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Friday — Again?!

Yesterday I worked most of the day under the delusion that it was Friday. As you might imagine, that has dimmed my joy in coming to work today.

The current classroom book count cheered me some: 218 — and they’re still coming in. We have until 3:00 this afternoon. Yesterday Jasmine skipped around to Mr. K’s class and tossed a neener, neener, neener at his kids because we’d read several dozen more books then they, and of course they picked up the challenge with a vengenance.

Update: 10:46 a.m.

Classroom jobs are being divvied up for the month. Jasmine went to get a spoon so I could stir creamer into my coffee. She returned with the spoon, stirred the coffee, and snitched a spoonful to taste. Rico jumped up, “Oh!” He shouted, “May I have that job?”

“What job?” I queried, “stealing my coffee?”

“Yeah,” Rico said, “Only the whole cup!”

261 books so far

Update:

As of 2:45 p.m., the offical end of ther contest, my classroom students had read 325 books. Most of those books were read aloud to younger syblings or students.

Quilly is the pseudonym of Charlene L. Amsden, who lives on The Big Island in Hawaii. When she is not hanging out with Amoeba, she is likely teaching or sewing. Or she could be cooking, taking photographs, or even writing. But if she's not doing any of that, she's probably on Facebook or tinkering with her blog.

26 Comments

  3. I always hated it when that happened! But you can look forward to when you stop working. You see, I can’t tell one day from another….and don’t care anymore.

  5. Polona — I volunteered for the overtime. They can’t make me work on Saturdays. The kids attend on a purely volunteer basis, too. So far we have about 55 signed up.

  8. Wow, that’s a lot of books. 🙂

    And coffee thiefs huh? Aren’t they a tad young, my mother would have died before letting me have coffee at that age…which might explain my coffee addiction now.

  9. Silver — they all tell me they drink coffee at home. My reply is, “Fine, go home and drink it. Stay out of mine.” I started drinking coffee on a regular basis at 13.

  10. Quill. I know that I’ve said it before, but I really admire you.

    I’m glad that you are making such a difference in these kids lives.

    Have a good day and a half weekend.

  13. I had my first taste of coffee ice cream at the age of, like, five. I complained “who ruined this chocolate?” I was told it was coffee. I was disgusted with it then. Still am.

    Good on those bookworms!

  14. Cindra — have you read Robert Munch’s, The Paper Bag Princess, to your princess? You will love it, even if she is too young to get the message.

    OC — coffee with chocolate is one of my favorite treats. Mocha latte with cream, please. Yummmmm — but not too often because each one has a week’s worth of calories. [note: no coffee flavors for OC]

  15. I felt disgruntle when my 1st grade class won the reading contest at our school. Only 3 of us did all the reading but the whole class got the pizza party. As you know I’m a speed reading machine and I guess I was back then too 😀

  16. Excellent job on the reading!! I especially love that they read to their younger siblings. Way to go, teacher!

    My kids each had a challenge last summer (and will again this summer). My son had to read 75 books (had to be age appropriate, no Hungry Caterpillar). If they both met their goal, we promised to take them to an arcade/pizza buffet and let them go completely insane. Best money I ever spent. Not only did he read more than that, but he read most of them to his sister one afternoon on an 8 hour car ride to grandma’s house. Mommy didn’t go nuts, he read, she got to hear some fascinating stories. Good day all around.

  17. Tina — We are competing for pizza, too. I told my class, no reading, no eating. Help us win, or eat in the cafeteria.

    Brig — believe it or not, one parent complained (though in jest). The book read was Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, and apparently Pansy did such a good job reading it, the mother couldn’t get her toddlers to quit singing chicka, chicka, boom, boom and wiggling their butts..

  19. Minka — I didn’t do all that work …. well, I did keep reading the first two or three pages of books to kids, and then putting them down. They found not knowing the ends of the stories quite frustrating!

  20. I’d complain about that one too. Drives me nuts. 😉

    As a future recommendation for a book for them to read to their smaller siblings, try “Bad Kitty”. It’s funny enough to keep everyone entertained, it has some words that aren’t too far from a fifth grade level, and it teaches the younger ones their ABCs. It’s a favorite here.

  23. I don’t think I’m going to have any trouble getting Elijah to read if today’s activities are any indication of future behaviour!

    We never had a competition like that when I was in school, though my grade 4 teachers devised a rewards scheme for consistency in reading. You had to log your home reading on a sheet with the date, the book’s name and what page you were up to. For every ten nights that you read, you got a (paper) certificate to colour in. I was annoyed because I wasn’t the first person to make it to 200 nights of reading – I was second. I’m sure the guy who beat me cheated somehow. If they audited his log they would have found two entries for the same day for sure, because I don’t think I missed a day! They didn’t give certificates past 200 either, which meant I still had 165 days of reading that year that went unrewarded (at least extrinsically unrewarded – in intrinsic reward was always there!).

  24. That is a LOT of books! KUDOS to your kids! Do you guys do that Pizza Hut “Book It” program? Man, if you do – your kids will be in Pizza Heaven!!!

  25. Brig — thanks!

    Mumma — We have our kids turn in their read-at-home logs every Friday and I check them carefully. Reading twice in one day is allowed. We set the minimum amount of minutes, but not the maximun.

    Melli — I’ve done Book It in the past at other schools, and I’ve tried it a couple of times here, but our reading groups change quarterly, so there is no consistency for the kids. They get frustrated because almost at their goal they are transfered to a teacher who doesn’t do the program.

  26. Pingback: Pizza Math & Prayer « Quilly’s Quips

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