I didn’t know Friday (April 22, 2011) was Earth Day.  If it weren’t for this week’s kindergarten class, I probably wouldn’t have known until I saw Google’s earthy logo that day.   When I was in school, I remember briefly talking about Earth Day, and I think my class planted a tree in celebration.  But the kindergarteners are celebrating all week long, and began by learning about “going green.”

That being said, they already knew a fair amount about the eco-friendly way of life.  A few students pretty clearly articulated the purpose of “going green” was to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  Anne Marie explained how a compost pile worked.  Mynique described the recycling process (“you give them your old paper and they turn it into new paper again”).  Everyone could point to the recycling bin at the front of the classroom.  All in all, I was really impressed with how environmentally conscious all of the kids were.

Together we learned about other ways to protect the environment by reading Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli.  One idea that Miss Fox had that I thought was particularly clever was a “toy swap:” each of her students brought an old toy or game that he or she was tired of and switched it with a classmate so each student ended up with a new toy without actually buying a new toy.  When I was in kindergarten I think I would have loved that idea (my friends always seemed to have more exciting toys than I did).  Indeed, the kids let out a collective “ooooh” when we read the few pages about the toy swap.  Future class project, anyone?  I think it would be a huge hit.

Whether it’s because of their parents, their teachers, or just a general change in culture, I’m pretty glad these little kids are aware of simple things to help the environment.  I certainly wasn’t aware of all this stuff when I was 6.  From writing on both sides of paper to bringing re-usable bags to the grocery store, everyone seemed to know the basics of living green.

“But I’ve already seen this!”

This week I sat down with the class to hear the teacher read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  A few kids seemed excited, but their squeals were drowned out with the groans from the others who already knew what happened in the story because of the movie.

Throughout the semester, this has happened before.  When celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday a few weeks ago, almost all of the kids said they had seen The Cat in the Hat, so they did not want to read the book. Same for Where the Wild Things Are.

As much as I love movies (especially children’s movies), as an English major I must admit my dismay that these kids seem completely uninterested in a book if they have already seen the movie.  Books are a great source of entertainment and a way for young kids to expand their imaginations while learning at the same time.

For example, one of the (fantastic) illustrations in the book had an enormous pancake flopped on top of a house.  Laughter erupted when the teacher turned the page around so we could see the picture.  She asked, “What would you do if a pancake this big landed on your house?”

Immediately, without any hesitation, a girl raised her hand and boldly stated, “EAT IT!”  Everyone laughed.  She said she liked pancakes so much she could eat the whole thing herself.  A little boy said his dad’s truck could tow it off of the house.  Another girl said she would find a giant to eat the pancake.

This kind of interaction, discussion, and creativity is simply not possible if you’re watching a movie in a crowded, dark movie theatre.  The movie experience is more passive (although arguably more visually stimulating), while reading a book with a group of friends is a lot more stimulating.

In the end, even the kids who had “already seen it” enjoyed reading the story.  Everyone liked looking and talking about the details in the pictures.  After a few pages, everyone stopped saying they knew what was going to happen and listened in with full attention.  I’m glad that even with all the action a movie can provide, the students are still capable of being captivated by a good old-fashioned story reading.

One of my favorite things about six-year-olds is how easily you can see pride and joy on their faces.  This week, the most suave kindergartener I’ve ever met, David, came running up to me when he returned to the classroom from SmartZone.  The kids usually race towards their backpacks to get their snacks at this time, but David grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the corner of the classroom with all of the books.  “Can I read you a book?” he asked excitedly.  His teacher told me he had been waiting all week to show me how he can read the entire book by himself.

With each completed page and sentence, David’s smile grew bigger and bigger.  He stumbled over a few words (he seemed to mix up “here” and “with,” but he figured it out towards the end), but it was amazing to see his little finger run under each word on the page and hear him slowly sound out each letter on unfamiliar words.

At the end of the book, I asked him if he knew how many pages were in the book he just finished.  He proudly said, “fourteen pages” with a huge grin on his face.  He didn’t even have to look at the page number.  I was so happy for him to have reached this milestone, and you could just see on his face that he was too.

On a slightly unrelated note, a lot of the students were sick this week.  I think allergy season is starting, or maybe there was a cold going around the class.  Regardless, I was thrilled to see that each time after students blew their noses and threw away the tissues, they slabbed on a big gob of hand sanitizer that was strategically located next to the trash can.  They also sneeze into their elbows.  As a semi-neurotic germaphobe just recently recovered from a bad cold, it pleased me to no end to see this hygienic behavior coming from such young kids.