The Green Lantern

One of my 4Kers brought this guy to school and just couldn't help himself but take it out of his backpack. Again. And Again. And Again. 

At the beginning of the day, my 4Ker showed me his cool toy and I said something along the lines of what I usually do when someone brings a toy: "Oh that looks pretty cool! You should put that back in your backpack so it stays safe. I bet you would feel really sad if your toy got broken or lost here."  Usually that's all it takes and I don't see it the rest of the day. Every once in a while, a kid is really persistent about wanting to show his or her friends what they brought. I tell the kid to put it in his or her backpack and take it out during choice time. So far, I haven't had a problem with a bunch of kids bringing toys from home. I usually mention the toy to parents at pick-up time and suggest it would be better to keep toys at home and the parents are good about making that happen :) 

So anyway, this boy showed me his toy, I said the "keep your toy safe" thing, and he walked over to his backpack. Everyone was taking off coats, putting folders in the folder-holder, and getting settled on the carpet- there was a lot of morning commotion. What I thought was happening was that they boy was putting the toy in his backpack. What really happened was that the boy walked over to his backpack, considered putting the toy away, but decided to put the toy in his pants. Nope, not in his pockets. In the front of his pants. He probably could have gotten away with that for a little while, but he walked from his backpack to the carpet with a smile and said, "Ms. McElwee. . . I tricked you!" 

Good try, kid. Put it in your backpack :)

He tried to snag the toy on the way to the bathroom and on the way back from the bathroom. During snack time, he nonchalantly walked past his backpack and took the toy out on his way to throw away his napkin. When a girl asked if she could get some chapstick from her backpack during math, he just got up and walked over to the backpacks with her. 

Again, all good tries. 

I finally let him take it out of his backpack at the very end of the day. He put his folder in his backpack, got on all of his winter gear, put his backpack on, and showed the toy to a couple of his friends. We lined up, sang our song, and walked out the door to get picked up. 

Guess what I found on a table when I got back into the classroom?