KOLOA — Pre-schoolers at Koloa Early School were shocked Friday morning when a green sea turtle wandered into their classroom during story time. It crawled along the floor, through the middle of the group of about 20 kids who descended
KOLOA — Pre-schoolers at Koloa Early School were shocked Friday morning when a green sea turtle wandered into their classroom during story time.
It crawled along the floor, through the middle of the group of about 20 kids who descended upon it, some enthusiastically patting its head and others tentatively touching its back with one finger.
A few minutes later, Bryce Bertoli, from the Poipu area, extracted himself from the turtle suit and the pile of curious children.
“It’s so fun to do this,” he said. “The kids absolutely love it.”
Bertoli was one of three people with the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort who visited Koloa Early School to distribute books and bookmarks, as well as read to students during story time.
“This is the ninth year that we’ve been doing this,” said Diann Hartman, director of public relations at the Grand Hyatt. “Every year we pick a book to read to the kids, and then we gift each of them a hardback copy of the book.”
The tradition was the brainchild of the Hyatt corporate management as a way to encourage early childhood education and stress the importance of learning to read at an early age. Initially, it was only scheduled to happen once, but some hotels have taken up the event on their own on an annual basis.
“We loved it so much that we kept doing it,” Hartman said. “Every year now, we come and hand out books and bookmarks to the kids and we’ve had so much fun.”
For the past two years, Hartman said they’ve been concentrating on Hawaiian books and this year’s title was “Baby Honu’s Incredible Journey,” a book relating the tale of a green sea turtle’s journey from inside the egg to the sea. It uses both Hawaiian and English to describe animals like turtles, crabs, whales, and blue-footed boobies, so kids begin to pick up words in both languages.
Keith Butz, general manager of the Hyatt, read to the children while Hartman showed pictures.
“The kids are so much fun,” Butz said, “and I always like to give back to the community. It’s fun to come over and get out of our resort a little bit.”
Jeanne Chang, a teacher at Koloa Early School, said the kids absolutely love it every time the folks from the Hyatt drop by with stories.
“They go crazy when they come in all dressed up as whatever character,” Chang said. “It’s such a great thing for the kids, and they do it every year to promote reading.”
