Thursday, January 29, 2015

Peacock

What does a peacock say?

"HELP! HELP!"  It scares the bejeezies out of you if you aren't expecting it.  You'll think someone is in real trouble, then you'll see a peacock strutting around.

I have the funniest peacock story... 

It makes me smile just thinking about it.

I have the cutest little project that is fun to do in my classroom each year at Thanksgiving. It starts with Readers' Digests.  The kids fold the first page a certain way then repeat that fold for every page after that. We spray paint that part brown and it becomes the turkey's body.  Next they create a big pretty tail to glue on the back and stick a head in between the pages.  It makes an adorable Thanksgiving Turkey.  

That's not the funny part.


A few of years ago I had a little girl whose family didn't celebrate holidays.  I wanted to have the kids do the project, but I didn't want to leave that student out, so... I had the bright idea to buy a can of blue spray paint!  I didn't want her to miss out or necessarily stand out as different, so I offered the option to the class... assuming a kid or two would join in with the alternative... 

"Guys, we're going to decorate our end of the hall for the special visitors who are coming next week. (I don't remember who or why... I  think it was the superintendent and some special team from somewhere.) You can make a Thanksgiving Turkey for our display then you can take yours home; it will be a great decoration for your holiday table.  Or, if you want to be able to display yours all year, you can make a November Peacock.  You'll make it just the same, but we'll paint the body bright blue and use blue for the tail feathers."  

Like I said, I assumed I'd have 20 or so turkeys for our display and a handful of peacocks to brighten the room.

Hmmm... nope... 

I had about 20 bright blue peacocks and a handful of turkeys. Those kids were so proud of them.  I have a memory of one of the kids explaining that these were November Peacocks and that group of dignified visitors smiling and nodding as if that was supposed to make perfect sense but they didn't quite get it.

I could just laugh out loud right now.

Original Oil Painting on 12"x 16" Wrapped Canvas
[SOLD]

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