Craft Class Week 6: The Monsters Plan their Escape

ahhh...back to craft class. One week off for teacher conferences and I almost forgot how my heart sings for those little crazies!  er maybe sings isn't the right word.. hollers? yelps? runs around with its arms in the air screaming..? I'll have to think about it.

This week's project: Decoupaged Treasure Chest (pretty paper glued on a small cardboard box)

Some Highlights:

Opening the box of decoupage paper to the high pitched screams of " I want THAT ONE!!!" Commence aggressive jumping, pushing, indian burns, paper ripping, complete havoc.  Regained control with the help of some tall bookshelves, and empty promises of "paper for everyone!"

I was offered a single m&m from several children...very flattered of course.

I was alerted to the presence of newly curled hair, (which earned me quite the disgusted griamce when I asked if it was for a hot date), a very important after school soccer game (go team Harris Teeter!) and one boy's ability to scream at such an unholy octave that I questioned whether I might be part dog... then promply decided it didn't matter because a noise like that surely meant the world was ending. Then it stopped, and it was good.

 I was asked if I had a boyfriend by the soccer player, who also stated that she was the only one brave enough to ask (who knew that this was the burning question on everybody's mind?!) They didn't fall for my subject change, so I said yes, to which another one replied "That makes sense 'cause you're pretty." Fighting back a full blown feminist rally cry, I simplified with "You don't have to be pretty to have a boyfriend, in fact you have to be pretty to do anything." Another girl piped in at this point and said "I think sometime in the near future the word boy will mean the same thing as crazy" (Amen sister!!) I replied that I thought the two words might already be synonyms. I then explained what a synonym was and listened to the botched pronunciations of cinnamon, symonym, syminin... for several minutes.

The Lowlights:

Several kids finished their chests relatively early, (mostly because they just globbed a pile of paper and glue on top and declared themselves done, but I'm all for artistic freedom!) and because they all pretty much have zero attention span and endless energy, they wanted to go outside and play.  While I'm totally on board with this, technically I don't think I have the authority to let them leave the classroom to do it.  I responsible for them for that 1 hour and the adult supervision outside is meant for other kids. I of course tried to diplomatically explain this to them, which naturally earned me the complete opposite response. Tears, pouts, tantrums, and declarations of "I hate craft class!" flew my way, and I'm not softy in this department, but when that little boy lurched into that ear splitting scream of his, it was over...anddd out they went.  I distracted a few others with several rounds of thumb war (which my giant adult thumbs dominated at!) then dedicated the rest of class to shooting down excuses to go outside and raising an eyebrow to pleas of "I just want to go stand on the porch."  Thank goodness for the quiet table of girls in the corner...