Dressing for the job

I am sure my Tuesday Book Group noticed I nearly always have the same outfit on: jeans and a white cotton shirt. When I go to Kaiser School(on Tuesdays) to work with the First Graders, I am prepared for what ever we will do.  If they paint, do paper mache, use markers, whatever, my clothes will survive.  White cotton can be bleached and you can't hurt denim.  Teaching elementary school is dirty work. I am not real sure how my clothes survived in my early years teaching.  I wore suits or dresses, stockings and heels.  That was the dress code.

Back to now.  If I wore colored shirts the markers would not come out.  And you ask how they get can get markers on me?  They hug me, pull on me for attention, they point with the markers and the markers seem to frequently touch me.  We once were making hand prints by placing hands in paint and then pressing their hands on paper.  One little girl grabbed me as I walked by, blue paint all over my shirt.  It came out in the wash.

So I was ready Tuesday for the paper mache globes.  They were still doing the layers on the balloon.  I hope I am there the day they paint them.

This is a few of the globes drying.

More globes drying. The magic ingredient to make paper mache is in front of them, starch.

Later in the morning I read a great book to the children. The Sissy Duckling is about being allowed to be different.  It shows everyone has a right to be themselves.  It is beautifully illustrated and very well written.  The book is longer than most books we read. I was afraid they might get restless. The children were locked into the book.  One little girl had to go to a different class in the middle of the book.  This happens often and the children don't seem to mind missing the book.  Well, she did not want to miss a word of the this book.  I promised when she came back I would read the rest of the book to her.  And I did.

There are lots of YouTube videos of the book.  But I think they are pirated, too short and voice quality poor.  The story began as an 51 minute animated movie.  Major actors voice it: Ed Asner, Estell Getty, Sharon Stone, Kathy Najimy to name a few.  I am going to track it down, maybe on HULU, and watch it.