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This past week was an emotional one! I didn’t sleep much, continually thinking of all the things I needed to do to prepare to be a counselor. The list was actually quite short because I’m still figuring out what exactly what I’ll be doing next year. I lost a majority of my sleep thinking of all the things I would not be doing as a teacher anymore. Then I started to think about the things I was going to miss. Decorating my classroom, creating bulletin boards, teaching phonics, organizing supplies, printing labels, making class lists, mailing “Welcome to Kindergarten” post cards, making memory books, the few good parents that truly appreciate what I do for their children, the students who truly enjoy learning…What made things easier is when I thought of the things I wouldn’t miss. The endless testing, preparing for meet the teacher and open house, the parents hanging on the fence watching their children play EVERY. DAY., kindergarten playground duty, training 5 year olds how to use a computer, the bathroom accidents, the parent complaints, the lack of parental support, the entitlement of some students and parents, the cleaning, repeating myself a million times until mid-January…

I know I made the right choice by accepting the counseling position. If I wouldn’t have been chosen, I would have been devastated and looked elsewhere for a counselor position and left the school that I consider my home. I have wanted to be a school counselor for a long time but have never wanted to leave my school.

The hardest part about the end of this year was knowing my niece would be going to a different school next year. I got used to her being with me every day and loved every minute of it! I got to push her and see the changes and growth she made and watch her gain independence and mature right in front of me. This year was by far my favorite year in the classroom because I got to share all of my favorite parts of kindergarten with her. I would never be able to top it so this is the perfect time to do something new. I am so excited to move on to counseling and accept the challenges and changes that are in store for me. I am so lucky to have the absolute best administration. I know without a doubt they will have my back and help me out as needed. I am looking forward to working with them on a different level.

I had a lot of my original kindergarten class stop by to see me this past week. They just finished 5th grade and are headed to middle school. A couple of them stopped by to take a picture with me and a couple of their parents visited me after school to take a picture and say thank you. These students were in my class the first year I taught kindergarten. It was only half-day at the time and there were over 30 students in each class. It was a crazy year. I often think about this year and many times have hoped this group of students turned out okay since we all learned together!!! This was the year when one student accidentally poked another student in the eye with scissors while I was working with a different student and didn’t see it happen. I had a parent volunteer in the room who saw it happen and take the student to the nurse. The student’s parents were very upset and said they would be getting a lawyer and I probably should too since I wasn’t paying attention to their child. My principal told me to hold off until we actually heard from their lawyer. Luckily, the doctor they took their child to said their was no permanent damage and the sclera was slightly scratched and would heal quickly. They didn’t proceed with a lawyer. I thought for sure that would be the worst thing that would ever happen. Nope. The very next year I took my entire class to an assembly while a student was in the bathroom and left them behind! It was the beginning of the year and the assembly was first thing in the morning. As soon as the students were unpacked, I lined them up and we left so we weren’t late. I didn’t take attendance first. I didn’t count them. I didn’t check the bathroom. I just lined them up, turned off the lights and closed the door behind me. When we got back from the assembly, the student was sitting at their desk crying and my heart sank! I spoke with her dad after school and he was very understanding and didn’t make a big deal about it. The next day, her mom called and said the child had nightmares and needed counseling because she already had abandonment issues due to her parents divorce and I stirred all of those issues up again by leaving her in the classroom alone. I apologized to her mom and had our counselor speak to her. The counselor said the child seemed fine and the mom had the issues. Later on in the year, the student started to use the bathroom excessively so I spoke with her parents. Her dad said that it was because of “the incident” and since I was the one who left her, I needed to be patient and deal with her using the bathroom more than usual. “The incident” was thrown in my face for the rest of the year by both of her parents. I’m seriously considering writing a book about my numerous “incidents”!

I got my classroom all cleaned up and emptied at the end of the week and moved what little I had left into my counseling office. I am very excited to decorate my new space. My husband and kids are excited that there is only one counseling office and I won’t be able to move around the building anymore lol. I haven’t stayed in the same room for more than two years in a row! I will be back in August with new blog posts (protecting confidentiality of course). I hope everyone has a great summer!

Testing is officially over! Hallelujah! All I have left to do is write my LAST report card comments EVER!!! I have never been so excited to write report card comments :o) This week was the most fun and exhausting week of all!

We had our parent volunteer breakfast on Wednesday. I signed up for the committee at the beginning of the year and forgot about it because I wasn’t in charge of it. Well, I guess nobody was in charge of it so it kind of defaulted to me last minute. We ended up having a luau theme because our assistant principal had a ton of luau party decorations. It turned out really cute!

Thursday was my final kindergarten program. I can’t believe it’s the last one I’ll ever do! The kids did not disappoint! They did an amazing job. They all remembered their lines and songs and looked so cute. I was a little nervous about how my niece would do. She tends to get nervous and completely freeze up. She did awesome and performed the best! The kids were so proud of themselves. This was by far my best program. I don’t think I would be able to top it if I were going to have another one. But I’m not. This was it. I will forever be grateful to my sister and brother in law for sending my niece to Schorr. Having her in class just added to the many reasons I love teaching. I was so excited to get to include her in all the fun stuff I did year after year with my kindergarteners. I can’t wait until they see her memory book!

