Precious and true little stories told aloud to friends here at Cleveland. Enjoy.


THE PENGUIN STORY (Francesca, gr 6 and Tess, gr 1) Robin is a wildlife photographer and
he recently shared this story in his daughter's class, and now with us:
   

    "One of the neatest places I’ve ever been is Cape Bird, Antarctica.  I worked there studying
Adelie penguins.  Each summer, Adelies come in the thousands and thousands to Cape Bird
to have their young.  With about 50,000 penguins, it is like a penguin city!!!
     Penguins, at times, can do quite funny things.  In Antarctica, penguins show little fear of people. 
If you stand or sit still, they would often come up and peck your boot.  Other times, they would just
stand and stare at you as if they had never seen such a weird-looking penguin!
     One day I was busy penguin watching when one came up and kept tugging on my winter pants. 
I ignored it, as I was busy taking notes.  It kept yanking, pulling and tugging on my pants!  I finally
finished doing my work and I sat on the ground. Strangely, the penguin then hopped on my legs! 
Then it hopped further up my legs!  It peered intently into my sunglasses for a bit.  I was worried it
might peck me in the eye for a moment! 
     Then, even STRANGER still, it jumped on my arm, then onto my shoulder! I think it was going to
hop onto my head when it fell off!  It ruffled its feathers, took one last long look at me then turned
and waddled off.  Of all the thousands of penguins I’ve ever seen, not one has done that
before!  Of all the different encounters I’ve ever had with wildlife, that was one of the funniest."

                                Hot Read:  a picture book called  365 Penguins   (Fromental)


THE TOOTH FAIRY STORY (Max, gr 6 and Madeline, gr 4)

    (photo coming soon)

     "My mom, my sister and I were in our car with our seven year old neighbour.  He was very
happy because he lost a tooth and received money from the Tooth Fairy.  He was boldy claiming
he "almost" caught the Tooth Fairy, because he saw this glow by his bed. 
     My sister in return, explained that she still had two left from last year that still weren't picked up. 
I jumped in to let him know that our Tooth Fairy sometimes forgot to pick up our teeth because she
was so busy.  Our Tooth Fairy had a day job.  She had to clean toilets in a hotel with a toothbrush!
It was so small that it took one whole day to clean.  When she got home she was too tired to do
anything else.
     Our neighbour asked intrigued, 'why would the Tooth Fairy need to do that?'  And we told
him:  she needed the money to pay off the teeth!"

     Hot Read:  a novel called  What the Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy   (Maguire)