What Is That Noise?

Friday morning one of my friends stops in my classroom to chat and she hears a noise. "What is that noise?" I don't hear it. Later in the morning I am talking to someone and I hear a noise - but don't discover what it is. I didn't give it another thought. The kids come in and get ready for their day. We have our morning meeting and I sit in my rocking chair to read them a story. Next to my rocking chair is the recycling bin. About half way through the story - I hear a noise and look down into the bin - and I find the noise. A mouse!!!!! I quickly stand him, but stay calm and say , "OK boys and girls everyone stand up and walk to your desk." They must hear a little panic in my voice because no one questions me! I run over to the phone and tell the secretary in a whisper panic that ," I need the custodian NOW!" I go back to the kids and continue to read the story. The custodian comes to my door and I tell him to please take the recycling bin out of the class - he picks it up and sees why then heads out the door. My kids had no idea that there was a mouse in the class! I was so proud of myself!!! Now if that had been one of the other first grade teachers in my wing - the whole school would have known!!!

Touch a Truck

We lasted about 45 minutes last week at Touch a Truck. I felt bad for CJ, he really wanted to be there, wanted to get into each truck, wanted to be successful. But the horn honking began small then it was two horns, then sirens, then horns and sirens!
The event started by the ladies checking us in saying CJ HAD to have a stamp on his hand. They wouldn't let me get two stamps, he HAD to have his own. CJ doesn't like to have stamps on his hand, nor does he like a stranger touching him to give him the stamp. I finally got him to agree to it if I put it on for him. Even that was questioned by the ladies, but I gave them my teacher face and they let me do it. Luckily, we were the first in and he was able to be the first on the garbage truck. He asked all the questions he wanted because there wasn't a line yet, and even got a t-shirt from the owner. Then we went to the cement truck and we waited in line. CJ did so good waiting his turn and once inside didn't take too long so others could have their turn. Then we went inside the....I don't remember the name but CJ knew!!! A moving van, a street sweeper - thankfully these were the vehicles that were not at the last touch a truck and he was happy to get to see these up close. We had to walk in front of the police car to get to the tractor trailer and the siren went off at that same exact moment. Needless to say we didn't make it to another truck. Even though he was scared, he didn't hit or throw a tantrum he just wanted to get out of there. But we had to walk all the way around the back so we wouldn't be close to the siren again. As we approach the last crowd to walk through I hear, "Mrs. Teacher" oh no!! So I drag CJ over for a very quick hi and a see you on Monday.
As we walked the long way back to the car I told CJ how proud I was of him - I felt that this event was a success. He handle the lines (and the heat!) not hitting, no tantrum! But he wasn't proud of himself:( He saw these event as a failure because we had to leave.
Our next thing to work on - successes and what they mean - big and small.

Stars

We have a great new reward system for CJ right now. Stars. First we had a family meeting and created our list of House Rules (expected and unexpected behavior). Then we made a list of morning and afternoon responsibilities - if CJ does them without being asked more than three times he earns a star. He also has the ability to earn bonus stars when he has flexible thinking and/or makes a good choice when he needs to be in control. Every week he earns a special outing if he earns 30 stars. He gets $5 when he gets 5 bonus stars, and if he can go a whole month without hitting himself or others he earns a "big" reward. In August, he earned a fish - which he loves:) This month he is working towards a new game for the Wii. It is going very well for everyone:) There was one week where he didn't earn his reward - the second week of school where he had 2 days off (that was a very hard week!). CJ earned his fifth star this week and went to Target yesterday. And today we are off to Touch a Truck:) I will be posting pictures later :)

Knock Knock

Here is CJ with his knock, knock jokes:)

Flip Video Trial

I just got a flip video! I love it! Now I just have to figure how to work it. This is my first shot at it. Let's see how I did.

Have youo ever seen....a what???

CJ is into non-fiction videos. His current favorite is all about farm equipment. There is a song (which runs in my head in a continuous cycle) about the different vehicles. It goes a little something like this:
"Have you ever seen a cotton picker? Have you ever seen a cotton picker, pick?" (make sure to add a little southern twang!)
Apparently there is a piece of farm equipment called a stripper - so CJ started singing, "Have you ever seen a stripper? Have you ever seen a stripper, strip?" (complete with twang). CS and I looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh (trying not to laugh too hard). Can you imagine that phone call from the teacher, "Mrs. Mama Teacher - I'm sorry to call and tell you that your son is singing a song about strippers. Now all the boys and girls are singing about strippers." We tried to explain the best that we could - to keep the song the way it is in the video. "But why?" How do you explain that? ;)