The Po Show

Sleep,

Sleep tonight,

And may your dream

Be realized.

On Friday after school, Tessa said she was making a poster for the holiday. She busily set about drawing, and taped her creation to the wall. I went to look at it, and it was a large grey headstone, with "Martin Luther King Jr." on it. A wee bit morbid, but I thought it was touching.

We've spent a lot of time thinking about Dr. King around here. Tessa chose, for her very first formal book report, a biography of the great man. I think Matthew's first book report in first grade was on a book about a bunny who gets lost in the snow. Tessa chose a biography, written to about the third grade level, I'd say, with concepts like segregation and racism and assassination. She read the whole thing, and filled out the question sheet, and then made a mobile out of paper plates. On the center plate is a picture of Dr. King (a color side shot of him, pointing out at the crowds in front of the Lincoln Memorial, fanned out around the reflecting pool, out to the Washington Monument, with a wide smile on his face), and the other four plates each feature a star with a word in the center that describes her subject. The plates read "great," "helpful" [this was supposed to be "helpful to the world" but she didn't have room in the star], "African American," and "brave." It's a tremendous mobile, with pieces of string connecting each of the paper plates.

If the thundercloud

Passes rain,

Then let it rain.

Rain down on him.