King of All Wild Things

Doesn’t every one of us have a monster who sometimes terrifies us?  That may be especially true for children who live in a shelter for victims of domestic violence.  We spent last night’s read-aloud talking about monsters and strategies for taming them.

When I volunteered at a somewhat late hour to sub for my friend Kristin, we realized we needed a theme and an activity for this week’s read-aloud.  I just happened to have some really great crowns in a large envelope sent to me last year from my Blogger friend Gary, who is perhaps the world’s best kindergarten teacher, or at least the best in NYC.  My team members enthusiastically accepted my idea of “Monsters”.

Our last book of the evening was Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” the story of young Max who has been banished to his room with no dinner because he has misbehaved.  His room magically turns into a year-long journey as Max tames the Wild Things of the world and becomes their King.  But then he gets hungry and comes home to find his dinner waiting for him.  I always loved reading this book to my own children and still love the way every child learns to love Max and his monsters.  It makes punishment seem not so bad after all.

When I pulled out the crowns and said, “Let’s all become Max,” the children were immediately on board with decorating them.  I had bought a large container of foam stickers in various colors and shapes.  It was a new experience for them to use as many pieces as they wanted, sort of like being offered the entire birthday cake.  Some children made patterns.  Others put pieces together to make fancier flowers.  But they all loved wearing their finished crowns which were different enough that they could easily identify their own.

The last activity was “pin the tail on the monster,” with the wonderful monster poster being created by another volunteer’s 20-year-old daughter.  I had a hard time convincing them that it was the most fun not to cheat and to let the tail end up in odd places, like in the monster’s eye or on the top of its head.

I saw signs of good behavior that aren’t always there.  I even saw cooperation when a 5-year-old twin helped another 5-year-old decorate her crown.  All of our wild things had a great evening and proudly wore their crowns home to show their mothers.

(I'm sorry I couldn't show you the children's eyes, which immediately conveyed how much fun they were having!)