Something Fun?

The first month of school is over!  I can hardly believe it.  On one hand it seems like school has only begun but on the other hand it feels like we have been doing this for months now.  I am proud to say that Steve is still alive!  I was very nervous in the beginning that I wasn't going to be able to take care of him and keep him alive since I have never cared for an amphibian before.  But, as far as I know, he is still living.  However, I need to go get a new Can O' Crickets to feed Steve.  He doesn't like the new brand I bought for him last week.  REALLY Steve!?!  They are dead bugs packaged in their own "natural juices" what is not to like.  We've tried all week to get Steve to eat these crickets; all he does is walk up to them, stare at them for a minute, licks them (to see how they taste?  I don't know!) and then walks away.  But not without giving me a look like, "Really, you're still trying to give this stuff to me?"  Oh well, looks like I just need to buy a different Can O' Crickets. 


Since we have been in school a month I'm getting my kids ready to start literacy centers.  We have taken the first month to practice as a whole group what we are going to be doing in Literacy Centers.  We've made charts for rules, I've typed them up and laminated them, we've made pocket charts for them, we have done almost everything I can think of in order to get ready for them.  Well, this past Friday we were wrapping up creating rules for the Literacy Centers.  We had 3 centers that we still needed to create rules for.  So, I was doing as I had with the other centers in order to make rules:  I had chart paper on the board and we were coming up with "Do's" and "Don'ts" for the last 3 centers.  Granted it is not fun, but the kids generally enjoy creating rules for themselves and enjoy telling other people how to act, what 9 year old wouldn't?  So, we were finishing up creating rules for the last center so I told the class, "Alright that's enough rules for now.  If you have anymore you'd like to add, you can tell me later and we can add them.  So, we are moving onto math now."  Before I could finish this last sentence, Ari yells out, "Are we going to do something fun now?!"  My jaw dropped and my hands went to my hips as I said, "Well I don't know anymore, maybe not!"  I was trying to pretend that I was upset and offended but the kiddos knew I wasn't and they all began to laugh at Ari and laugh at me.  That is what I really like about my class this year, they know how to have fun with each other.  They know how to laugh and they know how to take a joke.  It is fun to have a class of kids that you yourself can have fun with.  I am really enjoying this year!