at all. I told them that if they talked or even if one partner talked, they were out of the game and had to put their heads down. A couple of them didn't listen and got sentenced to putting their heads down. It worked! There was complete silence! The second time they did it, they were allowed to talk, but they had to whisper. If they got too loud, they'd be out of the game. If the expectations are clear and held to, the kids respond well. Everything fell apart in the afternoon, though. They had a lockdown drill that lasted for 30 minutes. They had to be completely silent for 30 minutes and afterwards, they went crazy. They missed their recess so they were completely bonkers and one of them was going on and on about the injustice of not having recess.

Kids are dropping like flies at school. Yogi has been out all week. Kennedy was out two days. One kid in the other pod threw up en route to the nurse. A good number of kids were sent home today due to illness.

Tomorrow is going to be wild and crazy. Oh dear.

I have picked up social studies and math, basically at the same time. I have to write lessons for Monday today so he can see them tomorrow. Then I work tomorrow night 6 to midnight and go back to NJ on Saturday.

It's really no surprise my hair is all gone. 1st graders will do that to you!