Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI
Kids
"You are using your yellow light voices." Jackie reminded her students as they were starting to get too loud.
Jackie let them get a little louder than normal when her students were at centers but they were pushing their limit.
Jackie had four centers set up around the room, a writing center, a reading center (the kids loved this center because they got to sit on comfy chairs), a math center (the kids didn't like this one as much but Jackie tried to make it more fun by giving them color by number math problem worksheets instead of just regular math worksheets and as soon as the kids were done with their paper and Jackie had looked at it they got to pick out a cool sticker which they loved doing), and a free center where they could either read quietly or with a partner, draw, or quietly play games with the other kids in their center group, this was unsurprisingly their favorite center.
"Mrs. Tokes." A little boy named Chance said as he came up to her.
Chance was just about the sweetest kiddo you'd ever meet, on top of that with his mop of curly red hair and red glasses that matched his hair, he was adorable.
"Yes?" Jackie asked him with a smile.
"The blue math center crayon is missing." He informed her.
"It is? What do you suppose happened to it? Do you think the crayon police took it?" Jackie asked him jokingly.
Chance grinned at her.
"Yep, probably your hubband." (Husband)
"You think my husband stole our blue crayon?" Jackie asked him amused.
"Yep."
"Why would he do that?" Jackie asked.
"Cuz he's a powize (police) man."
Jackie grinned at the little boy.
"Well, you're right, he's a policeman, sort of, but I don't think he stole our crayon." Jackie replied before she added "Since we only have a little bit of time left before we rotate to the next center and I want you to finish your math worksheet, what would be a solution to our missing crayon?" Jackie asked him.
"You could call him on the phone." Chance replied, that was not the answer she was expecting.
Jackie chuckled.
"That's one solution but my husband is at work and he's busy, so what's another solution?"
Nick never gets upset with me when I call him at work but if I called him and accuse him of stealing their blue math center crayon while he is in the middle of presenting evidence in a murder trial he might get just a touch annoyed with me. Jackie thought to herself.
"We could use the blue crayon from our own crayons." A little girl named Missy, who was also at the math center replied.
"That's a good idea, what do you think, Chance?" Jackie asked.
"Yep." Chance agreed with a shake of his head before he went to his desk to grab his crayons.
"One, two, eyes on who?" Jackie asked the class.
"You." All the kids responded as they stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
"Our blue math center crayon is missing, so when you go to math center, come grab your crayons from your desk to use, but remember to put them away after you are done at that center so you don't lose them, alright? Give me a thumbs up if you understand."
The kids gave her a thumbs up.
"Good job, continue on with what you were doing." She told them.
"Mrs. Stokes, is it time to switch centers?" A little girl named Miranda asked.
"Look at our timer." Jackie replied.
The little girl looked at the timer at the front of the room.
"Not yet." She replied glumly, apparently she'd had enough of writing center.
"Almost, you only have about 5 more minutes and then you'll switch." Jackie told her, trying to boost her morale.
Before long, it was time to switch centers, the kids normally did this fairly quietly and they knew the rule was not to run to the next center, and the kids followed this rule, usually.
"Uh, Collin and Jordan, is that how we switch centers?" Jackie scolded two boys who had raced as fast as they could back to their desks so they could grab their whiteboards and play tic-tac-toe with one another during their free center.
"No." Both of them said at once.
"Go back and show me how to do it the correct way." She told them.
They walked back to where they had been and then walked correctly to their desks.
"Thank you." Jackie told them once they had done it the correct way.
A few minutes later Jordan came up to her desk. "Mrs. Stokes, will you play the winner between me and Collin?" He asked.
"I can't sweetie, I'm sorry but I have to walk around and watch all the kids." She told him apologetically.
"Oh, can the winner stay in during recess and play you?" He asked.
"You want to miss your recess to play tic-tac-toe with me?" She asked surprised.
"Yeah."
"Ok, you can do that, I don't have recess duty."
"Can we both stay in and play with you? Even if we lose to each other?" Collin asked from his seat.
Jackie chuckled.
"Sure." She told him.
Jackie grabbed her coffee off of her desk and then started walking over to the reading center to make sure all the kids were on task. On her way a little girl named Ellie stopped her.
"Mrs. Stokes?"
"Yes Miss Ellie?" Jackie said before taking a drink of her coffee.
"How do you make love?" Ellie asked her.
Jackie nearly spit her coffee on the floor.
"Wh…what?" Jackie stammered.
"How do you make love? I have the L and the O but what's the rest of it?"
"Oh thank god, she just wants to know how to spell love." Jackie thought to herself.
Until then Jackie hadn't noticed the pencil and piece of paper in her hand. Jackie led her to the back table so she'd have a hard surface to write on.
Jackie then sounded out the letter V.
"V" Ellie replied after Jackie had sounded it out.
"Very good." Jackie said with a smile as she watched the little girl write a V.
"What else?" Ellie asked.
"Then there is an E." Jackie told her.
The little girl wrote the letter E.
"What else?" She asked.
"That's it, l-o-v-e spells love." Jackie said.
"Ok, thanks Mrs. Stokes, I'm making a card for my mommy, it's going to say I love my mommy and then I'm going to draw flowers on it and I'm going to color all the flowers pretty colors because my mommy loves flowers.
"She will love that sweetheart, that is very kind of you to make that for your mom." Jackie replied.
Ellie smiled at Jackie and then returned to the writing center.
"I WON." A child exclaimed.
Jackie turned.
"Collin, shhhh, inside voice." Jackie told him as she tried not to laugh.
"Sorry Mrs. Stokes, I just got really excited."
Collin was an absolute sweetheart, he gave Jackie a hug every morning when he came into the classroom and at the end of every day before he left with his mom, and he was always the first to offer to help his classmates or Jackie with anything, and he was also the first to offer to share when he had something and someone else did not, but he was always going a million miles an hour, all day, every day, and sometimes Jackie had to reign him in a bit when he got just a little too wild.
Pretty soon it was time for recess.
"Mrs. Stokes, can I still stay in with you and play tic-tac-toe, even though I yelled on accident?"
"Yes Collin." She assured him.
"Thanks." He said happily.
During recess both Collin and Jordan beat Jackie in a game of tic tac toe and then both boys wanted to go outside for the rest of their recess time.
When the class came back in from recess there was only a few minutes before it was time to get ready to go home so she read them a quick story before all the kids gathered up their things to take home.
After all the kids had gone home for the day Jackie walked back into her classroom and smiled, it had been a good day, and she had several funny stories to share with Nick that night, which was one of her very favorite things about being a teacher. She felt so lucky that she absolutely loved her job because she knew a lot of people did not!
The End! Please don't forget to leave a review!