Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Like every other teacher who has a blog, I HAVE to do a Dr. Seuss post today. It's his birthday!!

-

Back on the 100th Day, New Principal was all aflutter because she didn't know it was the 100th Day. When she saw my babies in their crowns, she exclaimed, "WHY didn't you tell me it was the 100th Day?!" (Yes, the bitch in me wanted to immediately say, "Well, if you had actually READ my lesson plans, you would have seen it written in all over the place!!" but I held my tongue!) She went on to say that had she have known, she would have gotten the babies some kind of a treat, because the 100th Day is such a big deal, etc. Since it was still morning, she said she would try and have someone run out and get them ice cream for the afternoon. Well, that didn't happen. At the end of the day, she said she would do it on Monday. THAT didn't happen, either. But, no big deal. At least not in my book.

-
Later in the week, when I was doing my lesson plans for this week, I realized that Dr. Seuss' birthday was coming, and it occurred to me that maybe if New Principal really wanted to treat the babies, she could do it for that day instead. When I spoke to her about it, she got VERY excited, and immediately agreed. She then went on to say that ALL the primary classes should be involved, and next thing I know, I was assigned to facilitate a meeting with all the primary teachers.

-

I have this really awesome kit I received from ComEd many years ago, at my last school, when we had a visit from the Seussmobile. Additionally, I bought a teacher resource book from Scholastic that is all about extension activities for Dr. Seuss books. So, I ran off packets of resource materials for each of the primary teachers. (yeah, for THIS, I was allowed to use the copier in the office. It's just work for the kids that can't be copied!!) At the meeting, I apologized to the others for inadvertently getting them involved in this celebration. I celebrate this every year with my class, but I have no idea which of the others usually did with their classes. I was afraid some of them might resent me for making more work for them. Luckily, they were all very receptive.

-
New Principal took it one step further, and purchased a really cute Cat in the Hat costume, which our librarian actually agreed to wear for the celebration. She then came to school today armed with several sheet cakes and gallon buckets of ice cream. A schedule was set up for each of the primary classes to come down to the lunchroom and enjoy cake and ice cream at Dr. Seuss' birthday party! Woo hoo! It was a TON of fun!

-

After reading a bunch of Dr. Seuss books during our read aloud time, we got to work making Cat in the Hat hats.

One of the books we read was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Toward the end, it mentions a Zink (or is it a Yink?) that likes to drink pink ink. So, at lunchtime, I turned every one's milk into pink ink! (It's hard to see in this picture, I guess, but it was pink!) The babies were cracking me up because they all kept saying that "it tastes pink!" which is just hilarious to me. First of all, it was just a drop of red food coloring, hence no flavor. Second, what the hell does pink taste like, anyway? (Ok, Smileygirl, get your mind out of the gutter! You, too, C!!!)

How totally freakin' adorable is this costume!!? I wish I had caught the babies' reactions when she first walked in!! I can't believe I forgot to bring my camera down to the lunchroom with me. When the Cat in the Hat walked in, the kids went apeshit crazy! Luckily, Ms. H. was there with us, and she very graciously ran down to the room to get my camera. God bless that woman!! The little one in the bottom left-hand corner made me giggle while we were eating because he exclaimed, "Ice cream makes my brain freeze!" God, I love these babies!!

Here's New Principal with the Cat in the Hat. I almost think she enjoyed the celebration more than the babies. Oo, funny little side note - we had a very brief faculty meeting this morning, and the celebration was discussed. She made a very serious point of telling us that only those children who deserved to be a part of this celebration would be included, and those who hadn't earned it would be "sitting right there, watching every one else enjoy their cake and ice cream. So, make sure you really enjoy it, and make sure there are lots of smacking noises!" She made me literally laugh out loud! This is generally how things go in our class. When there are babies who can't participate in something, they sit on the side and watch the rest of us. I guess to some that sounds mean, but believe me, it gets the point across. The fact that she was encouraging this was just hilarious to me! In the windup, I had 6 little darlings that had to sit in the lunchroom and watch the rest of us party it up. Obviously, I wasn't the only one who had some sitting out, and New Principal made a point of acknowledging the fact that they hadn't earned this celebration, and that they had better step it up. She also let them know that more celebrations were coming, and that hopefully next time, they would be a part of it. This little pumpkin came to school with new glasses today. They were so stinkin' cute, I had to take her picture. This same little darling said, while we were having cake and ice cream, "I'm so happy, I'm gonna explode!!"

Wow, today was one of those rare days that reminded me exactly why I chose this career. This is what EVERYDAY should be like. I'm not talking about the cake and ice cream. (Yeah, ok, part of me is...that would be the large jiggly part that follows the rest of me around....) I'm talking about the excitement and joy in the kids. Hell, in the teachers, too! It was just a great day overall. I surely could use a whole bunch more of these!!