(04/15/10) Stowe Elementary School (EFCE Program)

4/15/10 Outreach Visit to the Head Start and EFCE Program at Stowe Elementary School in Duluth, MN

We’re Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!After doing 14 programs for the K-5^th graders at Stowe in Jan. and Feb. of this year, a parent made a request to a teacher to have us come back to do our presentation with 3 classes of pre-schoolers in Head Start and EFCE.

We could not wait. Our past experience had been wonderful and the cafeteria food had been scrumptious. Besides it would be fun saying hi to all the kids we had met before.

Magic got her usual reserved parking spot for Kathi’s truck and the trailer, right in front of the school.

Even Janitor Dan welcomed us back. I apologized for all the tricks on him the last time and promised him no more. He said he had no worries about Magic and then gave Magic her very own door pass key so she could go in and out the school doors without setting off an alarm.

Even so Magic did cause quite a COMMOTION on her return as she walked the halls—- to the dismay of the teachers who were giving required basic skills tests that morning. Yep Magic IS responsible for the excitement and a bit of the lack of student concentration that morning. The students were VERY overjoyed at seeing Magic again. Teachers told us that students were still talking about Magic’s visit 3 months later.

The COMMOTION continued each time Kathi brought Magic into the building. As Kathi walked Magic through the school halls, kids who were taking a 5 minute break from testing waved excitedly at us and loudly yelled Magic’s name.

When we walked into the first classroom, we saw colorful horse pictures on the board. These were from the kindergarten teacher activity books Gramma Carole, Betty W., and I had just made up the weekend before. Other students, sitting at a table, were coloring other horse pictures. I sat down to chat a bit and complimented the kids on their choice of bright colors. They linked arms with me.

When I started my presentation in all 3 groups, the students really looked at the pictures of WindChill. They started asking questions right off the bat. They were very observant. They asked questioned about his halter, his leg wraps, the sling, his quilted jacket, etc.

One little girl in the first group got up from her seat 6 times coming up to me, pointing at WindChill’s picture on the screen, and telling me that WindChill was HER horse.

When Magic came in, Magic did her neck twisting act and yawned opening her mouth to show off her teeth. It is becoming a pattern now. The student’s reaction to that antic encourages her to do it again. She does it at least 4x each outreach. One boy remarked, “What big teeth you have!”

Magic was very sneezy today and her back leg itched. This endeared Magic even more to the students because it made every child laugh at her cute horse behavior.

The children showed Magic respect. They were very gentle with her. They kept their voices down.

One boy ran up to Kathi as she entered the room to check things out. He asked her all kinds of questions or made statements and all she kept saying was right. The same boy had come up to me and he asked so many question rapid fire, that you could not understand much. He did not wait for answers. He was just so excited to talk to visitors.

For the 2^nd presentation Kathi warned us that Magic was cranky. She was MAD at Trish. Trish had used Magic’s door pass. Magic was following Trish into the school. They both got inside the first set of doors but then Trish went ahead and closed the door. Magic thought she could just keep walking, following Trish, but her nose ran up against the door glass. Magic watched Trish as Trish kept on walking down the hall while Magic, herself was stuck in the outer hall. Magic gave Trish the evil stare. Kathi opened the door for Magic, but Magic was pouting. Kathi warned us Magic was crabby and might need a time out.

Funny how during this same presentation, a boy on the end was pouting too. In fact he turned sideways, crossed his arms, and contorted his face with pursed lips into a pout. (He wanted more stickers from Gramma Carole) Kathi told him “Nice pout-Magic’s pouting too.” He turned around to look at Magic and decided to be part of the group again.

Magic did need a bit of reminding about her job while in school. Gramma Carole gave her a little reminder and Magic was good for the third presentation.

Again the young children showed great awareness with what they said. When I told them that WindChill was in my heart, one boy said WindChill was in his heart too. Another girl said WindChill is in Magic’s heart too.

When I talk about how WindChill was too weak to stand so we had to use a sling, I also talked about one of the reasons was that he needed to stand to pee. When WindChill did pee, he peed all over his favorite blanket. One boy asked, “Why didn’t you use pull-ups on WindChill?”

The kids were curious how we give Magic a bath.

One little girl brought a plastic show horse. We all said how beautiful it was. Kathi said the same thing but added, “I think you have your saddle on backwards.”

Again these students handled WindChill’s death well. One boy talked about his grandpa dying 20 years ago. He said he is very very very dead and just a sack of bones now.

Once again the kitchen crew went all out for us. What great food and such a variety.

At lunch in the faculty room teachers said the older kids were talking about us. We told them we are grateful to the teachers of Stowe for being the first Duluth Public school to have us present and that they have done a good job of spreading the word about how great our program is.

After a great cafeteria lunch, we took a break outside. As parents, who were dropping off the afternoon students, who would be seeing our program, passed the trailer, they told us how excited the kids were. Magic talked whenever she heard her name adding to their excitement.

Parents held their kids up to look inside the trailer but all the kids could see was the cutest golden brown ears.

One boy would not leave the trailer. He wanted to wait until Magic came out. He just would not leave even with his mom’s constant urging. I told him that we could not bring Magic in until every student was in class. He ran to the door. His mom had a great big smile. The boy did not know that we still had a half hour before Magic was coming in.

Janitor Dan also stopped by the trailer later in the day, during his lunch break just to say hi to Magic and chat with us.

Kathi did let Magic out of her trailer for a while. She got to eat grass. Trish bought out her dog Murphy too. Murphy licked Magic’s nose. So as cars drove by, there was Magic tied to the school fence eating grass as fast a she could and Murphy lying down on the sidewalk by her. What a sight! What a distraction!

Kathi had to wipe Magic’s lips before going in for the last presentation. They were all green.

The teachers were very pleased with what we did in their classrooms. The teachers said we were so passionate about what we do. They complimented us on how we use the children’s’ names when we talk to them. We make it personal. We connect with them.

After the last presentation, the teacher from the morning presentation came up to tell us how she had put the pictures she took of the students with Magic up on the smart board for the kids to see. The kids were delighted. In fact she asked, “Will you be doing this next year. I sure would like you back. “