June 17, 2005

Sharkie returns to Matsumoto Elementary

It seems as though the wild and crazy mascot of the San Jose Sharks can’t get enough of Matsumoto Elementary School kindergartners. This time he visited Kelly Cimoli’s afternoon kindergarten class.

“The class was thrilled that Sharkie came to visit us,” said Cimoli. “He played a hide-and-seek game at the door by knocking and then hiding behind the door.” Finally, Sharkie jumped in.

“Sharkie’s grand entrance shocked and startled several kids. In fact, several ran to the other side of the room and screamed,” said Cimoli, setting off a chain of screams all the way around.

Once the kindergartners had calmed down, Sharkie—through hand signals and his handy helper Tim—talked to the kids about reading and congratulated them on being active participants of the “Reading is Cool” program.

Although Sharkie brought books to donate to the classroom, he couldn’t leave without removing one child’s shoe and taking a whiff. Or picking up another child and pretending to carry her off.

According to Cimoli, the animated 7-foot shark even tried balancing books on her head. Her three-book record didn’t ward off an attempt to bite her head off.

No silly move of Sharkie’s went unnoticed by these observant kindergartners, whether he ate a sticker, bumped his head on the door jam, or hopelessly hid is huge body behind the door.

“I am sure it is something that the students will remember forever,” said Cimoli. “Most importantly, they’ll remember that “Reading is cool!”

In the words of one Matsumoto kindergartner, “We need to read more books, so he will come and visit again.”