Alex Visits Penn View

Mrs. Quirk teaches one of our kindergarten classes.  One recent sunny afternoon, she brought a family friend to meet some of the children.

Alex is a 20 year-old blue and gold macaw.  Mrs. Quirk and her husband 
purchased Alex when they first got married about two decades ago.  In fact, she and her husband consider Alex to be their first “child.”  Before having their featherless children, Mrs. Quirk was a 3^rd grade teacher at Penn View.  Every Friday, Alex would accompany her to school and help “teach” the class.  His favorite part of the day was sharing healthy snacks with the students.  The photo to the right is from the 1996 school yearbook. There's Alex on the faculty page, flashing his best grin with Mrs. Quirk on school photo day. 

Alex loves to have his back scratched....

Third grader, Abigail Quirk is seen here introducing her feathered brother to her classmates.  The students watched him crack and eat a walnut (one of his very favorite snacks).  He is not a tidy eater.  It looked for all the world like someone had been sawing wood under his feet when he was finished with that nut. 

He was pretty excited about his visit and was fluffing up his feathers accordingly.

This colorful bird has some words.  He says: “up”, “hello”, “cracker”, “Hi Al!”, “Alex want a….” and “Jordan.”  Seventh grader Jordan is the Quirk’s eldest feather-free child and he takes responsibility for a lot of Alex's care. This type of bird originates in the rainforest so the bird thinks showers are simply fabulous!  Alex loves the opportunity to join his family members under the shower spray, gleefully wiggling his tail-feathers in approval. 

Alex showing off his "Eagle Pose"

Some of Alex’s tricks include spreading his wings like an eagle, turning on and off the light switch, playing with his three play-gyms, posing like an eagle, being held upside down like an infant by his family members (they call it rocking the baby), and holding a spoonful of peanut butter for snacking.  Alex eats dinner at the table with the rest of the family and like many 20 year olds, his favorite supper is pizza.  Mrs. Quirk freely admits that Alex is VERY spoiled.

Alex met with some kindergartners, third graders, and seventh graders during his recent visit.  When I came out to snap photos, the third grade class was already outside the front doors adoring some furry little Detweiler kittens.  Mrs. Quirk opted to keep Alex well within the foyer until they were finished with the kittens because a cat is the animal most likely to cause Alex to display his ear-piercing scream.  Deer and rabbits in the Quirk yard have a similar (though less deafening) effect. 

Jody Detweiler with a basket of kittens!

I suspect a roomful of kindergartners who are excited about meeting a fabulous bird can muster a similar volume.

Mrs. Quirk with her current kindergartners.  You will note that Alex's belly is not the telltale gold in this photo.
That's because a stuffed version of Alex posed for the photo.  

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Penn View’s most senior class filed into Mrs. Baker’s classroom during fourth period and noted the construction materials awaiting them.  “We’re building it today, aren’t we?” 

With only sixteen days left in their school year, a construction project was imminent.  8^th grade Bible students participate in hands-on learning via the construction of a temporary structure called a sukkot.  These wood and cloth dwellings are built during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles to celebrate God’s protection and provision.  Fruits are generously hung in sukkots to signify thankfulness for an abundant harvest.  

Jewish families actually live in their sukkots for the first seven days of the feast. To my knowledge, all of our students slept at home.

Mrs. Baker began her instructions with a sensible caution.  Pointing to one of the many sprinklers dotting the ceiling of her over-sized classroom, she directed their attention upward:  “See this?  If that gets broken, water will come out of the ceiling.”  

You see, there were to be large pieces of precut lumber and many long sticks involved in the construction process.  At the hands of teenage builders, there is lots of room for mishap.  Their teacher spoke with conviction, like a woman who may have already experienced dousing by sprinkler.  But no.  Her words were inspiring and sure.  “This has NEVER happened and it IS NOT going to happen today.”  She proceeded to tell them in excruciating detail how to carry the sticks with a partner to avoid inadvertent sprinkler activation.  This had nothing to do with the weight of the sticks as all of the students were fully capable of lifting a stick; this was all about staying dry.

More instructions followed.  It all started out with official-sounding terminology.  “There are four hinged sections, a hole, and a pin….” But soon... (though she still had firm command of the room and an extremely organized building plan) her vocabulary for construction items began to endearingly deteriorate into descriptors like “hardware gizmo” and “knobby thing.” 

I must admit, my sisterly love for her grew by leaps and bounds during her uncharacteristically vulnerable moment of creative hardware identification.

She described the tasks at hand.  Students could choose to help build the sukkot or they could begin creating paper chains and fruit which would hang on the finished product.  

