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Sheila Sims Iding
This weekend I spent the day in Care Corner packing away March. All the fun things we had and did for March is Reading Month is carefully packed away until next year's Care Corner Kids will celebrate this special month.
I packed away Dr. Seuss and THE Cat and Things 1 and 2. I packed away Patricia Polacco, the Michigan author, and her rich family stories. I packed away Eric Carle and the simplicity of his words and the sophistication of his colorful art. And I packed away Mo Willems and the Pigeon and Piggie and Gerald and those fun books full of talk bubbles and LOUD words.
Today, on this last day of March, we had a Reading Party and we gave them a book and a bookmark. Tomorrow they will get their Reading Portfolios as reading balloons, colorful stars, funny stories and book reports come home. They will get their certificates for all the reading they did for the Pizza Hut Book It program. And March Is Reading month will be over and those “reading celebration” treasures will be theirs to keep.
As each book is returned to the shelf, each activity filed away and each stuffed animal back in their storage box; I realize I will not have to pack away the memories that go with this month of celebrating reading.
I will keep the memory of Dr. Seuss week and sharing his books with our reading buddies.
I will keep the memory of Patricia Polacco's "Thank You, Mr. Falker" and how students begin to understand the special bond a teacher can have with a student…and a student can have it right back.
I will keep the memory of finger painting stars after we read Eric Carle's "Draw Me A Star".
I will keep the memory of learning how to draw Mo Willems’ Pigeon and writing our own Pigeon stories.
I will keep the memory of a mother's email thanking me that her child is reading chapter books now.
I will keep the memory of the student who didn't like pizza until he got his Pizza Hut Book It certificate. Now he loves pizza...and reading...more than ever.
I will keep the memory of how much they love (and begged for) D.E.A.R. time, how they shared books with their pen pals, and how they earned SO MANY reading coupons for the school contest.
And mostly, I will keep the memory of how they fell in love with new characters, new authors and...more importantly...how they fell in love with reading.
Tomorrow we will be immersed in April and poetry, Holy Week, Easter, Earth Day and all that April brings. Tomorrow March will be fully gone.
Yes...the books, activities and storybook characters will be packed away but the memories will not be in a box or on shelf. I will tuck those special memories in my teacher heart to hang on to as I say Goodbye, March.