last week, rumors of leprechaun sightings started floating around my classroom. one day, a convinced girl swore she saw 12 of them leaping in the grass at recess. i kept reminding them that leprechauns didn't come out until the big green day - the 17th. but that didn't dampen their aspirations. they wanted to use my supplies to construct all kinds of leprechaun traps. we even had a small incident with one of my little guys caught in the girl's bathroom "but madeline said the leprechaun was in there dancing on the toilet paper roll, miss ence, i just had to see for myself! wouldn't you?!" touche, little man, touche.
so i caved and planned the ultimate leprechaun bash for school today. they showed up to a note on the board from good old lucky the leprechaun inviting them to come on a little hunt for some treasure. "i know this isn't miss ence's handwriting! she would be so mad at the leprechaun for his messy handwriting. there's NO way she wrote this." (bahahaha) this hunt took us all over the fields of the school, to the park down the way, to the church next door, around the school, to the playground, and back. it had us running laps, doing jumping jacks, and playing tag.
when we got back, our room was pulverized (thank you mom!) "miss ence, did YOU do this?!" how could i... i was with you the whole time... ha. it was a real leprechaun, munchkins. a real, live leprechaun. "no, it must've been mr. chad!" (the janitor) yea... the janitor is going to pulverize a room that HE has to clean later. not so, tiny humans. not so.
green easter grass everywhere (rookie mistake, rooookie mistake on the easter grass), crepe paper dangling from every corner, gold coins and little leprechaun footprints everywhere, another chastising note mocking us for being too slow and better luck next year, chairs were turned over, seats were switched, a pot of "gold" was hidden with all kinds of golden treats and lucky charms, he even left his hat! (which we were convinced mr. lucky would come back for... he had to, right?!)
as they're eating the lucky charms and golden candy that mr. lucky left them, i put on some irish celtic music. 5 minutes in i hear tons of giggling. i look back to see my little red head dancing around the room with the silliest grin on his face, hand over his head, one on his hip, and doing the irish foot shuffle in circles. i was dyyyyying of laughter. kids are too dang funny! he shouts "miss ence! am i rocking this dance or what?!" and... he totally was.
flash forward to after lunch recess. the playground duty comes in holding little boy that got caught in the girls' bathroom's leprechaun trap, trampled. "i think the leprechaun was angry that you tried to trap him, so he ruined your trap..." "it's ok," he says. "there's more where that came from! and this time, i'll trap him with GOLD. everyone knows leprechauns can't resist shiny things!!" are we feeding children lies everyday?!
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{but probably my favorite thing about kids at this age is how convinced they are about things like leprechauns and the tooth fairy (to no fault of their own, we are totally the instigators...)
"miss ence, i woke up and there was a leprechaun dancing on my head! my sister couldn't stop laughing and neither could i. that's why i peed my bed."
"miss ence, i lost a tooth yesterday but the tooth fairy didn't come. my mom said she saw her flying outside and her wing was torn after hitting our tree, so she had to go to the tooth fairy hospital and would maybe come tonight if she was feeling better."
"i saw my elf on the shelf wave to me this morning. and he winked at my sister last night."
"well my elf on the shelf kept me up all night because he was running around on my ceiling laughing. that's why i'm pretty tired today."
"i woke up this morning and my nails were painted green. a leprechaun did this to me."}
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unfortunately i didn't think much past the initial messing up of the room. let's just talk about the easter grass again. it sticks to EVERYTHING. there was a long trail down the hall outside our room because it was stuck to everyone's clothes and shoes... oops... i made everyone pick up 400 things off the floor before they left today. and it was still pretty messy.
but do i regret the messy room, the fights over the gold coins, the tears over the poor mr. lucky that will never have his hat again, the almost allergic reaction to the pistachio pudding science experiment, the green crepe paper accessories or sword fights, the hyped-up-on-sugar children, the easter grass eternally stuck to all my clothes? no. not in the least.
today was the perfect day in first grade. the kind of day where everyone is laughing and working together for a common good. even if that "good" is finding a make-believe man with orange hair and a fake pot of gold.
i really just love first grade. i mean, when else can you wear ridiculous hair pieces like this at age 24 and get away with it?!
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