A Little Bit of Love
2/14/2020
Of all weeks, this week is the week to talk about love, friendship, and kindness towards others. Students have been talking about Valentine's Day for the past five days non-stop and anticipating all the pink, red, hearts, candy, and exchange of trinkets and cards. We have read and listened to stories about Valentine's Day, about friendship, and one of my favorites, a book called A Little Bit of Love that is about a mouse who teaches her child about how very simple acts can be done with love. Acts such as holding the door for a friend, helping a teacher clean up, sharing and offering kind words to others - these are all ways we can teach our children to do simple acts with a little bit of love. Of course, first graders laugh and scrunch their noses at any mention of love regarding Valentine's Day but it's a wonderful holiday to come along after learning about Dr. MLK, kindness, and servitude. It allows us to continue the conversation about how we treat others and how simple acts can make a HUGE difference! As Dr. MLK said, "Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." This week, we practiced being kind and using encouraging words as we worked on engineering challenges, solving number line problems, word sorts, reading in our book bins, and listening attentively while others shared in morning meeting. I also witnessed a lot of love during our parent snack on Thursday. Students were counting down the hours until parent's showed up and I even had another teacher say, "I've never seen students so excited for a parent snack!" Despite being Valentine's Day themed, family support and love was the most obvious theme during the activities. To see the interaction between parents and students revealed how even simple acts such as designing a Valentine's Day bag or solving math problems and riddles can be filled with love. We worked through our math unit assessment Friday morning and students had to effectively count backward by 10 from different numbers, some starting at 100, others 88, and so on. They also had to solve multi-step equations using a number line and use their estimating skills to solve word problems. I also worked with another student who has been struggling with certain aspects of reading. However, after working with this student a light bulb went off and he exclaimed, "Oh! Now I get it! That makes sense!" and he began firing off word after word now knowing how to break the code. It is moments of success like these that make my heart feel full of love as a teacher. I adore these kids and love watching them grow and learn! Comments are closed.
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Hali TuomiMs. Tuomi has over five years experience in ASD, where she taught first and fifth grade classrooms. An avid skier, Ms. Tuomi is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Alaska Pacific University’s Bachelor of Arts in K-8 Education. Archives
April 2021
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