Mystery Guest
When my sister asked me to be the mystery guest reader for my niece Julia's class last tuesday, I have to admit I was a bit nervous. She asked me to bring my guitar so we could sing her happy birthday after I read the book to the class, and that gave me enough confidence to overcome my fear of big words and public speaking. When we arrived at the school my nephew Gabriel was on the soccer field with his kindergarten class. I ran out on the field and stole the ball and he looked at me like I was an idiot... not the suprised reaction I was expecting.
After a quick visit to my niece Alex's class (the very same Alex from our song "Alex's House") we were off to read for Julia. I walked in the class and there were 20 kids sitting in the front of the room with their hands over their eyes. When she opened her eyes I got a much better reaction than I did on the soccer field. Because of that, I managed to overcome my doubt and read a book about a pidgeon who wanted a pet dog.
On the way out we stopped by Gabriel's class and I was asked to play a song. I froze. I couldn't think of anything and didn't know any Sponge Bob tunes. Luckily, we all knew "Puff the Magic Dragon". It rocked, and I thought we were done. When they asked for another song, panic began to set it. I thought "Old MacDonald" would be a quick fix, but soon realized that every student in the class had an animal to suggest for each verse. Eleven minutes and 20 animals later, we were done.
I felt really lucky to be able to make it up, considering the fact that I was only home for 48 hours between Halloween and Burlington. Below is a photo of Gabriel's class. See how intimidating those kids are?
-brendan
