Leading listeners on a trip back through time, Ms. Frizzle captivated her young audience as they explored the era when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Portrayed by Pathfinder science teacher Dawn Iott, Ms. Frizzle is a character from the popular Magic School Bus chapter book series. Iott, an enthusiastic and engaging teacher herself, slips naturally into the role of the fictitious instructor whose students love to learn while traveling through time.
Iott trotted out her dinosaur print dress, T-rex shoes and Stego earrings for the annual Pathfinder School Be Excited About Reading event. Held all day at Horizon Books, BEAR (for short) allows school students, family members and alumni as well as community members to purchase suggested books and donate them to a classroom, subject area or the library.
Reading "Dinosaur Detectives” that afternoon to spellbound young students attending the event with their families, Ms. Frizzle/Iott was in her element.
"I do it for BEAR Day every year,” said Iott, who teachers science to kindergarten through fourth grade students. "We use a lot of Magic School Bus books, usually whatever entry point we're working on, you can find a Magic School Bus to go along with that.”
"We do a lot of wacky things anyway,” added the 16-year veteran teacher.
The history of BEAR and the collaboration between Horizon Books and the Pathfinder School dates back about 25 years and is deeply appreciated by the school community, noted Bob Barrett, head of school. "It's a partnership,” he said. "The teachers pick out the books they want for the classrooms and the library and parents and lot of others buy them, people who just come in and buy books because they want Pathfinder to be successful. That's wonderful.”
Each donated book has a sticker affixed to the inside cover noting the occasion, who donated it and the year. Over the decades, the bookshelves of the small private day school serving pre-school through eighth grades have become filled with BEAR-generated books.
"Nearly all of my science library is from BEAR Day,” said Iott. "It's so generous of Horizon to help us out.”
Parent volunteers staffed the BEAR area at the front of the store all day in shifts. They watch over book-filled crates for each classroom as well as ones for elementary science, French, music, art and the library. Shoppers simply selected one or more books and bought them at a Horizon register, making sure to fill out and put on the sticker acknowledging their donation. The volunteers tucked purchased books away and planned to deliver them to the school the next day.
"It's fun and easy, just pick out what you want,” said Jennifer Tang-Anderson, a parent volunteer attending her first BEAR Day, of choosing what to donate.
Comparing the swarming crowds after school on Thursday to the busy Christmas shopping season, Tang-Anderson noted that even people unaffiliated with the school chipped in.
"They didn't know what was going on and I told them and they bought a book,” she said.
A few days before BEAR Day, teachers went the store, selected books and put them in their crate — a process both deeply satisfying as well as great fun.
"It's like Christmas and you can share them with the children,” said Lynn Pavlov, a first grade teacher in her 21st year at Pathfinder. "It's really neat because we talk about where the book came from and they're very excited and that's what we want.”
"Since I teach reading, this is huge,” she added. "Be excited about reading, 24/7 — we really want them to do that.”
For more information about the Pathfinder School, call 941-1300 or see their web site at www.thepathfinderschool.org.
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer