the turkey sweat shop

Once upon a time, Kate had a dream. She dreamed that all of the children in the Blue Class could create beautiful centerpieces for their Thanksgiving table. After she woke up she rushed to find a paper and pencil and sketched out the vision she saw in her dream.
Being an efficient task master she made a chart showing everyone what needed to be completed. She worked feverishly to prepare the project. She cut 30 milk cartons open. Through trial and error, she learned quickly that tempra paint flakes off of milk cartons. She then spray painted 30 milk cartons brown. The eager children gathered around to hear of their assignments. Cheerfully, they colored tail feathers with markers.
They gladly colored tail feathers with crayons and then oh so carefully glued on the prefect feathers.
They used water colors to create the most beautiful wings.
They painted little heads with brown paint.
Her helpers spent countless hours cutting wings and feet. They assisted in any way that they could to help Kate's dream become a reality. Kate continued to work hard and would only breaks now and then to eat cupcakes.

Kate constructed turkey necks and beaks.
The children's work was quickly sorted into their respective milk jugs.
Then, while the children rested Kate quickly used the hot glue gun to connect the heads to the jugs.
She glued on their feathers cheerfully even though at the same time she was burning off her finger prints as well.
Before long Kate dream became a reality and the children all cheered. They were so very thankful to have such beautiful centerpieces for their Thanksgiving tables.

WAKE UP KATE!! It didn't go down like that at all!!

In the real version there are 29 kids at least half of which were borderline sick and extremely cranky.

In the real version there were pauses for potty breaks and potty accidents.

In the real version there was more complaining, mass chaos, and disorganization due to lack of places to put mass amounts of things to dry.

In the real version there was lots of spilling of water and lots of dripping of paint.

In the real version we went through 3 boxes of wet wipes.

In the real version my classroom is down to two aprons and everyone needed one. For some reasons it seemed like everyone chose this week to wear their brand new fall clothes.

In the real version some children complained and asked as though they would develop carpal tunnel syndrome from coloring the feathers.

In the real version the children not only glued feather to the paper but also to their hands, and their clothes and to the table.

In the real version there was a methodical step by step process that the children would complete in sequential order. Work ethic is already recognizable at this age. There were kids who diligently work to completer their task early in the week. These children will grow up to be your efficient workers. There were a few kids who flat out refused to work on the project all week only to later cry that they didn't have one. Those children will grow up to be your procrastinators. They then did all of the work in one day.

In the real version this project is not totally complete and we will probably still be gluing on heads and wings until the last minute school is open.

In the real version, the turkeys are beautiful and the kids are so proud of them. We wouldn't have it any other way. I love my job so very much! What an amazing week we had in the Blue Class!