Helpful Advice?

We all know that kindergarten students often take things quite literally. Well I've been teaching their classes (all 16 of them!) how to be peacemakers. I've read them a story about a peacemaking cat and a troublemaking cat, and we've been looking at the differences in the two cats' treatment of their friend, as well as the effects of their behavior. During the story, Coco, the troublemaking cat, makes fun of her friend Lilly's paws because Lilly has a thumb. (Think Ernest Hemingway's 5-toed cats in Key West.) Since Coco has "straight paws" instead of the thumb, she tells Lilly she's weird and questions why her gentleman caller Joey would want to hold her hand. (Visions of Mean Girls!) For the first time Lilly sees herself as different and ugly and feels embarrassed. Before Joey comes over to take her on a walk that evening, Lilly tries several ways to hide her paws. Among her ideas are to wrap them in yarn, tie blue rags around them, put socks on her paws, and bind them with bandages. Of course the point of the story is to teach the kindergarten children that we all look different but we all have feelings that can be hurt. Because of this, we need to be respectful and kind, even though we may not like the way someone looks. However, one tiny boy, who had a fresh crew cut, blurted with passion, "Duct tape, Lilly! Try the duct tape...it fixes everything." Although he may have needed some help in seeing the bigger message of the story, he was intently listening and thinking, and yes, he provided me with one of my daily doses of kid cuteness!