My good friend and colleague asked me today if I wouldn't mind stepping into her room to help her finish painting grass on the tee shirts that first grade is decorating for their upcoming zoo field trip.
Every year the first grade teachers buy plain white tee shirts and decorate them with acrylic paint and animal stamps. This helps the kids stand out in the crowd and provides a nice souvenir for the children - since they aren't allowed to visit the gift shop.
She was using green paint and I asked her if she had more than one shade - to make the grass more interesting. She said that yes, she was "allowed" to use more than one shade of green on the grass.
Then she gave me a jaundiced eye and made me promise not to "get her in trouble" by "doing anything wrong" with the tee shirts.
I had to laugh out loud when she very seriously told me that my "tee shirt crimes" were long remembered by first grade and that they were "talking about them today" when giving her the "rules" about making the tee shirts.
Allow me to preface my explanation here by telling you that I came from a school that made zoo shirts every year. However, THAT experience was nothing like the experience of making zoo shirts at THIS school. As I quickly discovered when it was time to make the shirts for the first grade zoo trip.
There are rigid rules for making zoo shirts and these rules are never to be bent, disregarded, or broken. This is because all the shirts must look the same. The deviance allowed is the choice of animals. These rules are sacrosanct. They are to be adhered to with the greatest respect and reverence.
I shall recount them for you:
Rule 1: All children are allowed a choice of TWO (2) zoo animals to have stamped on their shirt. No more and no less. Exactly two.
My crime: I let the children pick as many animals as they wanted. The only guideline is that they had to fit.
Rule #2: Only teachers may stamp the animals. The children are not allowed to stamp the animals because they will make a mess.
My crime: I let the kids stamp their shirts. The kids were to wear the shirts so why not have a hand in making the shirts? (Yes, they made a mess.)
Rule #3: There are to be NO animals stamped on the sleeves. Refer please to Rule #1.
My crime: There are two sleeves with perfectly good surfaces.
Rule #4: Despite the fact that the stamped animals cry out for details, there are to be NO DETAILS applied to the dried stamped animals. No eyeballs, no stripes, no tusks, and no tips on the tails. No claws, no whiskers, and no pink tongues.
My crime: Eyeballs, stripes, tusks, tail tips, claws, whiskers, and pink tongues were added to the animals once the paint dried. The kids had a blast. Once the details were added, you could tell what the animals were supposed to be. (Remember, they made a mess when stamping them in the first place.)
Rule #5: Grass is grass. Just grass. Two colors allowed.
My crime: Grass is good, but numerous flowers and a tree for the monkey is better. (Too much HGTV, I think. Things need to "pop!")
My final faux pas: Writing "Road Trip 2005" on the sleeve with a sharpie marker.
The shirts turned out beautifully. They were full of character. The other shirts were neat, tidy, and tame. My kids' shirts were a bit over the top.
I have never, to this date, been forgiven for this. I think they are putting the rules into a rule book and any new teachers have to sign a memo of understanding now before they are allowed to make zoo shirts. I think my friend and colleague was forced to sign under duress.
So... I helped my colleague with grass. Just grass. No flowers, no trees, no details. ("Was it YOU who added a tree for the monkey? They were talking about that today too. It must have been YOU.")
Her animals were clearly resting or standing in the grass. My animals were clearly hopping over it and bounding through it. She took this in stride and even thanked me for my "help."
My wavy, wind-blown, two-toned grass did give her cause to scratch her head though.
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