February 28, 2012
“I would be a mermaid,” says Makiah. That’s what she answered when I asked the preschool class to fill in the blank: If I were a fish___________________________. We were making a class book to go along with our story of the week, Dr. Seuss’ One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. They had to fill in the blank and then illustrate their page. I got everyone started and then took a moment to enjoy my granddaughter. Kiah was swishing big purple strokes along her paper, a mermaid’s tail in the water. Long after the others had finished and drifted away to listen to Grandma Donna reading a story in the library, Kiah was still adding details to her underwater world. When I place the pages in the finished book tomorrow, there will be a pink fish blowing blue bubbles, a fish playing basketball, a girl and her brother pretending to be fish, and one beautiful purple mermaid. How can your day be bad when you get to read the incomparable creativity of Dr. Seuss aloud and giggle with along with your wiggly audience, and then watch them transform their young energy into creativity of their own?
