I had a wonderful time at the Willington Center Elementary School in Connecticut yesterday. Three delightful and amazingly well-behaved kindergarten classes greeted me in their library. I read Tillie Lays an Egg. I talked about chickens. Did you know that people take baths in a bathtub with water and soap but that chickens take baths in the dirt? The kids loved that. They also were fascinated to hear that chickens like the color red, and that they like eating leftover cooked spaghetti! 

We also talked about writing stories. Using the last photo in Tillie – the one where she’s in the pickup truck – I asked the kids where Tillie was off to next. To the fair to ride on the Ferris Wheel, perhaps? Some suggested the mall, others the beach. Maybe camping! I also asked them, if they had a flock of chickens, what names they would give them. Would they use people names, or perhaps the names of characters from favorite books? Of course, one boy suggested Captain Underpants : ) Or maybe words like “diamond” and “precious?” 

Some of the teachers were so inspired that they went right back to their classrooms and got their children writing right then.

I repeated the program for an equally wonderful group of first-graders. 

They’re doing something right at The Willington Center Elementary School.