Well today I arrived and quickly printed off a sheet for the children to draw a picture of themselves and write their names on.  I made sure I had all the computers switched on and loaded up ready to go today - they were very popular yesterday! Took the sheet I had printed off to photocopy and... it all came out on A3, cos I hadn't reset it from the person before.  So now I would have to cut them before I could use them!

Then took the bits I had printed off after school yesterday upstairs with me to laminate.  Plugged laminator in and switched it on to heat up, then guillotined all the pieces I wanted to laminate, went to laminate them and..... no laminating pouches.  Looked at my watch - 8.45 - no time to do them now, have to sort them later! Not the best of starts! Grabbed my coffee from the staffroom on my way downstairs.  Managed to down half of it before some idiot rang the bell! Fixed my smile on my face and threw open the door... several children rushed in without even saying goodbye to their parents, who followed forlornly behind! All five of the seats at the computers were soon taken and the playdough got out.  I reminded the children about putting their names on the wall so we know who is here today. All but two were present and the others arrived within 5 minutes, and all the parents left quite quickly today and.....still no tears!! ( not even the new little boy in year 1 or the parents today!) 

I left the children to play for about ten minutes and then called them to the carpet to do the register.  They all gave me a cheery good morning, except for the one little girl who held my hand all through playtime yesterday, she doesn't even look up - I made a mental note to keep a close eye on her -she may take a while to settle. We counted up the fruit ( maths!) and read a big book (literacy!) and wahey.... its still not half past 9 yet! So I told the children what activities are out for them to play with today and sent them off to choose.  They all played quite happily apart from a small squabble between a boy and a girl over the baby buggy.  It finished with the girl winning and the boy sulking for a few minutes.  I did a quick weighing up in my mind as to whether I was being too adventurous, but the children seem to have settled well, so I took the bull by the horns and called them back to the carpet.  I asked how many of them had their PE kits in school ( yes I AM mad!!) and those that had I asked to change into their plimsolls instead of their shoes ( I'm not THAT mad!!) We then lined up and went off to the hall for a session with the parachute.  This is always popular with the children, and a few of them were soon starting to get a little overexcited- maybe they are not all angels after all!  I was suddenly aware that my clingy little girl had moved round to the 'spare' handle next to me, she was happy to join in up to a point, but needed the extra security. 

We finished off and I explained to them that on the way back to class we needed to go through the office area and the secretary might be on the phone so we needed to be very quiet.  The children were as quiet as mice... until we got round the corner from the office, and then they started talking - well I did only say through the office!  We changed shoes matched jumpers to children and then went out for playtime.  My clingon clung on again bless her, the rest of them just needed me to be there... somewhere.  After play we had fruit and a drink, then I told the children about the pictures I wanted them to do of themselves.  We discussed what colours they would need for their uniforms, and that different people would need different colours for their hair.  I then told them that there was painting out in the other room as well.  Well the majority of them wanted to do painting, and went off with the TA, but I had six candidates for my picture drawing activity, which wasn't bad.  All of the six managed to have a go at writing their names too, and they were mostly legible.  One little girl did her picture so carefully that I sent her off to the office to be put into the 'golden book'  She has a big sister at school and her mum is on the PTA so I was pretty sure that she wouldn't get lost, but hovered anxiously by the door anyway!  Before I knew it it was time to tidy up and have a story and a few rhymes, and thenget ready to go home.  All the parents arrived and all the children went home happily - it surely can't last.....can it??