Excitement!

Excitement! That’s the word for what’s happening at the Frankie Lemmon School. We’re excited to be back; we’re excited about our new teachers; we’re excited about making footprints!

Ms F. captured our feelings when she read from The Way I Feel. She taught us through her dramatic facial expressions and the book’s whimsical characters that emotions are a normal part of life—that it’s OK to be silly or scared or thankful—or even angry. It’s OK to be happy and it’s OK to be sad.

Then we swung into joy with Inside a Barn in the Country, a rousing melodrama led by the just-arrived Miss Paula. It is a cumulative tale in the style of "This Is the House That Jack Built." We each adopted a favorite character as we happily mimicked the clamorous noise of a cat who chases a mouse and—one-by-one—wakes up every animal in the barn, including a horse, a cow, a rooster, baby chicks, some sheep, a dog, a pig, some hens, and even a duck. They finally end up waking the farmer, too! All is chaos, reflected in the ping-pong-ball eyes of open-mouthed cartoon-like characters.

—After all that, we took a walk in the hall. You’ve heard the campers’ slogan: “Take Only Pictures, Leave Only Footprints.” Well, today I took the pictures while my friends left the footprints. They stepped barefooted onto Jumbo washable stamp pads and walked the length of a giant wall poster. Ms W. signed their footprints and hung the poster by the door for all to see. It was an altogether wonderful day!