The Leprechaun Peed Green In Our Toilet!

Just when you think you're gonna have a productive, fun-filled week all the way through, there's bound to be some kind of chink that gets thrown in your chain unexpectedly.  This week, it was in the form of a sore throat and a 102.7˚ fever... and it majorly kicked my butt! Planning and implementing your own curriculum and making it awesome for the first year teaching is tough. Wanting to accomplish all this while you feel like you're on your deathbed: a little bit tougher.

I know it's weird to say, but I'm still thankful to have had a work-week like this because I learned so much from living through it!

Starting on Monday, I was so excited to get this week going with our SAINT PATRICK'S DAY theme! :) Little did I know, Monday was the only day this week that I felt up to par.  We learned all about Ireland, where St. Patrick comes from, and had to focus on his love for his home and much less about his love for God.  A fun little aspect that all the boys AND girls really grabbed onto was a legend saying that St. Patrick chased all the snakes off the island of Ireland, which is the reason there are no snakes there today! In our sensory bins, the kids got to play with rubber snakes in the water on this day.  Loved it!

Tuesday morning upon waking is when it all started sliding downhill.  I've never woken up without a voice, so when I did on Tuesday, I figured it would come back by the time I drove myself to school.  Not so much.  Since I didn't feel completely awful yet, I wanted to just make it through the day and get some good sleep that night.  Unfortunately after a morning with no voice, dealing with another child who got sick in the classroom, and overexerting my declining physical condition, I had a high fever by noon. No fun :(

On a happier note, the leprechaun introduced himself to the kids on Tuesday morning! At the end of our circle-time book, we found a shamrock taped to the inside of the back cover! We ended making a cute "trap" to catch the tricky little guy and put some Lucky Charms in a bowl under the trap to lure him in. They were way too excited to really do much of anything after that, so we had to go on a leprechaun hall hunt. We explained that our leprechaun was leaving us shamrock clues with long messages on them, since there were many "trick shamrocks" in the halls (different-colored shamrocks for other classes).  And we also explained that the leprechaun doesn't like loud noises, so we had to be veeeery quiet and sneaky too! (Also a good explanation for why we didn't have to look in the big people bathrooms. The flushers would be too loud.)

Then the kids did something that made me so proud: they came up with the idea on their own to write a note back to the leprechaun to ask him to leave us clues!  I was so impressed :)
We all agreed on what to say to him:

On my sick-day Wednesday, the sneaky leprechaun left this note for the kids in the kitchen.

Amy had the kids brainstorm all the "T" places where he could be hiding under at school:

On Thursday, one of my little boys found a shamrock clue under the muscle-room TV!

Friday, these kids were soooo ready to find this sneaky little leprechaun! This is what they encountered when they came back to the room after muscle room time:

Under our white table, one of our sensory bins was where the leprechaun hid the loot! Found the SPARKLY and delicious shamrocks!

The kiddos concluded that our leprechaun was very sneaky but also very nice to us :)
We had a fun-filled rest of the day doing some math with Lucky Charms and dancing/musical chairs with some Irish music!

Kid Quotables

(kids are raising hands as we discuss what we already know about St. Patrick's Day)
Little Boy: "One time, when I was out on the playground, I found a piece of gum stuck to the slide! So I wanted to get it off, and I picked it all off!"
Me (smiling): "Sweetie, we're not talking about gum right now. Can you tell me anything about St. Patrick's Day?"

 (Returning to school on Thursday after being home sick Wednesday)
Little Girl: "Miss Anne, guess what the leprechaun did yesterday!!?"
Anne: "Uh oh... what did he do?!"
Little Girl: "He did a shamrock clue in the kitchen for us!"
Little Boy: "And then he came in our room and peed green in our toilet!"

(Someone got sick on our ABC carpet on Tuesday. By Friday, we still didn't have our ABC carpet back in our room, even though we knew it had been cleaned. Anne, Amy, and a few friends  go to investigate.)
Amy: "The carpet was cleaned, so can any of guys wanna smell and make sure its okay for our room?"
Kid 1 (smells carpet): "It smells like puke still."
Kid 2 (smells carpet): "Puke."
Kid 3 (smells carpet): "Still smells like puke."
Kid 4 (smells carpet): "I smell peaches!"
*Anne & Amy die laughing*

(The leprechaun came to our room, left a huge mess everywhere, and left the kids a gift.)
*Kids enter room and scream/laugh with excitement, in search for the leprechaun and his shamrock gift*
Little Girl: "The leprechaun made everything a mess! He threw paper all around and messed up the boots!"
Little Boy: "Woah! Miss Anne! The leprechaun was even strong enough to knock YOUR boots over! He's really strong!"


ONE OF ANNE'S HAPPIEST MOMENTS OF THE WEEK:
My first get-well card from one of my kids! She wanted me to open it right when I walked in the door on Thursday.  Her mommy said that she wanted help to make it for me at home!  Brought a few happy tears :)

Here's hoping to some actual SPRING-like weather next week for our "Spring Has Sprung" week!  I don't need icky snow slop for our spring walk next Friday...