Sentence Strips and Jingle Dancers

So today was one of the most chaotic school days of the year. First of all it's the last day before Thanksgiving holiday. . . can we say wound tighter than a yo-yo?? That would be my children right now. . . Also, we had a field trip today -- there was money to get situated, children who weren't going on the trip, but needed a place to stay and stuff to deal with before we could leave. . . .the field trip was to the university to see a Christmas musical revue pretty much. . .it was great, but didn't do anything to calm the children :~) When we got back, we rushed right into lunch, back to the room for just a few, then we had to be at the gym for our annual king/queen day (read here a fundraiser where everyone and their brother, sister, grandma. .. .buys tons of tickets for a $ each then we have a bajillion drawings for things staff have donated so they can win things. . .then the boy and the girl who sold the most tickets in each class become the prince/princess (PK-2) and the king/queen (3-6). ) I was feeling pretty proud that I had gotten all the necessary pieces into the puzzle today, when I had a student get sick at lunch, called her mom, then took her to the office on the way to the gym to let them know someone was coming for her. My balloon of pride was quickly deflated (read here pricked with a pin and zooming all around the room) as I saw another teacher with "crowns" in her hand. . . ."Oh, SNAP!" It quite suddenly dawned on me (read here crashed down upon my head with great force!) that I should have prepared 3 crowns (since my twins were tied for my princess. . . .) Usually I pick some up at Burger King and I paint them or cover up the BK logo and decorate them . . . But not today -- since my children are already in the gym and the program has begun. . .so I dash back to the room, asking everyone along the way, "Do you have any extra crowns?" No, no, no. . . so I get to the classroom, thinking frantically how I'm going to make 3 crowns in less than 3 minutes. I grabbed 3 sentence strips from my cabinet. . . .folded them, cut scallops from the top of each. . .Then I covered each one with aluminum foil (which I only had because last week's chaos was the Native American decorate-the-door contest, for which we made a jingle dancer, for which we made jingles out of aluminum foil, and btw, there was only just barely enough aluminum foil left to cover the 3 crowns I had to make. I stuck a roll of tape in my pocket to attach their crowns, took off back to the gym, sat through the hour and a half long program with 25 restless children, brought them back to the room, helped them pack up, choose books for the long break, write down AR scores, and clean up their trash. Finally, the bell rang (thankfully) but oh, did I mention I had the last meeting of my writers' group for the young author contest until 4:15, which turned into 5:15 until I could get them basically done. . . This is one day I'm happy to have behind me for another year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!