Friday was Field Day. Our P.E. teacher always outdoes himself year after year and this year was no exception. Everyone had so much fun! The weather was a little bit cooler than it normally is this time of year, but that didn’t bother anyone. The kids and I had a blast and got drenched. While the kids are busy at the events, the P.E. teacher and his partner in crime sneak up on teachers and soak them with pitchers of water. The first time they soaked me, they told me it was my initiation as a future specialist. I guess the additional 6 times were just for fun lol! It was such a fun way to end a long week.

Next week, we will wrap up our review of long vowels and complete some fun summer themed centers while we finish up our ocean unit. Click the link below to see my plans for the last week of school!

Week 37

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week. Each day, teachers received fun gifts from our PTA, student council and some of our students. I got a few gift cards and some school supplies. We had lunch catered on Thursday and Friday. It was a great week!

I had a meeting scheduled with a parent on Tuesday to discuss her child’s academics and attendance. This parent has had CPS called on her and was really upset about it. She had every excuse for why her child has missed 25 days of school since October. She called 30 minutes before the meeting and cancelled saying her son was sick and wouldn’t be at school again (he also missed the day before). The office told her to reach out to me to reschedule. I haven’t heard from her. On Wednesday, the child showed up to school with NO shoes on his feet. The nurse found me on the playground in the morning and told me that she called his mom and she told the nurse that his aunt took him to school and didn’t know he didn’t put his shoes on. The child doesn’t talk and never said anything so I guess nobody noticed. But according to his mom, he talks nonstop at home and has nothing wrong with him. This is also the same parent who told the office that he didn’t start speaking until he came to kindergarten! She’s nuts!

My students were so wild this week. They have been very naughty. We go out to recess with another kindergarten class every afternoon. I leave our classroom door open so my students can use the bathroom. That is the only reason they are allowed to go in the classroom during recess. This has been the rule since day one. On Wednesday, we lined up to go in from recess and I noticed I only had 3 girls in my line. I looked inside the classroom and the other girls were all by their backpacks. One of the girls brought in candy and they were all eating it and putting it in their backpacks. Shortly after this incident, a student pooped his pants. It was the LONGEST day of the week. I sent a message home to parents reminding them that good behavior is still expected at school and asked them to talk to their child over the weekend.

We had to split up a kindergarten class on Friday due to a sub shortage so I had a few extra students. One of the students was deaf and had an interpreter with her. It was very humbling for my students to see. A couple of them learned a few signs from watching the interpreter. We finished up our Mother’s Day projects. I usually order foam picture frames from Oriental Trading and the students put them together and decorate them. This year, I ordered the same frames as last year and didn’t open them until Tuesday and realized they weren’t the same frames! These frames needed to be glued together and the spot for a picture was tiny. Sooo, those got sent back and we did a writing project instead! We also received yearbooks on Friday which added to the excitement. The students had so much fun signing each other’s yearbooks and looking at all the pages and finding themselves on our class page!

We ended the week with a game of Left, Right, Center at my house. Nine teachers from my school came over. My mom came and hung out for a little bit too. We ordered pizza, ate snacks, played the game, talked and laughed a lot about the crazy stuff that has happened this year.  We were finished playing around 11:00, but hung out talking until 1:30 AM! I say this every time…I can not imagine working anywhere else (or with anyone else)!

Our butterflies have emerged and are ready to be released. We will release them next week. The grass that we planted last Friday has grown quite a bit and will be ready to cut next week. We also have our kindergarten program next Thursday and Field Day on Friday. Click the link below to see my plans for next week.

Week 36

The Lowe’s Fairy visited our class and left us some planting supplies this week! We planted our grass seeds during Fun Friday. I love using grass seeds because they grow so fast. Their little cups will have mini sprouts by Monday 🙂 I put a close up picture of each student on their cup and then the grass looks like their hair. In about a week, I will let them give their plant a “haircut” and send them home.

My attendance has been atrocious all year long! This week, Tuesday was the only day all 20 students were in class. I took advantage and tested the hell out them whole group lol! This week, there was a legitimate reason for my crappy attendance. I had four students out on Wednesday and one student throw up in class and go home. Same thing on Thursday. I walked a student to the nurse holding a trash can as she threw up in the hallway. I had 9 out of 20 students parents message me saying their child had been throwing up. Some kind of nasty stomach bug found it’s way to our school (and directly into my classroom). The kids that did come to school spent the last few minutes of each day helping me sanitize our room! We wiped down everything with Lysol wipes and soapy water. Hopefully whatever everyone had has passed and they are all back next week!

Next week, we will be fitting in more science standards learning about plants and their life cycles. We will be recording our plant’s growth in our plant journals. Our caterpillars have formed their chrysalis and will literally be “hanging out” for about another week. Soon, we will have butterflies! Click the link below to see my plans for next week.

