(03/31/10) Lincoln Piedmont Elementary School (Duluth, MN)

3/31/10 Outreach Visit to Lincoln Piedmont Elementary School in Duluth, MN

“This program was so darn good, it knocked the socks off me.” said the Director of the School Reading Readiness Program.

Well the great manners, good listening skills, and attentiveness of those 2 groups of 4 and 5 year olds completely fooled all of us too, including their teacher.

What a day for WindChill, Magic, and the young students at Lincoln Piedmont. It was the first time these kids sat in chairs to hear a presentation. (They are usually on the floor.) The teacher was so surprised how nicely the morning group sat throughout the presentation and Magic’s visit. (45 minutes). As Polly said, “No one left their seats.” Kathi could not believe how mannerly and quiet these kids were.

The teacher said not to expect her afternoon group to be so cooperative. She said I might want to cut my presentation short. SHE WAS WRONG!!!! Again, it was the first time these kids sat in chairs to hear a presentation. The teacher was so surprised, more like shocked, at how nicely the afternoon group sat throughout the presentation, answering questions. Kathi brought Magic in and again she was surprised at how orderly things were going. As Kathi said,” I couldn’t believe when I walked in with Magic things were so quiet. Not one student got off their chairs the whole time.”

Again the teacher was beaming during the whole second presentation as her students answered my questions. That was one proud teacher. She was beaming when Kathi told her these were the best behaved kids she ever saw.

In fact the teacher beamed a lot today.

I wondered if these 4 and 5 year olds were too young to get WindChill’s message and if a 12 minute, 11 slide power point presentation would get his message across effectively. I wondered if the kids could sit still long enough. Even the teacher wondered about that at the preplanning meeting. She placed her faith in us and she definitely was not disappointed. She loved our program. She said it brought out the best in her kids. She could not thank us enough. She said we had such great enthusiasm. She said the program was just the right length and the message came across loud and clear and it is so important that they hear it at this age. She said her students were so into it, adding their 2 cents worth. She hung on their every word.

In fact the teacher beamed even more.

It is such a joy to see the beaming smiling proud face of a teacher who took a risk that paid off and sees her students tackle a challenge with such finesse that she had not seen before.

The students handled WindChill’s passing well. There were a lot of dead fish stories. Again we are very careful about how we talk about that and how we encourage them to talk about a death of a pet.

Magic got her first thumbs up from the students and we have pictures to prove it. Instead of clapping, they gave us a thumbs up but then decided to clap too using their finger tips. They took it to heart when I said horses have very sensitive hearing and we need to keep our voices down.

In fact I have been known to get very excited and a bit loud and my voice goes to a higher register which bothers Magic. So I tell the kids how the team helps me lower my voice by using a hand signal. I demonstrated. Well the Legacy team was busy, but one of the students in the afternoon session, a girl dressed all in pink, DID THE HAND MOTION WHEN I WAS GETTING TOO LOUD. How cool is that! When the team was told about that, they all laughed and Kathi just beamed.

The room we were in had a big picture window. Of course teachers and students walking down the hall pressed their noses to the window. We saw so many faces do double takes, eyes big as saucers, and the look of DID I REALLY SEE WHAT I SAW?

Well it did not stop there. For the afternoon presentation, there were even more staff and students at the window. There was pandemonium outside the classroom. Word had spread. There was a deep line-up of students begging to come in. The teacher opened her door and told the students to go back to their classrooms and have their teachers contact her for information about a Legacy visit. The teacher then locked her door. I give her a lot of credit for doing that. She knew that her students were getting quality time and it was going so well that it would have taken away the Magical experience of what was taking place. Older students coming in would have ruined it.

The students, who are very short at this age, liked the fact that they were taller than Magic. They thought that was so cool. I asked them if they were scared of her…. No. The teacher said, “Magic just exudes trust.”

One boy had on a suit because it was his birthday. What a day for him to have a horse visit.

One boy looked up at the screen which had a picture of WindChill on it. He asked, “Is that Molly the Pony?”

Another student said Magic smelled like hay.

And the little girl dressed all in pink, even to her cowboy boots, who gave me the signal to lower my voice, happened to be wearing pink cowboy boots that flashed when she walked but she had them on the wrong feet.

Oh and the team pointed out under the alphabet letter H above the black board was the word horse spelled correctly, but then a student in the attempt to copy the word, left out some very important letters and the word looked very embarrassingly familiar to me.

Every student pressed Magic’s star for good luck. The teacher said it really worked for her.

When Magic first comes into the classroom, we go over certain rules to show our respect. I show the students how to position their hand to let Magic blow her hot breath on them. With the open palm she might think fingers are carrots. So I show all the kids how to present the back of their hand to Magic. It was so funny. When Kathi came in all the kids had both their hands out just as I showed them. Most kept their hands out like that until Magic came around. It looked so funny and they looked so stiff, but it showed they had listened.

Magic could feel the good vibes. She had to show off at both presentations. She has gotten into the habit of greeting the students by yawning, showing her teeth, grinning at them, and stretching her neck. The first time the kids see her do this they go ICK!!!!! They see her teeth. She does it 3 or 4 more times in a row. The kids just start laughing. She likes that.

In the afternoon she did a hearty head shaking sneeze too. The kids jumped a little. One girl said it scared her but she said it with a giggle. Something heavy fell in the classroom with a bang. All of us jumped but Magic did not even twitch. The teacher could not believe Magic is so laid back. She asked if all minis were like that. Kathi’s response was, “That is one of the things that makes her so special.”

She also pawed the floor when I was going over the rules. Kathi told the class Magic was counting. The kids and the teachers went AWE!!! while we laughed. I knew though that she was telling me to stop talking so she could go the students.

She also swished her tail REALLY BIG TIME for all to see. Kathi took her out to the trailer. Kathi came back in and told us Magic was fooling us. (A bit of April Fool’s Day early.)

One boy did not want to pet Magic and Magic sensed it. She instinctively knew to hurry on by him.

Again I have to thank Gramma Carole, Polly, and Kathi and Magic for the thrill of a lifetime. You really cannot believe how well it went or how much fun it is to hear what comes out of those kids’ mouths.

In fact Kathi’s heart was really touched as she was leading Magic into the school. A Spec. Ed girl who, with the speed of light, climbed out of the van she was riding in and ran over to Magic. She even grabbed Magic’s lead rope and said to her, “You are the best horse I have ever had. “ When she had to leave she told Magic, “See you tomorrow and we will go for a ride.” Kathi said the girl was convinced Magic was her horse.

A parent came in to thank us so much for doing this. She thought we were all heaven sent. (WindChill must have smiled at that remark.)

At lunch the teacher had told everyone how well it was going. Just 2 minutes before I started the last program, 1:28 to be exact, I get a phone call from a teacher in the same school calling for outreach information.

Also as we were leaving, a parent came running after Kathi and Magic. She asked Kathi if she and Magic could wait for a minute because a teacher wanted to see Magic. Kathi wisely asked, “Just the teacher? “ No was the answer. It was the teacher with her whole class. Kathi said she could not wait but to contact the Legacy and we would come to the teacher’s classroom with our whole program. Again we are about education not a horse and pony show.

Well as Kathi was walking Magic up to the trailer, the outreach students gathered out in the hallway and stood at the window to watch. One girl said, “I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, love you Magic.”. Then she blew Magic kisses.