Read Aloud at Palms Elementary School

One Fish, Two Fish, Read with the Zeep
By Dr. Victor Thompson for the Lakewood Community News


It was good to return to the Palms Elementary School Annual Read-Aloud. Dr. Seuss authored my book this year, and Danny Munoz and Jose Contreras, of Towne Center Property Management, also had the same Seuss’ book. The readers included Lakewood Mayor Steve Croft, Lakewood Chamber CEO John Kelsall, Los Cerritos YMCA’s Kevin Cope, Rotary’s Richard Michaels, and ABC USD Board Member Celia Spitzer. I asked Tetzlaff Middle School eighth grade students Pamela Fernandez, Brenda Panuco, Cheyenne Chaney, and Zachary Lin, how they felt about being readers. “Fun, scary” they said, but they looked forward to “getting to know the kids.” The students were accompanied by Teacher Mitzi Brown. The Student Council’s Ashley Lopez, Joanne Panuco, and Justin Martinez led us in the enthusiastic Shark cheer. Joanne escorted me to the library when I first arrived on the scene.

In the classroom, and I had forgotten how I tower over the first graders. Destiney gave me a bird made of paper, and the students quickly scurried to their places on the reading carpet. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is a classic story by about various creatures, and their efforts to get along with one another and people. I explained that this was the first time I would read the whole story, because when I read with my own children I would fall asleep. Their mother did stay awake and they became good readers. The students were awake, and had many questions. We concluded that in this story, we are all different, but we strive to be helpful to one another. Zeep, the giant lion-like animal at the end of the book, was falling asleep, but I did manage to make it to the end of the story. Thanks to Mrs. Bogdanovich’es Students!