Everyone in second grade got a chance to view the BOX - a big enough TP box of corregated cardboard decked out with labels: Handle with Care/ Caution, Fragile/ Breakable, and This side up. We all guessed and Mrs. G even pretended to lift it as if it were very heavy. It was empty, but the little guys didn't know that because they were told not to touch it.
On Monday, we all trooped out to the garden area in front of our rooms for the grand box opening. While we were inside taking care of morning business, our aide V slipped out and fetched Jose, a former second grader to be the imaginary pig. "Do I have to do this again? I did it last year!" Jose exclaimed. "Well, we could ask someone else," we said. "No! I'll do it." So we had a deal.
Jose crouched in wearing a pig mask, and we made haste to gather up the kids in a giant circle so they could all see. Then after a brief introduction, Jose popped out! Our second graders were amused, all laughing at the sight of a child dressed up like a pig hopping out of the crate. It was a sight to behold the teachable moment.
Even more touching was the vision of our former second graders, now in third, clustered at the window looking on at our impromptu assembly. All of them were lined up with their faces alight watching the new second graders. I looked back at them, and took in the image of education at its best.
It's not about test scores, skill drilling, or data. It's those small enthusiastic beings who just got to share a well crafted prank - the kind of street theatre that will always help them remember what it means to be curious, and to make a prediction
After we finished chuckling over the box, we all returned to class to read about Julius, the pig from Alaska who arrived in a box to become Angela's pet.
No one got stuck on the word "imitate" even though it's a mouthful. We read with a picture in our minds of what the story was about.
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