Does 'cat' rhyme with 'turtle'??

Back in the classroom today!!  And I can't wait for tomorrow, since I'll be seeing some of my students that I haven't seen in weeks!!

The Triumph:  Recently, we have begun working on rhyming words.  We have been reading books that have rhymes, as well as a song that has rhyming words that we can switch out.  For example, "Did you ever see a sheep in a jeep?"  We have been working on making new sets of words that also rhyme, and today, we started our own books that have rhyming words in them.  These books have the same layout as our song, so students were just searching for two rhyming words, and then writing them in their books.  During the book writing activity, I sat with two boys who have really been working hard on learning their letters and letter sounds.  At first, when we were trying to come up with rhyming words, they were really struggling.  They would give me a suggestion, and we would talk about the end of each of the words and if they sounded the same.  It took quite a few tries, but finally the boys were able to come up with some awesome rhymes, including "Have you ever seen glue in a shoe" and "Have you ever seen a hook in a book?"  It was great to see that idea really click for them, and will be even better to see if it settled for them!

The Struggle:  A huge problem in our classroom as been using respectful language and respectful behavior.  This is a problem between students, as well as between students and myself.  There are so many different parts of the day where students are coming up to me saying "She said I can't be her friend" or "They said I can't play with them" or students disrespecting me by repeating what I say in a mocking tone (which I can not stand!!!) or just making noises that are inappropriate during a lesson.  I have been talking with students in small groups, or even individually, depending on the situation, but it really has been time consuming and difficult to deal with.  We need to have a whole class discussion about how we should treat friends in our room.

The Ludicrousness:  This morning while doing math review with some of my students, one of my boys noticed a small object on the floor.  He picked it up and wished to keep it, so I told him he had to put it in his pocket, or put it in his backpack.  He looked real excited and said "I have a pocket on my shirt!"  He then went up to reach for the pocket on his button up shirt.  He was feeling around for it, when I noticed that his shirt was on inside-out.  But it was buttoned the correct way.  I brought this to the boys attention and he thought it would be best to go down to the boys bathroom to fix it.
About a minute later he returned, shirt still inside out, but somehow the buttons were all off by one.  At this point, he said that he still couldn't get it fixed and moved to the back of the room, where there is an art area.  He hid behind our easel so that he could unbutton and fix his shirt.  The funny thing is, in the past, this student has made himself clothes out of paper during work time, including an outfit that consisted of white butcher paper wrapped around his waist and no shirt on!  I was so glad that day that he had kept his pants on under his paper made clothes!  You turn your head for 30 seconds in a Kindergarten classroom and anything can happen!!
I'm not sure what changed his ideas about removing clothing in the classroom, but I'm glad that they have changed!!
And we were able to successfully get his button-down shirt on the correct way!