Mrs. Sparks 4th grade class was the second visit of the day!
It was pouring rain out and while I was waiting for the car I was stopped for more autograph signing, but I didn't mind one bit! :)
One last hug before heading home to reality and more homework for me!
A paraprofessional pulled me into this classroom to start signing autographs and I was not assigned to be in there! Very funny!
Waiting to go into the second classroom to read!
The first group, Mrs. Barrett's class, were great listeners! They did not expect a titleholder wearing a crown to be their mystery guest reader of the day! I wish you could have seen their faces! Their jaws hit the floor! That is the influence of the crown thing again! They were not shy and asked me all kinds of questions from my reading habits to pageantry and everything in between! One little girl asked me to sing my talent song! I must admit I try to always be prepared for anything that may come my way, but honestly, no one has ever asked me to sing before and I was quite surprised! I think it went pretty well considering they didn't have a cd player so I sang it accapella and they warmly applauded when I finished! Now they all want to come to Miss Michigan to hear it with the background music and see me in the costume! I would love that! :)
The second class, Mrs. Spark's students, were all dressed in their 'Friday Pajama Day' pj's!! I felt very overdressed and would have loved to read to them while wearing my own pj's! Afterall, that is the only time I get to read for pleasure these days is right before I go to sleep at night! The teacher's choice of book was called Westindia. This was a new book to me and the topic was about bullying and how the character of the story would not let them influence him and he stayed true to himself and would not conform to the bullies or what they wanted! What a great message for our youth today with bullying at the forefront of our daily news.
Once again, I shared with both groups the importance of reading just to get by in daily life. I told them about my college studies and the two jobs I hold that require lots of reading. I told them that 'if you cnnot read then life will be difficult.' I explained my own reading difficulties as a child. In fact, when I was reading 'Westindia' to them I got hung up on a word and I had to stop and sound it out! What a perfect example that reading takes constant attention and requires different skill levels for different books. Even as an adult we will learn new words and we should never be embarrassed to ask for help if we need it!
I also learned that school is very different from just a few years ago when I was in the fourth grade. I was not allowed to take any pictures of the children in Mrs. Morley's class because some parents had requested their child not be photographed. I understand completely that children must come first and be protected when necessary. So I apologize to my readers that all photos are from the back of the classroom. I hope you understand. :)
