When I moved from kindergarten teacher to the Fab Lab some people were perplexed and wondered, understandably, why. This activity represents so many of the reasons why and helped me overcome my fear of the "big kids." Those "big kids" in 3rd -5th grade were blowing me away but not only with their tech skills. You see, after listening to the story Ish by Peter Reynolds, the kids discussed the Magic of Mistakes and their responses made my heart sing! They were so thoughtful and their depth of understanding was far beyond most adults.
Then as we were browsing some of the avatars the kids were so very kind! At first sight of these avatars, which I referred to as "ish-yous" in reference to our book, there was some giggling. I realized that this may be a good time to practice kindness. Not that there's anything wrong with giggling at silly avatars but I want to give the kids opportunities to practice the Habitudes often. Not to mention that kindness is a muscle that without practice can become weak in all of us. So I talked to the kids about what kind of school they want to go to. I asked do you want to go to a school where the kids are always teasing each other or a school where the kids are usually kind to each other. They unanimously agreed that they wanted to attend a kind school. I talked to them about practicing kindness and that even adults struggle with this sometimes. Then I challenged them to find something they liked about the avatars of the other children and if they wanted to share that with the group. Y'all those "big kids" showed me that they can be as sweet and kind as my little kindergarten kiddos! Comments are closed.
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