Hello- A quick note on Valentine’s Day at school. Like other holidays, we will not be celebrating here at Park West. So, please do not bring any cards, treats, etc.. Thank you all so much!
Last week we began reading the book, “One Morning in Maine '' by Robert McCloskey at story time. It’s a pretty long book for our morning class. A whole 64 pages! And it’s riveting, so it has been taking a long time to get through due to all the conversations that have ensued. Reading books with preschoolers offers such a unique and safe experience to explore difficult topics. It’s a space to explore and express emotions which can strengthen children’s emotional competence. ”One Morning in Maine” is the story of Sal and her family who live on a small island off the coast of Maine. She has a baby sister named Jane and a mother and a father. One morning Sal wakes up and has a wiggly tooth! She is worried that this will prevent her from going to Buck’s Harbor with her father, but her mother reassures her that not only will it not prevent her from going on the trip, but it means that she is starting to grow up. As you can imagine, this is a wondrous and worrisome topic for our morning kids. Conversations bloomed at story time.
“My sister lost a tooth.”
“Is she a teenager?”
“Yes, she is 6!”
“Does it hurt to lose a tooth?”
“I don’t want to lose my tooth.”
“I have baby teeth but I am not a baby.”
“Big teeth grow in!”
Sal gets ready and walks down to the shore to help her father dig for clams. On the way, she observes a fish hawk, a seal and a loon. She tells them all about her loose tooth and wonders if they have teeth to lose too. When she gets to her father, he is knee deep in mud, searching for clams.
“What’s a clam?” someone asks.
“It’s a sea creature.”
“It’s an animal.”
“It’s like a seashell.”
“It doesn’t have legs.”
“It can maybe swim.”
“Maybe it can fly if it doesn’t have legs.”
“You can not eat it!”
Sal begins to help her father in the mud, when all of a sudden, her tooth falls out. Sal and her father search but to no avail. On the way back to the house, Sal finds a fish hawk feather and decides that it was left for her because she lost her tooth.
The next day at school, teachers gathered clam shells from Park West’s beautiful seashell collection and placed them on trays for children to discover along with some Floam to play with.
“Is this a clam?”
“It’s smooth inside.”
“I can fill it up.”
“It’s just a shell so it’s not an animal.”
“Did it use to swim?
“It’s dead.”
“You can not eat it.”
The story continues on with Sal, her sister and her father getting in the motor boat (!) to go to Buck’s Harbor.
“I don’t take a boat to go get food!”
“I go to the store in my car.”
“I never go to the grocery store.”
“I only drive to Marianos.”
On the way, the motor stops working, and Sal’s father has to row the rest of the way. Once in Buck’s Harbor, the first stop is to pick up a new spark plug for the boat’s motor. Then they go to the town store for groceries and Sal and her sister get ice cream cones. They drive the boat back home to their island and look forward to..”Clam chowder for lunch!”
Teachers did not plan on reading this book over a two week period. However, morning kids had another plan which ended up creating an incredibly rich experience for us all.
