Tattle Tales

Tattling

Well Spring Break has come and gone. It was super relaxing to spend the week with my hubby doing a bunch of nothing. I worked at tutoring still but that was only 2 hrs a day 3 days a week. We did get the rest of our new house unpacked. Now all we have to do is buy a filing cabinet and file 2 years worth of papers that we had stored in shoeboxes in our closet. I honestly missed my students but it was so nice to just spend time with Josh. We hardly ever get to see each other.

Teachers need breaks just as much as students do but the kids have some serious issues around break times.  Since I only have 8 students they get sick and tired of each other really quickly. The tattling gets old even quicker. 

That brings me to my point, how do you stop the tattling that isn't important? Its easy for me to know the difference between silly tattling and the serious stuff, but to a 6yr old its all the same. Little Johnny scribbling is the same to them as Little Johnny sucker punching his friend. A 6yr old knows scribbling on their papers is wrong, and they know that hitting is wrong, so they must tell the teacher no matter what. I talk to them about serious vs. silly till I'm blue in the face but they just don't see the difference. Wrong is wrong in the eyes of a 6yr old. 

When I know they are coming to tattle, they just have this way about them, I always cut them off and say "Before you tattle did someone hit you? Did someone take your stuff? Then go talk it out with them." That usually works but I have two students that tattle a ridiculous amount. I can't seem to go 5 minutes without one of these student using their whiniest voice and tattling on the most ridiculous stuff. Im talking "Mrs. Haaaaaaarris, Little Johnny took his stickers off." or "Mrs. Haaaaaaaarri, Little Johnny looked out the window." I mean honestly... this is the stuff they tattle on seriously 30-40 times a day.  

What do I do???