El Duende

On March 14th Ronan went to school only to find that a leprechaun had taken over his classroom!?!?  The door was locked, there were signs on the door saying that the teacher & students couldn't come in, and when the teacher finally found a "special" key to get into the classroom, they saw that the whole room was a mess!  All of the chairs were missing, desks were turned upside down, there were green footprints everywhere, and to make matters worse, their beloved classroom turtle, Manuelita, was missing!  The leprechaun (El Duende) left a ransom note asking for one million dollars in exchange for Manuelita.  Sra. Long totally went along with it and didn't let the kids know that she was the mastermind behind the whole prank--(a few parents, including me, were here little helpers).  But, Shhh, don't tell Ronan!  He still doesn't know! (:

The kids spent the first half of the day going to each classroom asking (in Spanish) if anyone knew where Manuelita was, and asking for donations to go toward the ransom money.  They asked the principal, the janitors, and the cafeteria workers, but no one had seen Manuelita.  The kids were genuinely concerned.

When the students returned to class after lunch they found that El Duende had left balloons, a cake, and presents in the room!  Maybe the leprechaun wasn't SO mean after all??  But, where was Manuelita?...  

After the kids ate their cake, the principal came in with the wonderful news that he found Manuelita hidden in his office!  They were SO excited!

Griffin, Tate, and I came to the classroom before school was out so that we could see all the fun they were having.

Griffin got some cake (;

Ronan liked having his brothers there. (:

I just love that Ronan has Sra. Long for a teacher this year!  She is so fun and creative, along with having high expectations for her students.