Week 35

My kiddos are obsessed with our caterpillars! I didn’t pay too much attention to the caterpillars when they arrived and showed them to the kids. I sat them down on the carpet and told them there were 5 caterpillars that would soon turn into butterflies. Then I gave them a butterfly observation journal and sent them back to their tables. I took the caterpillars to each table for a few minutes so the kids could observe them and write about it in their journals. They “observed” everything. “Mrs. Yeoman, the caterpillars pooped.” “That’s not poop, that’s their food.” “Mrs. Yeoman, I think there’s a spider in here. I see a spider web.” “That’s the silk the caterpillars are using to get ready to make their chrysalis.” “Mrs. Yeoman, there’s one on the lid. It’s going to fall.” “It’s fine.” My favorite observation came from the sixth table. I don’t know how my other five tables missed this…”Mrs. Yeoman, the caterpillars had a baby!” “What?” “There’s 6 in here and you said there were only 5 when you gave it to table 1 , so they had a baby and now there’s 6 caterpillars!” I picked up the cup and counted and sure enough, there were 6! I said “Well, they didn’t have a baby, it looks like we just got a bonus one!” That was apparently the best news ever. They cheered as if a glitter bomb had just exploded right there in the room! I am excited that this will be the first experience for many of them to have with a real butterfly. They are going to absolutely lose their minds over these next couple weeks!

My students completed the math portion of the MAPS test this week and overall did really well on it. A couple of them scored 20 points higher than last time! I’m hoping they all show the same growth in reading next week. I’m hoping to finish up a couple of our other end of the year assessments and benchmarks as well.

One of my parents stormed the front office at the end of the day on Friday in a rage because someone called CPS on her. Her first thought was me (it wasn’t). I guess CPS was called because her child has missed so much school. He is chronically tardy and absent. She had excuse upon excuse for why he is late and absent and ranted and raved for a while and ended up pulling him out early and taking him home. Sigh. I hope she figures her stuff out sooner rather than later for her kids’ sake.

Next week will be more of the same, another 4-day week for me :). I’m lovin’ having personal days!

Click the link below to see my plans.

Week 34

Happy Easter! I love bunnies! My sister and I had a couple bunnies as pets when we were kids. One of the bunny’s played with our dog. They would chase each other around the yard and play together. It was the funniest thing to watch! After we got married, I bought Mike a bunny for his birthday. Ironically, that is also how I found out that he was deathly allergic to rabbits so I had to return it! Anyway, we spent this morning eating bunny shaped pancakes and scrambled eggs. I am really lucky my kids are such good sports (although they refused to take pictures) lol! We will be going next door to my parents for a BBQ later this afternoon.

Spring break has come and gone. For as little as I did, it sure went by fast! I did have a follow up appointment with my primary care doctor in regards to my leg. My muscle is still torn, but it is attached to the bone so he doesn’t think I’ll need surgery. Yay me! He said to keep an eye on it and take it easy for the next couple of months. I have taken the next three Mondays off in order to get some extra rest and use up my personal days 🙂

As for school, the countdown to the end is on! The countdown in my head of course. Kindergartners can’t handle a countdown. They’ll either cry about it everyday or lose their ever loving minds and I don’t have it in me to deal with either, so I’m keeping the countdown in my head. I’m also beginning to realize how much I have to do to prepare to move rooms. Again. This year, I will be moving from a huge kindergarten classroom to a small office. I am excited, nervous and exhausted just thinking about it!

Next week, we will be conducting our standardized state testing. We will also begin our butterfly/insect unit. My grade level ordered butterflies from Insect Lore again this year and they are being delivered sometime between Wednesday and Thursday. We will each receive one cup containing 5 caterpillars each. This is such an exciting time of year! The kids go absolutely nuts during the caterpillar to butterfly transformation. I tell them that at the beginning of kindergarten, they were like the little caterpillars (whiny, crying, snot-filled caterpillars) and now each of them has completed their own transformation into beautiful independent butterflies. We will be completing many science standards next week as we record our observations and learn about the life cycle and habitat of butterflies and other insects. We will also be hard core practicing for our end of the year program which will be in just three and a half weeks. I want this to be the best program yet since it will be my last one. Mackenzie and I worked on making some props over spring break. The kids are going to be so excited!

Click on the link below to see my plans for next week.

Week 33

TGIFreakin’ Spring Break! This break is long overdue, but I’m so glad it’s here. The kids were crazy this week. It was super windy for most of the week, which made the kids even more wild. But, we were able to create a fun wind craft because of it! You can check it out here.

We ended our week with a massive Easter egg hunt yesterday. My friend and I gathered almost 700 eggs. Our kindergartners couldn’t contain their excitement! The eggs were filled with candy, sight words and math equations. The kids thought it was the best thing they’ve ever seen! We were all exhausted by the end of the day. It was a fun way to end the week!

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No real plans for next week. I have promised my husband I would rest my leg as much as possible during the break. In addition to resting, I plan on finishing my scrapbook room, working on a couple TpT projects and preparing a little cuteness for my kindergarten program. Leave a comment and let me know what your spring break plans are. Maybe I’ll join you 😊