Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Runover, Retainers and Refuse, Oh My!

Safety is a big part of our responsibilities when it comes to the children - especially on the playground. Today, Safety decided to challenge the lunchlady and I'm happy to say the lunchlady prevailed!

I was on the blacktop with approximately 20-25 students when I noticed a white truck coming towards us on our newly paved path. I immediately began blowing my whistle to alert the children, at the same time trying to assess whether the driver would stop when he reached the end of the drive. He stopped (phew). Then proceeded ONTO the blacktop full of children and turned his wheel in 3-point fashion, then continued to back up TOWARDS the kids who were playing handball and unaware of any danger. I was now face to face with the passenger side of his truck. While STILL blowing on my whistle, I was about to hit my fist on his passenger window when he put the truck into drive and nearly ran over my feet! He turned again, this time returning down the path he approached on (only after leaving tire tracks in the grass). I quickly radioed the office to report it but haven't heard anything back on that. I walked around for a few minutes feeling like that actor in 'Airplane' when he kept saying 'I sure picked a great day to quit ______' (fill in the blank) LOL.

So fast forward to the end of my shift and we're wiping down tables when a 5th grade girl returns to the lunchroom to announce she had lost her retainer and thinks it got thrown in the trash! Poor Mr. 'B' - his job description never ceases to amaze me. Since my own son just got his braces off and I know how expensive these retainers are to replace, I donned a pair of handy-dandy blue rubber gloves and began sorting through the day's trash. It was only after I had gone through a third of the food and muck when she informed us that this was a CLEAR retainer, no metal whatsoever. 'Okay guys we're searching for a CLEAR item amongst all of this!!' Believe it or not I found it in my bin. I washed it and warned her NOT to wear it until mom was informed of it's near demise.

My lucky day?? I think so!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Who's Testing Who??

Generally speaking, the lunchroom is not a quiet zone. It is, after all, their free time, but we try to keep it to a controlled chaos most of the time. Today, however, we had been requested to 'encourage' the kids to be as quiet as possible because our other students were taking tests in the gymnasium which was only a temporary wall's hearing distance away.

Well, you can imagine how well that went over. Oh well, we tried our best to at least discourage any loud outbursts.

That is, until a tiny visitor joined us ................in the form ...............of...............................a
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BEE!

This could cause a commotion even with the most mature of children. But this uninvited 'guest' decided to make his grand entrance during kindergarten lunchtime. In no time at all, you could tell exactly which table our buzzing bug was hovering, by the wave of screams. Gone were the rules of 'stay in your seat' and 'raise your hand if you need help' and were chaotically replaced with 5-year olds running amuck, and causing a mini-riot, complete with one tiny little blond girl who was (as Oprah would put it) doing the ugly cry! You know the one - where you cry so hard your eyes get all red and puffy and your face is all blotchy??

I tried to instill calm by talking in soothing tones, saying 'It will be okay'..........'The bee won't hurt you (I didn't believe this)'.............. 'Please don't scream' all the while I could feel my own panic rise up in my throat as I remembered that I myself am allergic to bee stings.

Good thing I keep an epi-pen..............................in my car...........................in the parking lot.......................really, really far away from where the Bee is!!!!

I decided it was safer if we got the littles outside as quickly as possible. At least they could run and scream freely out there and passersby wouldn't think anything out of the ordinary was going on.

So on Testing Day, what was the final Score?

BEE - A++
Kindergarteners - C++ (they tried but their emotions got the best of them)
Lunchlady - F++ for not being able to control either of the above

Monday, September 15, 2008

Deja Vu?

There are a set of twins in kindergarten (I'll call them Robert and Timmy) but they are not in the same classroom together. They do, however, sit together at lunch every day.

Today, a girl sitting near them who shares a class with Robert called me over and said 'You know Robert? Well, he and Timmy look just like they could be twins'

Oh the innocence of a 5-year old!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Dog Days of Summer

A stray dog wandered onto our playground today which happens every so often and causes a stir. Our trusty custodian went out to 'shoo' him away and I had to giggle as the dog (keeping his own distance) was having an entire conversation with Mr. "B" in dog-speak. Mr. "B" had a long snow brush sticking out of his back pocket the entire time.

I imagine the dog smelled the food and figured it was as good a place as any to get some freshly dropped tidbits to nibble on. He would've been correct -- IF -- he'd been allowed inside the building. Mr. "B" had a heck of a time trying to get the dog to run off until a nearby homeowner shouted out of her window at the dog, 'Hey Jack! -- GO HOME!!' and the dog promptly turned around and ran off, LOL.

I asked Mr. "B" later what he planned on doing with the snow brush he had in his back pocket and he said he needed something to defend himself with if necessary. ROTFL -- glad it didn't have to come to THAT!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Yesterday's Blues

Too busy to blog yesterday due to the last of 3 curriculum nights in a week's time.

Nothing too eventful to report in the lunchroom for yesterday, except that it rained ALL day so that meant indoor recess. Funny how a day full of rain can affect the VOLUME indoors?

The kids and our procedures are beginning to 'click' although there are still a few who are still a little late coming to the party.

One little 1st grader had to visit the nurse and when she had returned to her classroom they had all gone home. Not really, but she may have thought that as I found her wandering around the hallway sort of numb and lost looking. No worries, she was supposed to be in the lunchroom so she got a VIP escort from me!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

5 second rule doesn't apply here...

Recess bell rang which means time to clean up, toss your trash and line up to head to class (indoor recess today due to rain). So, I'm watching the kids to make sure they don't leave anything behind on their tables and this one little guy is juggling lots-O-stuff. His lunch container gets emptied into the trash but somewhere in the effort, he drops his (opened) bag of Cheetos -- they land on the floor and only ONE escapes. He picks up the bag, proceeds to toss it into the garbage can and then (politely I thought) picks up the one lonely Cheeto and (didn't see this coming) proceeds to POP it into his mouth! (shudder) Another lunch supervisor and I grab him at the same time to explain how the 5 second rule doesn't apply in school lunchrooms.

'what doesn't kill you, just makes you stranger'

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Import/Export

A new boy (3rd grade) called me over to ask me 'why is my burrito so hard to bit into?'

me: I don't know, do you need your teeth sharpened? (grin)

boy: no - kind of puzzled at my answer so I continued with

me: well, they don't prepare the food here. It's cooked at a kitchen somewhere else and brought in to our lunchroom.

boy: Did they bring it from Mexico?

LOL