Read–With-Me At HGS

Location: House Of The Good Shepherd

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2015; 6:30-7:45 pm

As with most of my recent Chicago Cares projects, I had not been here for a long time.  After the usual walk from the train station I arrived at the site and went inside where Emily, who was the Volunteer leader, passed me the volunteer waiver sheet.  It was her first time leading and so I was pleased to see that she was doing the right thing in terms of the process.  I saw that some of the regulars had signed up, such as Fran and Marvin.  In fact everyone who had signed up seemed to be a veteran here.  This always helps at this place where above everything else, the kids require continuity.

We went downstairs and several kids had already assembled.  They wanted to help carry the books from the cupboard to the table, no matter that those crates are heavy.  The managed to get it up to the table but being short in height, couldn't get it all the way up.  Emily got all of us to stand in a circle for introductions and to state our favorite thing about spring.  People said things like the “warmth from the sun” and “playtime”, to “March Madness”.  I said that I liked the fact that it was going to get green outside.  Fran said it was the flowers as did one girl.  But the best response was by another little girl who said spring allowed her to wear pretty colorful dresses.  I said to Fran that there really was no contest after that answer.

One of his favorites

Emily asked the kids to pair up with the volunteers and Fran went with the little girl who had commented on the dress.  I asked a little boy if he wanted to read with me and he said sure.  We went to pick a book and he chose something on Farm animals.  It was like a pop-up book, but with movable pictures on a wheel.  The kid was very competent in his reading, and we were having fun with the book.  Once we were done with this one, he said that he wanted to read something called "Magic Tree House" books.  He seemed quite familiar with them and told me that they were about a boy and a girl and their adventures. We picked 2 from the series - one with a Mummy in a pyramid and another with a volcano.  He was excited about this series and kept telling me how he had enjoyed the one with a Gorilla.  I asked him to tell me the story but he kept going on about the volcano.  The 2 characters in the story always found themselves being transported to places in history through well…a magic tree house, and it was a fun thing to read for the kids.

We moved to the next book which asked the age old question, “Why did the Chicken cross the road”, which he said that he had read before, but was excited to read again.  It was a bunch of scenarios on why the Chicken would cross the road.  Some of the things in the book were a bit dark, with an oncoming car about to run over the Chicken and a section where many people, animals including Dinosaur were crossing a road, with the Dinosaur about to eat the Chicken.  But there were some funny areas as well, such as a city street with various Chicken, little Chicks and Chicken with eggs in strollers, as well as Chicken delivering pizza and some others shopping. And then there was a section with “Zombie Chicken” on Mars!  I don’t know if the question had been answered, but there sure was a lot of activity with Chicken in this one.

I asked him about his favorite animal and he said Dragon.  I said I hadn’t seen one and he said  that was because they lived millions of years ago.  I asked who would win between Dinosaur and Dragon and that got him thinking, while I pointed out that Dragons did have fire and could fly.  As we were debating this, Emily said it was time for an ‘Arts & Crafts’ activity.  We were making Butterflies using colored tissue paper and pipe cleaners.  Two different colored tissue papers were to be folded like an accordion and then tied with the pipe cleaner. Once the paper was spread open, it did indeed look like a butterfly.  My kid started cutting the 2 sheets of paper to make them of precise size and had to throw away a few.  I said that I would help him make one and we picked green and orange colored paper.  Since we were using twice as bigger paper, our Butterfly was huge and I said it looked like a mutant!  We made its antenna using pipe cleaner and the eyes using puff balls. 

He said that he wanted to make one for his mom and after the giant Butterfly that we had made, I used smaller paper to make this one.  Fran and her girl had made a beautiful Butterfly, which wasn’t surprising considering that the girl was artistically oriented.  Another kid had made two Butterflies and was flying them about, including over my ear.  He had even named them after his sisters, which I found to be incredibly sweet.  Our time was almost up and mom’s came to collect their kids.  My boy left with his mom and I told her that he had made the Butterfly for her.  Emily said that since all of us were regulars here, there was no need for her closing spiel.  Though I still don’t know why the Chicken crossed the road, it had still been a productive evening.