It Started with a Story...
by Sarah Kern
In our Winter Room, the toddlers have their own senior reader, Grandma Rita, who comes to read every Tuesday. Since the toddlers are only here two mornings a week and don't go upstairs, they have less time with the grandmas and grandpas than other All Seasons students. As a teacher, I wondered: How can I make this time shared with Grandma Rita meaningful to the children, meaningful to us as teachers, and meaningful to Grandma Rita?With an open mind, I began the year with special attention given to introductions between Rita and the children. They attended well to her story as she read, and she seemed to find them cute. I was left feeling optimistic, but still unsure about just what threads I could pull out of fifteen minutes each week.The next week, the simple act of giving sparked something for us. Grandma Rita brought us If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. She read it to us, and we had a brief discussion about our favorite cookies. Grandma Rita told us her favorite cookies were peanut butter blossoms. After school that day, I decided we should make Grandma Rita her favorite cookie for Christmas. Better yet, we would make Grandma Rita her favorite cookie next week!Since we are a peanut free school, peanut butter blossoms were off the table, but we remembered Rita saying she also liked ginger cookies. Ginger cookies it was! At best it was ambitious, at worst insane, to make a batch of ginger cookies with nine eager toddlers, but there I found myself telling them how much flour to add and making sure they put in just the right amount of ginger.When it came time to present Grandma Rita with cookies, I told her, “Your gift sparked something special in our room.” “Really!?” she replied with surprise. Her face was priceless as the children surrounded her to give her the cookies. She was incredibly gracious.
The next week, Grandma Rita reported how delicious they were and that she had even shared them with her friend, Betty.Was it the cute mouse character that drew the children to the book and to Grandma Rita? Was it the shared delight in talking about our favorite cookies (who doesn't love cookies?)? Was it the joy of baking and eating cookies? I can’t say for sure. All I know is that there was something special in the act of giving those cookies to Grandma Rita, a little spark that connected us all together. And I think it’s going to grow. Last week we gave Grandma Rita pumpkin bread.