I have the honor of writing my 100th post (yes, I've counted correctly this time...) about a fantastic experience I had this very morning with the big kid's second grade class and a wonderful character named simply, Pigeon. What a joy they were. To tell the truth, my anxiety level had been increasing like crazy for the last 48 hours in anticipation of this morning's activity. I haven't been officially in a classroom since last June, and even then, the brunt of my experiences have involved kids of the younger sort, not these elderly 7 and 8 year olds. But, anxieties and all, I knew I had a well planned out lesson that was timed out to fit the hour time slot I had to a tee, and I knew in my heart that the books and the activity would be well received by the kids.
Big kid and I started by talking about why we LOVE all of Mo's books, and we shared a few of our memories of seeing him talk at the National Book Festival in DC two years ago. (A great yearly perk of living in the DC area!) Then we read the three pigeon books, with much group participation, just as the books were meant to be read aloud. We followed this by creating a web of words to describe this wacky character, and I was much surprised by these older kids' perceptions of him. Most comments were focusing on the negatives of the pigeon's behavior- he doesn't listen, he tries to bargain, he's bossy, that sort of thing. I expected the responses to be funny, silly, wacky, crazy, more along those lines. Interesting, huh? Maybe the kids have been told a gazillion and a half times to NOT keep asking for things they've been told no about, to NOT try to be the boss, to listen to directions the first time they're given for the love of all that's holy!
Okay, okay, back on track. So after a lively discussion about who the pigeon is and what makes him tick, the kids went back to their desks to create their entries for a contest that my-favorite-children's-author-of-all-time is hosting right now. He has written a new book starring the one and only Pigeon, and it's titled, The Pigeon Wants a...
That's the thing- we don't know what he wants! It's our job to try to figure it out. (Well, officially you have to be between the ages of 4 and 11 to enter... but I'm trying my darndest to figure it out anyway!) You should have seen these drawings- man, was I ever impressed. These kids came up with some fantastically creative ideas. I now have the awesome duty to make sure that they get out in the mail as soon as possible. The funny thing was that only one child asked me very quietly, "What do you win if you're right?" I didn't want to focus so much on the prize aspect, since I figure the contest will have MANY MANY MANY entries (and because I am the parent of a child who gets so deeply and profoundly disappointed about not winning things), so I was very glad that it wasn't a part of the group discussion.
Overall, it was such a great experience. I got to see my child in the environment that makes up such a big part of his world, and I got to play guest host in that world for an hour. I was able to finally put some faces to the names that I hear on a regular basis, and even better, some misperceptions have been cleared up on my part. (I have a feeling there will be more on that in a later post...) Best of all, I had a chance to be with a group of children sharing some books that are so dear to my heart. Sitting in a rocking chair with twenty-odd little faces staring up at me and a book in my hand-- heaven.
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