First Day of K 2021

Day 1 of Kindergarten started around 2am for me. I woke up in the middle of the night because my tooth hurt so bad! I debated calling the dentist, but what was he going to do for me at 2am? I managed to get back to sleep and I had this weird ass dream about a stuffed gingerbread Clifford. It was so effin weird like what is that? It was a stuffed gingerbread man, but also Clifford the Big Red Dog...It was in a plastic bag because everyone knew it was evil and somehow that plastic bag was supposed to stop him...yeah ok. He was changing his size. He would get super big and super small. Did I mention that this dream took place at school?

I finally gave up on sleeping and started the long process of trying to convince myself to get out of bed. My parking spot will do it every time!! 

This is my 7th kindergarten class, but I haven’t had a normal-ish first day of school since 2019. The 2020 school year was a year of doing everything completely different from how I’ve ever done it. The whole process of setting up for a new class was confusing to me this year because 2020 was just so different. I feel like I forgot things, but at the same time, I felt extremely confident that none of it was a big deal and that things would work out. 

So I got my back up in place to help with labeling things and soothing criers. NO PARENTS LINGERED!!!!! They listened to me!!! I sent them a note letting them know what to expect and the best way to handle things. 

I only had one student cry and the best administrator ever was there to help him out. So here’s where the crazy begins. A little girl shows up and I don’t recognize her, she’s not on any of my lists, and she’s wearing a different color uniform shirt. She walked in like she owned the place. She picked her own desk, she insisted that she had to use her own crayons, and she colored her picture with no problems. I sent one of my back ups to go investigate so I can figure out who this girl is and where she came from. She hung out with us for an hour before I got answers. Turns out she goes to our sister school, had been attending there for the past 2 days, and got on the wrong bus. So I went up to her and the conversation went like this:
Me: Do you have another teacher and another class?
Her: *slightly panicked* Yes! I don’t know any of these people and these are not my friends! I miss my other friends.
Me: Why didn’t you tell me?
Her: *shrugs and gives me a hug*
Me: Well you’re safe here. You can hang out with us today, but we’re gonna call your mom and let her know you’re here.
Her: *smiling big* ok! *and then she went to go play again*

She walked in so confidently and knew she wasn’t where she was supposed to be! She’s a G for sure because I would’ve been crying!!! I accidentally got on the wrong bus before as an adult and I panicked. So anyway, what happened was some or all charter schools just switched to First Student bussing. Either the bus driver asked her mom or her mom asked the bus driver if they were going to Horizon but we have more than one location!!! Somebody didn’t specify which school and she ended up with us. 

After that batch of crazy, it was just the normal stuff...hitting, spinning on the carpet, wearing masks as hats, going everywhere as a mob instead of in a line, OMG!!! Lunchtime was epic!
So the kids have assigned seats for contact tracing and there’s only 6 kids at a table. Well one of my kids seems really young. Like I had to check his age in the database. When he got his food, he opened everything and put it all on the table. Then he tasted everything and spit out what he didn’t like...right onto the table!!!!! Good for him for trying everything, though! He kept getting mad at me for not letting him eat everyone's half eaten food and he kept saying “I wish my mom was here”....I think she'd agree with my decision, but he knows her better than I do.

Also, my girls are bossy!!! JUST LIKE ME!!!! One of them insisted that I attend all her specials with her, one of them told me to go get her a spoon because her mom didn’t pack her one, and another one pointed at me and told me to go with her to get her water bottle out of her book bag during lunch. Her brother was there and I asked her brother to go with her and she pointed at me and said “ No. You.” I can’t be mad. They are me and I am them!!

After lunch and recess, they were done! All I heard was “I wanna go home” over and over again. 

I was missing four kids due to bus issues and missing shots, so I suppose we still have more first days left!


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Now it’s the end of Day 2 and boy am I tired!!! A kid sneezed in my face on the playground, one kid had to take a timeout and told me he wasn't going to come back if I kept being mean to him (he wouldn't listen when it was time to clean up, so he missed some of his playtime later), and I had to leave my new babies with a sub for the last period of the day for a dental emergency. It’s going to be a looooong few weeks, but it’s nothing I can’t handle! Here's to hoping I don't eat those words lol

Thanks for reading!