Dr Seuss week

We concluded Dr. Seuss week here at school. The week was filled with fun things for our kindergarteners to do. We had the Story lady from the library come read to them, special guests, crazy socks day...and on Wednesday we ate green eggs and ham. "Hey! They taste just like white eggs!" LOL.

Friday we had a special reader come to class to read to the class. He read a book about hugging a porcupine. There were lots of animals in the book, and he stopped to discuss each one. When it got to the skunk, he mentioned the gland that makes the skunk smell as it sprays. One kindergarten boy piped up, saying quietly, "Skunk. The smell of doooooooom."

They say the cutest and most unexpected things. That's what I love about kids.

I'm not a fan of Dr Seuss. Don't worry, I kept that on the QT all week. It was definitely the minority opinion. I remember reading Dr Seuss when I taught first grade, and it used to take me forever to get through one of his books. They're long, and they are tongue twisters.

For a kid who was highly visually acute, the weird beings drawn in the book were mildly to acutely discomfiting. They're not identifiable as any one thing or another. For a kid with a logical mind like me, who must classify everything, this was a problem. The subjects were often mystifying. Like, why does that thing keep asking Sam if he wants to try green eggs? If Sam said once he said a thousand times, he does not want to try them. And the Cat in the Hat is just a weird intruder, the kids should call 911. (And why were they left alone, anyway?) These were the things I would think about as the teacher read the book to me as a kid, and then as I grew up and became the teacher, what I'd think about as I read it to the kids.

Here is a page from a book I like, "First Grade Takes a Test". It gives insight into how a kid thinks.

If you have a creative thinker in your life, congratulations. They are always interesting, sometimes frustrating, I know, but interesting and funny and quirky. I admit, I love the quirky ones. They are non-conformists that we need to take a few more moments to understand, or to coax out the thoughts which when uttered, will undoubtedly bless us.