Interacting with young students ages 3 to 5, I took some notes.  I then folded the paper about six times and tucked it into the tiny purse I carry around my neck. “Annette” noticed this.  She began to draw. In a little while she brought me her ”drawing”, folded it minutely, and stuck it in my purse, with a big smile, saying, “for you”!

In preschool classroom jargon, I recognized that, at age 4, she was at the stage of refining her small motor skills. Grabbing the ”teachable moment”, and another piece of paper, which I folded several times, I cut several triangles around the folded edges.  When I unfolded it, of course, the little

triangles had repeated themselves in a lacey pattern around the paper.

“How did you do that?” she whispered, almost breathless with awe.

So -  I carefully showed her, making sure that SHE folded the paper and SHE cut out the little snippets. When she unfolded it, her eyes got big and bright with wonder, and she went bouncing around the classroom, from one friend to another, chirping, ”Look what I did!”

I sat back and soaked up the joy.

If joy came from many sources:
 

Taylor and Jamie Cohen, ages 7 and 8 shared a huge number of their books with us, including many stories about character building.  Long time friends, Rita and Denny Ropars donated, among many items, a large collection of magazines so Penny Pincher will have a resource in which to search for feeling/multicultural/multigenerational pic- tures. Delightful surprises arrived from Delores Murphy and ”Mr. Jonathan” Craig, Mike Cocciolillo, Kathryn Paige, Anthony

Humphreys, and Kevin Arbito.   We are enjoying the snacks, cereal, pretzels, magazines, folders, writing pads, books, games, paper dolls, arts and crafts supplies, as well as the tool box, infant swing, play set, bike car seats, walkers, and educational toys.  Thanks and kindest thoughts to all.

Those are some of my Joy Sticks for the week.  Regular features will return soon. In the meantime, en-JOY yourself!