Crazy!

Since I work in a preschool, I get to participate in all sorts of interesting activities.  This week's classroom theme was Wacky Week, culminating in today's Wacky Day.  All of the planned activities were slightly skewed in some way.

Everyone (children as well as adults) was instructed to dress crazy.  I gave a lot of thought to my outfit. Because I spend a lot of time sitting on the floor and running after energetic children, any type of skirt or dress was out, as was anything too dangly or hanging.  I ended up wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and red elastic Christmas suspenders. ( I was going to wear Christmas socks, too, but when I put them on I realized they were way too warm for mid-May, so I opted for regular ones.)  It was fun to see how everyone was dressed as they came into the classroom.  Several students wore pajamas, a couple had mismatched shoes or socks, and one of the girls put temporary dye in her hair and styled it into three ponytails.  The adults were equally interesting.  The lead teacher wore a bathrobe, scarf, and sun visor, the high school volunteer had on flannel pajama pants, and one of the therapists rolled up one leg of her pants and turned her shirt inside out.  The teacher had a supply of wild hats and scarves for anyone who forgot about the special day.

In the morning I got to supervise the students as they "painted" with food.  I cut an orange, apple, green pepper, ear of corn and celery stalk in half, poured tempera on paper plates and used the food as stamps.  The pictures turned out well, and everyone enjoyed doing them.

After lunch, I helped them made toasted cheese sandwiches with an iron.  Each child cut a piece of bread in half (some wanted rectangles, some triangles) and placed a piece of cheese between the layers.  We wrapped the whole thing in foil, set a hot iron on top and counted to 30, then turned the packet over and repeated the ironing process.  The sandwich wasn't really toasted, but it was warm and the cheese was melted.  Again, I didn't hear any complaints.

At the end of the day I cleaned up.  I turned off the iron, packed up the sandwich ingredients, and put the fruits and vegetables in a bag.  Rather than throw them out, I brought them home and put them in my compost pile.  I don't think that's wacky, but smart.