A Call for Help

I am very excited to be a part of such a wonderful group of kinder bloggers!  This is my first post to the Kinder Gang blog, so I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself and send out a plea for help!  My name is Tammi Lee and I teach in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  This is my 5th year teaching and I have spent three teaching first and the rest teaching kindergarten.  This year will be my first year acting as our kindergarten grade level chair and wowza it has already been full of challenges. 

Last Tuesday one of our four teachers put in her resignation and we found out the VIF teacher coming from Jamaica was a week behind getting her visa approved and would not be here for the start of school.  Our principal has been interviewing like crazy this week and we have been working together to get the other two rooms set up.  Luckily we have two teaching assistants who have been a wonderful help!  We are not really sure how we are going to work out the logistics.  My principal has mentioned teaching AM in our own classes and then possibly swapping with the sub and teaching PM to the other class.  I am worried about these little kinders and what will be best for them as they try to figure out what school is all about.  Will switching faces half way through the day be too much for them?  I am also a little worried about planning the first seven days for a sub....  The activities I usually do for the first couple weeks are based on developing routines and rules, something that really depends a lot on teacher preference.  The plans I use also include a lot of prep and materials, and I am worried about the time and expense to prepare this for 3 classes!  Has anyone experienced a similar situation at the beginning of the year?  I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions!  Thanks!