I’d like to believe girls can wield jackhammers and boys enjoy embroidery with the best of them, but pretty much all the boys headed for the construction zone while the girls gathered around the box of construction paper to imagine what beautiful produce might be formed.  

“Am I the only boy here?,” asked Ben, who is obviously secure in his masculinity and otherwise astute enough to know that being the only guy cutting out fruit in a circle of girls beats lifting wooden beams any day of the week.  You go, Ben!

Like the conductor of a great orchestra, Mrs. Baker used voice and gesture to direct the constant flow of activity surrounding the emerging sukkot. 

Four of the tallest boys were stationed on the corners of the newly erected frame.  The boys received roofing sticks which were passed by not one but TWO students, just as Mrs. Baker requested.  

“You boys are being very careful.  Thank you....”

Once the sticks were in place, the construction workers were sent back with the others to make some fruit and vegetables on strings.

 

Addison seems to be enjoying himself!

The cloth coverings, finished chains, and colorful produce were placed during 6^th period when a second 8^th grade class was in session.

 

Chain Gang

Mrs. Baker always goes above and beyond to make sure her students learn the material at hand. The last time I saw someone hauling this many chains it was Scrooge's partner Marley in a Dickens' Christmas classic.

Penn View's completed sukkot is a sight to behold.  The stick roof is in place, cloth walls are stretched across the frame, and produce is hanging from the rafters!  It looks surprisingly cozy, making me want to go home, grab some fruit, and build a blanket dwelling of my own.  

This wonderful tradition associated with the Feast of Tabernacles will be a great memory for our students for years to come.  And thanks to early and wise admonition, our sprinkler system remains wonderfully intact.

IT’S RAINING WORDS

Windows are not necessary when there is heavy rain falling on Penn View Christian School.  Without looking outside, everyone in the building knows exactly what is going on. The hammering sounds on our metal roof soothe some and cause distraction to others as the sky waters our little patch of academic paradise.

Artist: Felicia Cappiello

         

Felicia captured the meteorological conditions beautifully when completing a recent fourth grade assignment. The students were asked to write and illustrate three poems in their newly formed green paper booklets.  

“Rain Falls.  Pattering loudly on the windowsill.  Powerful in a thunderstorm.  Peaceful as it calms down until it’s silent where it can’t be heard. The clouds in the sky are grey.  As grey as rock. BOOM CRASH BOOM shouts the thunder.  I hide under my blanket cover.”

Simon’s front cover grabbed my immediate attention. 

A handsome yellow duck with a “quack as loud as a car horn” was “swimming through the stream” of Trinity’s imagination and along the pages of her poetry book.

This group of talented elementary poets includes Celeste with her interpretation of a morning breeze.  “Morning breeze, hushes the stars, talking to birds, singing sweetly to the moon, gently breathing on the trees, blowing on flowers and waking up the sun.”

Lydia and Celeste

Jonas formed an intimidating antagonist when he penned his poem about the "splash and slam" of a malevolent Tsunami.

Lydia convincingly assigned body parts and the wonderful anticipation of home and adventure to a simple red shoe.

"The shoe. Wraps its arms in the shape of a bow. Thumping hard on the sidewalk. Coming home. Waiting to run down the sidewalk again.”

What a lot of fun to peruse poetry generated by the delightfully active imaginations in Mrs. Roth’s fourth grade classroom.  

WOBBLY TEETH

There are a lot of loose teeth at Penn View Christian School! For some reason, children love to save their wiggly teeth for the school nurse. 

Maybe it’s the thrill of leaving class with a wiggler and returning moments later carrying one of those rattling, sought-after white plastic tooth chests.  (Little containers all much more appealing because we purchase the ones fabulously shaped like a molar). 

The students emerge from my office with fresh gratified smiles; flashing their classmates dazzling grins as they show off those gummy spaces now perfect for sucking spaghetti strands.

Some children have managed to save impossibly loose teeth over long weekends, arriving first-thing Monday morning with those shiny pearls literally hanging by a thread. When I say loose, I’m talking seriously loose.  As in, when some of these children breathe, their tiny teeth nod and sway with each breath! 

Requests for removal of unwanted baby teeth are not, apparently, even limited to school hours.

 Over the last fourteen years I have been compelled to pull teeth under the dining tent at the Country Auction, in the dairy aisle at Landis Supermarket, in the cheering section at a soccer game at Christopher Dock High School, and in the foyer at Blooming Glen Mennonite Church. 

It’s a lot of time spent in small mouths for a woman who never considered a career in dentistry!