I was already in the Christmas spirit after
showing our holiday "stuff" to the grandkids
and seeing their excitement. And the feeling
was only heightened by a joyous and touching
hour with pre-schoolers this morning.
The scene was the Southern Pines
campus of Watch Me Grow.
First order of business was to introduce
myself (Mr. Ken) and my sidekick Chipper.
I've never seen a more orderly bunch of
3, 4, and 5 year-olds. Chipper fit right in.
The children boisterously sang some songs
they had alread been working on:
Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jingle Bells,
and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Have you ever heard of a FROG that could
sing Christmas carols? Well, neither had they!
My expertise is not really with this age group,
but time with our grandkids has helped me get
acclimated. And the love of music is universal.
I never kept them seated for long. Every 2nd
or 3rd song involved movement and motions.
I know that sounds redundant, but there's a
world of difference between clapping your
hands and freeze dancing to Jingle Bell Rock.
You know Dasher and Dancer
and Prancer and Vixen;
Comet and Cupid and
Donder and Blitzen.
But do you recall - -
the most famous reindeer of all?
Well, actually, they had heard of Rudolph,
but only a couple knew the words. Just
wait till kindergarten, guys.
Well, well. Guess who has joined us by
this time. The TWO year-olds.
Then the ONE year-olds.
And their manners were every bit as good.
Miss Maryanne helps me teach some
lively motions for Jingle Bells.
Every time we needed a breather or change-
of-pace, I pulled out Froggy to see what
he would sing next. Every time his mouth
moves one note comes out, so it takes a
few notes to figure out the tunes.
"Hey, Mr. Ken, where'd this leg come from?"
I burned a lot of calories singing "Shake,
Shake, Shake Your Sillies Out." Not a
Christmas song, but it was great. We
shook, clapped, jumped, yawned, and
stretched our sillies, crazies, jiggles,
sleepies, and stretchies out.
(Not to mention wiggling our waggles away.)
((Does anyone besides Amanda know this song?))
The lovely teacher assistant in the center
blessed us all by singing O Holy Night.
And these wonderful children were as
attentive and respectful as churchmice.
Oops. With all the happiness all around,
I hope one of the teachers noticed the
one unhappy little elf. I certainly didn't.
For freeze-dancing I simply played my
keyboard's jazzy demo recording. I hooked
up my foot pedal so that it acted as an
on-off switch and my hands were free.
During freeze dancing a rainbow of
action was going on, but the friendship
of the little boy in blue made my day.
His partner was from the one year-olds.
I thought participation was at a very
high level. I hope these children always
embrace music in their lives.
Froggy is a chick magnet. By now, we
all knew that he only knows three songs.
But really GOOD songs!
The sweetheart in the denim dress had
conked out before we were done, but
all the rest were still going strong. One
of my strengths as a teacher was always
to get kids stirred up and animated,
then turn them over to someone else.
A tremendously big shout-out is in order for
Miss Maryanne's class for inviting me!
Okay, so much for the formal picture.
Now for the laidback version.
When all was said and done, two special
helpers of Santa's took care of Chipper
and Froggy for me while I loaded up.
My car was a good 75 yards away, but
the children kept waving and calling to
me as I loaded, right up till I pulled away:
Hey Mr. Ken!! See ya next time!!
And I heard him exclaim,
ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all
and to all a good night!"
No comments:
Post a Comment