Coloring for FUN!

Sarah Morgan, my daughter, brought home her "first place" coloring contest picture with her other school work this weekend. I had heard about this "feat" for several days. She said that she got first place and told me who got second and third place and that she got a piece of candy as a prize even though she said, now it wasn't from the whole school, Momma, but just from Mrs. Hester's room and Momma it was for Veteran’s Day, do you know about that Momma, well, it was just in her class but I got first place. When Sarah Morgan talks, you don't have to use too much punctuation because she speaks in run on sentences. Hemingway can pull off a page with only one period but for SM and me, we just run on! Anyway, needless to say when she showed it to me I did ooo and awwww quite a bit. She said that it wasn't "scribble-scramble," Mrs. Hester's very sweet way of saying messy and she showed me it did have a 1st marked right on the top-but remember Momma only in Mrs. Hester's class. She was also so proud of her glittery spider web from Mrs. Jackson, her art teacher. Her Daddy asked her if she wanted us to tape them up on our official "door display" but she said no we had better not and just put them safely in her scrapbook. She was proud of her math, her spelling, her reading, her writing and all the other things that she and Mrs. Hester work so hard on each day but it was that little coloring contest that really made her day. I imagine those kinds of things are quickly disappearing from the Tennessee classroom.  For years when I taught in sixth grade we used to have a coloring contests for each holiday, Easter baskets and chicks, flowers and hearts, cats on spiky fences, the best witch picture ever with a big apron just the right size for a child’s poem, Santa with his long list, cornucopias with fruits and vegetables (Mrs. Brock is that an apple?  No, I think it is a pomegranate, Well, what color are they?), and of course snowmen. We would usually have a book that one of the teachers would read to the whole bunch of the students as they all sat together, a student might read a poem they wrote or give an oral report about a holiday celebrated far away or long ago.  We'd read about St. Valentine, St. Patrick, Rosa Parks, and Ukrainian Easter Eggs.  We'd decorate the halls and give out little candies for participating or a little bigger prize for the "winners." It used up paper and copy ink, it wasted time, it matched no standard, the kids weren’t doing anything productive, they just talked and colored and the teachers relaxed, too, maybe even grabbed a cup of hot chocolate or coffee and graded a paper or two while the kids colored, no RIGOR in the classroom to be found. Some didn’t like to color so they read that book they couldn’t wait to get to or watched their friend color and offered suggestions.  Sometimes we’d try an “anticoloring” book picture for the ones who didn’t want to always stay in the lines and to tell you the truth a lot of contest winners were those who added an “out-of-the-lines” touch to their “ditto”(I know that is a nasty word) picture. They always had colors, coloring pencils, and markers and if they didn't they borrowed from each other. Mrs. Davidge, our assistant, always kept up with our favorite master copies, taped up the entries, got to hear and pass along all the compliments the kids got for their displays, had fun watching the kids look at each others' art, got the art teacher or other interested party to judge, and announced the winners over the intercom to come to her table in the hallway to hand out the awards! We went slower then. Everything in school goes so fast now. I can't keep up. I think I'll go color for awhile.

By the way someone else must love to color, too. There are thousands of coloring sites out there-easy or difficult, printable or on-line.