Baby Killers.

So...today I was in school for three hours to cover while one of the Prep teachers went for a Doctor's appointment.I started at 10.00 am. I had not met any of the children before and some of them were dynamite. There was a little boy with ADHD who had a full time teacher aide with him who for the first half hour didn't want to do anything he was asked to do and complained loudly about it.There were three girls in particular who could not sit still and were very strong willed. One told me that she was allowed time on her Ipad at home if she was a good girl at school and she wanted me to write a note to Mum to tell she had been good. She hadn't but it was music to my ears and my carrot for that particular donkey. Another fidget desperately wanted a 'gotcha' band reward and I used that to keep her still and attentive.We did some reading and some phonic work on the letter 'V' before Morning Tea. I went out to help supervise them eating their snacks. When they had finished they could go off and play.Three boys rushed into the outdoor home corner and each grabbed a plastic knife."Let's cut up this baby," said one grabbing a doll.I was horrified. These boys were four years old. How did that idea ever get into their heads? I know that we live in a rural area and a lot of the children grow up on farms and are used to the seeing life and death of their livestock but it was shocking to see boys so young gleefully set about a bay doll with their plastic knives.Of course I spoke to them and told them that that was not what the home corner was for and that they needed to use it properly or go and play somewhere else.The boy with ADHD went home at 12.00.After morning tea we did some maths on the number '8' and then the class teacher was back but I stayed and helped with writing until 1.00 before heading home.I am back in school again on Friday for a full day in Year 1/2 class.