Halloween Stuff

I expect my little group to act like children.

It works well for us to allow a lot of leeway in behavior up to a certain point. If the activity level in the room is such that I can carry on a conversation with children or my assistant, people aren't running or doing other things that could cause accidents, and they're taking care of each other and our supplies, I just let them be.

I offer activities, but they're a choice, not a requirement. That can be entertaining, too. Take Friday afternoon for example. The kids had been partying all day in their classrooms (Harvest Party... they aren't allowed to celebrate Halloween in school anymore for fear of offending someone) and they were full of candy and popcorn and over the top noise. It really was chaotic.

So I had an activity ready to offer them.

I went to Sprawlmart on Thursday morning and purchased a big bag of single ply toilet paper. Pulled out the mini traffic cones from the back room and set up a little obstacle course and then announced that we'd be wrapping each other like mummies and navigating through the course one at a time. It wasn't a race, it was an activity.

Several of the kids wanted to watch rather than be wrapped ("Is it okay if we just watch?") which was fine. But about five minutes into the whole thing, most of them had gotten up, grabbed some toilet paper and started wrapping up their friends. It was loud and silly and full of motion. Just what they needed. I took a lot of pictures. Wish I could share them with you. ::sigh::

During the activity, several parents arrived to pick up children. Instead of making their child(ren) gather their backpacks/coats and leave right away, they sat down at the table to watch the kids have fun.

It went on for about fifteen minutes.There was a lot of toilet paper strewn about. They were almost as enthusiastic picking it up as they were making the mess in the first place.

For a 'harvest party' there sure were a lot of ghoulish suprises/prizes. Have you seen the one where they use candy corn for fingernails in clear plastic gloves, then fill the remainder of the glove with popcorn?

We had quite a few of those that came down with the kids.

Caramel apples, too. Some of the classrooms had pre-dipped caramel apples and gave the kids an opportunity to choose several different types of sprinkles and gunk. Blech.

And my personal favorite.
Those fucking vampire teeth.
I really hate those fucking vampire teeth.
I don't know what the issue is, but I am utterly disgusted by seeing someone spit.

I know it's mean, but the first thing I did was make the kids put the teeth away in their backpacks. I told them that I don't like the idea of everyone's spit mixing all over the place. True enough. We really don't need more germs than the ones we're already getting. I'm still recovering from my last bout of germ warfare, as a matter of fact.

What I didn't tell them is how much it grosses me out to see spit. YUCK YUCK YUCK.

The kids were wired this week. Even more than last week. I was starting to think it was me or the way I am running things, but after some conversation with different school staff as well as some of the parents of my kids who teach, I have learned that it's all over the area. It's like someone sprinkled asshole powder over everyone's cereal and turned them all wacky.

I'm hoping that since Halloween is over, the crazy behavior will be, too.