Notice the word “near” here, in the title. Near means that there is a slim chance that the impossible will be possible. This morning, I took on the near impossible and beforehand held the word near up against my bosom.

I don’t have a bosom, and I am glad of it. Bosoms are good for one thing and one thing only; they are a form of ornamentation. They get in the way, and you can’t run very farm with them. Or is it, it gets in the way, and you can’t run very far with it.

So I held the word near close to the top part of my chest and kept it with me, slipping it into my pocket when the time came.

The time came at 11:00 a.m. 30 first graders came in the door of the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel. Thirty first graders is a lot of children – but I could tell that these were well behave children. I told them where to sit down and they sat down right away.

I stood in front of them, and I quickly told them about the bright lights book project, then began babbling about dinosaurs. They reminded me that tomorrow is Valentines Day. I pretended like I made a mistake, not giving a lesson on the subject of Valentine’s Day. But I was just pretending because I would not have had a clue as to how to give a lesson on the subject of Valentine’s Day.

Dinosaurs was easier. I pulled the books I was going to use from the two boxes of dinosaur books that I had set aside in the literacy annex (thank dog) and using books and the plastic dinosaurs I purchased yesterday at the thrift store, I talked some about the various types of dinosaurs. And I involved the students, more so than I had done previously. They stomped and roared – way fun.

Lawrence, who is always there when he needs to be there, he was there, at my side, showing children the different pictures in books. And I had volunteers, Pam and Amber and her two children, Javyd and Paloma. They all know what to do and were a huge help.

Somehow, I got through story time, and the teachers and their six parental assistants, they got the kids situated for lunch. It helped that even at lunchtime, the kids got along really well.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I just happened to have a book in my stack called “Dinosaurs are love.” Perfect in making the dinosaur/Valentine’s Day connection.

But after lunch, I told the students that they needed to come up with a plan, just in case the dinosaurs came to town. I then had the students, at the table, using LEGOs and   Playdough, make town for the dinosaurs to visit. And I had a group of children make Playdough dinosaurs.

It all went just fine – the children had a good time, although the end result on the table looked like the aftermath of an earthquake.

Lastly, I passed out book packets that contained books, including pocket atlases that I put in the Ziploc bags at the last minute.

It was quite a day. Now on to tomorrow – the worse is over, for a while.

Next: 45. 2/14/26: At the End of the Day