Help!

So I have a very gifted student who is all boy! He is super busy and makes buzzing noises and whistles all day long. He goes to our districts enrichment program on Fridays. Here he gets to do lots of hands on science activities and such. It's fabulous for him. (And me too, because I need a break some days. :) )

Thursday he was goofing around in his reading station. I pulled him to have a little conference with him about why he was playing instead of working and found out that he'd rather play with toys in stations. We talked about how that probably wouldn't happen, but I could definitely see what I could come up with that would be something that he liked.

We talked about what things he was interested in learning about. Lots of boy things like: Transformers, Pokemon, Mario, bugs, science, food, outerspace, muscle cars and racing. He doesn't like writing, but I found that I could probably get him to write if I gave him themed paper.

I'm going to be searching for station activities that are very boy themed. Or creating them if I can't find them.

Here's where you can help....if you read this.....

Do you know of any boy themed literacy or math stations???

I teach first grade, but he's probably at a middle second to beginning third grade level (DRA's from last year are lost). I'm going to focus more on reading comprehension and building vocabulary because he pretty much has all the decoding skills needed. If you can help or point me in the right direction, I would be so thankful!!

Thanks!!

A brief update...

I've been a slack blogger, but I usually am. I go through spurts of wanting to write and then wanting to keep it all to myself.

Today was day #14.

I thought that as you continue in your teaching career things get easier. Well..not so much for me. I feel more like I am lost in a sea of papers, little people, data folders, smart goals, common core standards, PLCs and everything else. I feel like my classroom is in shambles and routines are nowhere to be found.

I feel like I can't even get things started or organized. It's like I don't even know what I want my classroom to be. It's absolutely draining and disheartening.

I'm so ready to just throw up my hands and walk out...for fear that I won't be able to get it together at all.

I love my 23 students. Well....1 of them gets on my nerves frequently, but that's to be expected. We laugh often mostly at ourselves and are learning lots of reading and math vocabulary. I am really proud of them.

It was a crazy start to the year. I was the fortunate teacher who had all but 1 of her kids show up the first day. The other two didn't and have been getting about 1 new kid a week. One of them got 2 in one day.

In a span of 5 school days, I had 3 throw up at school and 1 poop their pants. I've gone through about 6 boxes of Kleenex.

I have one sweetie who is so low. She's supposed to be getting tested soon. She is priceless!! We were working on numbers that come after other numbers. I asked my students to show me on their dry erase boards what comes after 49. She says, "forty-ten". Ha! She also has said that if you need to get rid of your hiccups, you can hold your breath for 10 hours. :) She cracks me up on the daily.

Despite feeling like there's no room in our classroom, I have had a good start to the year. I just feel like I'm not giving them enough and don't even know where to start. So frustrating!!

I don't even know how to ask for help....

Hopefully, things will come together soon.