Today was Peace Day at Jake's school. Annie and I joined Jake for lunch at 10:45 (yes, that's right--we ate lunch at 10:45 in the morning), then spent the rest of the day following him and his class around. All the kids wore tie-dyed t-shirts and decorated doves (I mentioned these in a previous post). They got to try Native American dancing (which meant they ran around in a circle and screamed...I don't think that's what was originally intended). Then the day finished outside with Peace Day festivities.
Now when I say the day finished...I mean that we were outside for over 2 hours, sitting most of the time. I should have called this post "The Power of A Teacher's Finger," because it's amazing how quickly that many kids will shut up...just by a teacher raising one finger in the air and another to her lips. (After re-reading that, I see that it looks like I'm saying she flipped the kids off, but that's not what happened.)
The kids sang songs (and yes, Jake sang. It was adorable and I teared up.), made a "peace table" and a "peace rock garden." Yvonne Johnson spoke and was very good at being brief. In fact, her message was perfect for kids. She read The Peace Book, by Todd Parr (I really like him), then she went from class to class, asking them to define peace for her. The answers were great: friendship, happiness, feelng great... Jake told me that he thinks peace is helping people. That's good; I half-expected him to say peace is fighting swords or something...
The best part of the day was the peace march around the school's track. We were led around the track by A&T's drumline, which was awesome. Then after the march, very little fanfare was given to planting a tree for peace...but much more attention went to the freezer pops the students got at the end.
It was a hot, hot day, and I don't think any of us have recovered yet. Jake is back in his room, alternating between being grumpy and being asleep. Annie is fussy when she's not asleep. And hey, I'm fussy too. It looks like we'll all sleep well tonight.
And that in itself is enough peace for me.
(By the way, when one student's mother showed up in her police officer uniform, Jake said, "Madison's mommy is a policewoman. I wish you were a policewoman." Apparently, "Stay-At-Home-Mom" is not exciting enough to tell his friends...)
Now when I say the day finished...I mean that we were outside for over 2 hours, sitting most of the time. I should have called this post "The Power of A Teacher's Finger," because it's amazing how quickly that many kids will shut up...just by a teacher raising one finger in the air and another to her lips. (After re-reading that, I see that it looks like I'm saying she flipped the kids off, but that's not what happened.)
The kids sang songs (and yes, Jake sang. It was adorable and I teared up.), made a "peace table" and a "peace rock garden." Yvonne Johnson spoke and was very good at being brief. In fact, her message was perfect for kids. She read The Peace Book, by Todd Parr (I really like him), then she went from class to class, asking them to define peace for her. The answers were great: friendship, happiness, feelng great... Jake told me that he thinks peace is helping people. That's good; I half-expected him to say peace is fighting swords or something...
The best part of the day was the peace march around the school's track. We were led around the track by A&T's drumline, which was awesome. Then after the march, very little fanfare was given to planting a tree for peace...but much more attention went to the freezer pops the students got at the end.
It was a hot, hot day, and I don't think any of us have recovered yet. Jake is back in his room, alternating between being grumpy and being asleep. Annie is fussy when she's not asleep. And hey, I'm fussy too. It looks like we'll all sleep well tonight.
And that in itself is enough peace for me.
(By the way, when one student's mother showed up in her police officer uniform, Jake said, "Madison's mommy is a policewoman. I wish you were a policewoman." Apparently, "Stay-At-Home-Mom" is not exciting enough to tell his friends...)
3 Comments:
How cool! They never do anything for Peace Day at Sweet Pea's school :-( Sounds like a very fun day though. Its funny how one day I am a great hero because Sweet Pea says "But Lily's mom has to work and makes her go to day care all day" then the next day I'm "just a mom". Atleast I know I'm not the only one who gets this though.
Jake's school is so cool. H has lunch at 10:40 a.m too. No wonder she is so hungry by the time she gets out. H tells me I need to get a job all the time, but she just wants to be a bus rider :)
That sounds like an impressive Peace Day! Glad you all had fun and I would have been tired too! Trinity always says my job is to take care of her sister.
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