In celebration of Looking-Glass Day, we have a heart-warming report from guest blogger and LCSNA member Emily Aguilo-Perez in Puerto Rico.
Today, Friday November 4, 2011 I celebrated Looking-Glass Day with my elementary school students. Now, I am not sure if Looking-Glass Day is an “official Carrollian” holiday, but I like to find any reason to celebrate. This day was no exception.
To honor the day when Alice’s second adventure takes place and the day in which her age is “seven and a half exactly,” I decided to prepare a reading day for my students, who are in first, second, and third grade. For this, I put to use some of my Alice memorabilia and costumes to bring the story to life. Putting on my Mad Hatter’s hat and taking out my collection of Disney Alice in Wonderland plush dolls I began reading a short version of the story to my students.
For time’s sake I had to use a Disney version of the story, since it was shorter and had many pictures in them (and as we all know, Alice likes her books with pictures). So I opened my Little Golden Book titled Alice in Wonderland Meets the White Rabbit and began the adventure through Wonderland. In some of my classrooms I gave students a doll, so when their character was mentioned, they had to act out what was happening. With other groups I read the story and acted out the scenes using the dolls, similar to a puppet show.
What I truly enjoyed about reading the book was that students had fun, asked questions, and recognized the story and characters. Of course, this is mainly thanks to the two Disney film adaptations rather than the original books. However, this showed me precisely that through movies, children (and even adults) can develop an interest in reading great literature such as Carroll’s. My students were telling me what was going to happen next, they knew who the characters were, and they even acknowledged the differences between the animated Disney version and Burton’s adaptation. It also reminded me of how I first encountered the Alice stories – through the animated film – and it gave me hope that maybe someday my students will read and come to love the books as much as I do.
It was a frabjous experience sharing my favorite story with my students! I just wish I could’ve had more time to play games, sing, or even have a Mad Tea Party. I hope you had a Wonderful Looking-Glass Day as well!
