Yay!! I Survived Kindergarten!

1st Day of Kindergarten and I Made It!!!!

Whew!!! It's over...well, only day 1! haha! I'm finally back in Kinder and boy has it been an adjustment!!!

Last night I was so nervous and wanted to cry! I now know what the kids go through and the anxiety they feel. Poor things!! I was able to go to bed early and up early. I made it to work very early and the school was open!!!! I was sooooo nervous....I really did want to cry or throw up!

Everything started off ok, I got some last minute things done before Munchkinville started. I started to breathe and calm down. Then the worst thing happened...remember the ants?!...it was like a scene from a horror movie! I reached for some stickers for the munchkins that were near my classroom phone and AHHHHHHHHHHH!! (~scream~) I brushed by the phone as I was reaching and ants started coming out of the phone!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!! I stared at them because I wasn't sure what I was seeing because there wasn't a trail. I picked up the phone and finally realized their were tons of ants somehow IN THE PHONE! That's when I dropped the phone to the floor and let out a little squeal! Why not a scream? I don't know?! It looked like thousands scurried out (ok I'm exaggerating but it was at least 50 to 100 little ants! Eeek!!! I panicked! What do I do? The Stomp Dance wasn't going to work and that just intensified my anxiety even more. Great... ants and Kindergarten don't mix! I thought of something I've seen my dad do, no not the Stomp Dance...haha! but water and soap. I ran across my room, in heels, yes I'm a fool for wearing heals, and found a spray bottle filled it with hand soap and water and sprayed the dickens out of them. It seemed to work instantly or I just drowned the little suckers!!! The ants that is, not the Kinders..heehee I watched and waited to see if they would resuscitate...heehee...no sign of life yet...I waited a bit more...yup they were dead! I bugged the janitor and he also thought it was the strangest thing they were only in the phone. That's when I thought of those creepy movies or Voodoo...yikes! haha! Ants kept coming out of the phone and I banged it a couple of time to make sure there weren't anymore in it and got bit on the finger...ugh! Is there workers comp for ant bites..haha! 10 minutes before we picked up the munchkins I finally wiped up most of them and was able to forget about them.

Met up with my other Kinder gals and we took a couple of deep breath's and prayed for no criers!! Once we had our new babies we walked back in and I asked my parents to follow us in so I could take their pictures with their munchkin and pass out parent info. I did tell them that starting tomorrow we were cutting the umbilical cords and they would have to leave their child where we showed them to line up. Boot camp starts!!! haha

It's sweet to see how nervous parents get and want to cry. I gave my parents badges I made saying; No Tears for Me! Just dropped off my child in Kindergarten! Great idea from a teacher friend...thanks Laura! Most of my kids were really good and went right away to a seat and started coloring what I had on their tables. Whew! So far so good!

Once parents left I kept thinking...ok, now what? haha No criers!!! Yay! I knew that wouldn't last long...well it didn't! After lunch I had one but I blame mom on that one...heehee Mom came to "visit" at lunch and the minute we had to line up and go back in the building the water works started. I thought she was crying because she has a twin sister in the class next door, but it was a combination of both! Lordy, Lordy! Mom's please don't go visit you child until after they get into a school routine or you know they won't suffer from separation anxiety!!! The crying lasted for a LONG time! I finally got her to stop...we went to visit sister, got a hug, and basically got over it! Sheesh!


The entire day was pretty calm. A LOT of modeling and practicing how to stand in a line, how to whisper, how to put their little finger over their mouth to keep quiet in the halls, how to sit on the rug criss cross, how to keep their shirts tucked in, how to push in their chairs, how to raise their hands, how to share, how to follow rules, how to...it goes on and on and on!

They are too cute and sooooooooo small! haha! I forgot how teeny tiny they are. I must look like a giant to them...haha! Who am I kidding..I am a giant! haha! So far I have the smallest class size I've ever had in 12 years! Love it! I probably just jinxed myself and the numbers will shoot up by the end of the week. Darn!! For now I'll enjoy it!

It's funny to hear them interact with each other. I can already tell who will be my little spit fires and major chatter boxes. I'm pretty strict but these two just don't know when to stop talking! It's cute to remember how much attention these babies crave and need! They want validation for everything...I love it! "How does mine look? Is mine nice? Do you like mine?" Waving papers up at me, waving them up in the air, waving them to each other, teacher, teacher...I wanted to scream STOP, but I didn't. I had to explain that I knew all their work was great because I had the BEST Kinder class in the school and they didn't have to get up and show me every second or wave it around, I would come around and look at everyone's work. Every time I would say they were the BEST they had the most precious smiles ever. They got a kick out of me also telling them to Kiss their brain! Kiss your heart! when they did something I liked. I would show them and they copied me...they kiss their fingers and place it on their head, kiss their fingers and place it on their heart. :)
We read the Kissing Hand by Audrey Wood for those students and mommy's who had a hard time wanting to come to school. They had to go home tonight and tell their parents about the story and kiss mom's/dad's hand and mom/dad kisses their hand. When mom or munchkin gets sad or missing them they place the kissed hand on their check and they're there with each other in spirit to help them make it through the day! Sweet story!

We played some name game and drew their self portraits. Yippie some can even write their name!!! Ok, 4 could, but that was great to see! Their portraits were really cute too! I'll have to post some up later. A few were drawing alien looking portraits...haha...have to love it!

Lunch was too early for me, 11:00am! They enjoyed it and they were starving. They did very well not dropping their trays and eating some of their food. They're learning how to open their milk but thank goodness we have some great volunteers to help them! They got to run wild for a little bit outside then back inside for more routines. We don't have Nap Time but I make them rest for 15 minutes and some knocked out! Whew...nice! We then went on another potty break. Before we left this is when one of my little girls gave me a lesson on "did-jestive" for those that don't speak Kinder...that's the word digestive. She raised her little hand and stood up and started explaining why we pee and poop. "Milk is a liquid and it stays like that and goes through us and food is hard and stays hard and leaves us...you know...poop." Haha!!! She's hired to teach our Science Lessons! haha


I made sure to take pictures of them alone so I can have them for an end of the year video I make for them. They loved the camera and are little hams in the making! They started showing off their new shoes and there was a cutie who from out of nowhere said "I have blue shoes!" This threw me for a loop and he was so proud to show me his cute little blue shoes! This was a bizarre moment because just last night I was chatting with an old friend and we have a running joke about blue shoes. My friend wore little blue shoes in our elementary class picture so that's become an inside joke. Well, while we chatted the blue shoes came up and joking one of us said maybe one of my new kids would have blue shoes. Skip back to the moment in my class when I hear "I have blue shoes!" I thought I was in the twilight zone or again being punk'd...what? Blue shoes? He lifted up his little feet and yes sirree bob he had little blue shoes! I could only laugh when he wasn't looking because I didn't want him thinking I was laughing at him. The shoes are actually really cute! Such a weird moment...bizarre!


The day actually flew by...I guess it's true, time fly's when you're having fun! I survived Kinder!!! My now 3rd graders were stopping by throughout the day to say hi. A group of my girls came by and told me "we came to check on you and make sure you're alright." Awwwwwwww....on Friday they saw me at our Jamboree and they knew I was nervous to do Kinder again! They are too cute and sweet!

Tomorrow is only day 2 in Munchkinville...I pray my class size stays low and NO CRIERS! Stay tuned!

XOXO!