Coming clean

 "You never gave me that."

"I don't have that."

My students say these statements, and then I find whatever lost item it is (usually a phonics packet) in their desks.  Some of their desks are horribly messy.  I feel like I know what their bedrooms look like.

Yesterday a girl was shoving her desk basket into her desk for all she was worth and she couldn't get it inside.

That's when I knew it was time for a desk clean out.

After recess, they emptied their desks and filled the recycling and garbage. 

One girl had two math books.  She said, "I don't know why."

I also don't know why.  I put it aside for the next time someone doesn't have a math book.

One girl had more pencils in her desk than she could hold with one hand.

Tiny pieces of paper fluttered out of one girl's desk.

A boy pulled stuff out of his desk and about five paper airplanes cascaded to the floor.

Not all the kids are like that though.  A few of them had their desks cleaned in less than thirty seconds.  They were already clean, they just stacked everything from biggest to smallest and called me over for inspection.

We finally got everything clean and put back together.  We even got the floor picked up.

At the very end of the day, I let them have a prize if they have earned 5 stars--mostly earned from doing iReady lessons.  They go stand by their desks and I cross off the start and they go get a prize.  One boy had five stars, but they were red and all my stars are pink.  I said, "Who gave you these stars?  It wasn't me."

He said, "But I have five stars."

I said, "I didn't give them to you.  Did you give them to yourself?"

He (unconvincingly) said no.  I said, "If you can show me on your computer that you have finished five lessons, I'll let you get a prize." He walked over to the other side of the room and neither of us said anything more about it.

(Although his mother is coming in for a belated parent teacher conference and it might just get...mentioned.)

But everyone needs a fresh start and now we have one.